John Cleese
John Cleese
John Marwood Cleeseis an English actor, comedian, writer, and film producer. He achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and performer on The Frost Report. In the late 1960s, he co-founded Monty Python, the comedy troupe responsible for the sketch show Monty Python's Flying Circus and the four Monty Python films: And Now for Something Completely Different, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Life of Brian and The Meaning of Life...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionActor
Date of Birth27 October 1939
gone problem planets
No hope for planet at all. But I will be gone before the planet is gone, so it's your problem.
travel giving-up watches
Michael Palin decided to give up on his considerable comedy talents to make those dreadfully tedious travel shows. Have you ever tried to watch one?
laughing lovely going-away
That's a lovely experience when you make an audience laugh. Then the nerves go away for a bit. And sometimes you do things then that you've never done before that are really funny.
creativity choices design
I have several times made a poor choice by avoiding a necessary confrontation.
missing london difficult
I don't miss London much. I find it crowded, vast and difficult to get around. Cabs are incredibly expensive.
television world bad-in-the-world
English television from the Fifties to the Nineties was the least bad in the world, and now it's just as bad as it is anywhere.
love-life holy-grail sides
The Americans all love 'The Holy Grail', and the English all love 'Life Of Brian', and I'm afraid on this one, I side with the English.
growing-up thrill busters
The thrill I got discovering Buster Keaton when I was growing up was so exciting. He was one of the greats.
friendly television actors
I was very sad to hear of the death of Ronnie Barker, who was such a warm, friendly and encouraging presence to have when I started in television. He was also a great comic actor to learn from.
wanted
What I've always wanted to do is be as funny as possible.
sports nuts london
I was always a sports nut but I've lost interest now in whether one bunch of mercenaries in north London is going to beat another bunch of mercenaries from west London.
strong documentaries wildlife
My compulsion to always be working has become less strong and my current business is purely down to this enormous alimony. If I wasn't doing this I'd be making documentaries about wildlife and other subjects that interest me.
nudge-nudge holy-grail circus
And now for something completely different . . .
writing thinking skills
Writing is the great skill, the creative skill. The acting is more an interpretative skill. And the thrill for me is the moment when I think of something. And then the challenge is how to get that funny idea to work in terms of the structure and that kind of thing, which is - and that's what I really love doing.