John Cleese Biography (2)
It was perhaps in 1969 and the first series of Monty Python's Flying Circus that Cleese first shot to fame. The Pythons' unique brand of humor was to spawn three hit series, a UK and Canadian stage tour, a stage show at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane and at City Center, New York as well as a show at the Hollywood Bowl. The team made their first film in 1971 And Now For Something Completely Different, followed two years later by Monty Python and the Holy Grail, in 1978 Life of Brian and in 1982 The Meaning of Life.
In 1975 he created what was to similarly become a worldwide phenomenon, the television series Fawlty Towers. This was followed with a second series in 1979.
Cleese wrote, produced and starred in A Fish Called Wanda, co-starring Kevin Kline, Jamie Lee Curtis and Michael Palin, which was released in 1988. The film received an Academy Award nomination, an Italian Oscar and a Writers Guild of America nomination for Best Screenplay and Cleese received a BAFTA Award for Best Actor with the film being further nominated for Best Screenplay.
Other film credits include: Clockwise; Romance With a Double Bass; Time Bandits; The Great Muppet Caper; Privates on Parade; Silverado; Splitting Heirs; Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; The Jungle Book; Fierce Creatures (co-writer and co-producer); Out of Towners; Isn't She Great; The World is not Enough; The Quantum Project and Rat Race.
In addition, Cleese organized the first Amnesty Concert A Poke in the Eye (directed by Jonathan Miller) in 1975 and directed The Secret Policeman's Ball again for Amnesty on stage in 1979. He then co-directed The Secret Policeman's Other Ball in 1981.
Other career highlights include BBC television's The Frost Report, The Frost Programme and At Last the 1948 Show which in 1966 and 1967 first introduced him to UK audiences; the role of Petruchio in the BBC's adaptation of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew; LWT's Whoops Apocalypse and most recently the BBC's The Human Face.
Cleese was also the founder of the highly successful management training films company Video Arts (awarded the Queen's Award to Industry for Exports) and has written two self-help books Families & How to Survive Them and Life and How to Survive it (both with Dr. Robin Skynner), the first of which was made into a BBC Radio 4 series. He is a Cambridge graduate (MA), was Rector of St. Andrew's University for three years (Honorary LL.D) and in 1999 he has appointed an Andrew D White Professor-at-large to Cornell University.
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