John Cleese Biography

Born John Marwood Cleese on 27 October 1939 in Weston-super-Mare, Cleese was the only child of Muriel and Reginald Francis Cleese. His wit and intelligence shone through from a young age, and he received a prize for English at his preparatory school. By the age of 13, his famous stature was already established, and he was six foot tall when he began his education at Clifton College, a public school in Bristol.

Sporty and bright, Cleese played cricket for the school’s first team and did well academically. It was at this school where he also gained a reputation as a prankster, especially for one stunt involving painted footprints across the school grounds suggesting that the school’s statue had walked to the toilet.

Before commencing a law degree at Downing College, Cambridge University, Cleese returned to his childhood prep school to teach science, English, geography, history and Latin.

At Cambridge, he joined the infamous Cambridge Footlights, the amateur theatrical club, where he met Graham Chapman who was to become his future writing partner. His work as writer on the 1963 Footlights Revue, 'A Clump of Plinths', got him noticed by BBC Radio and he was offered a job.

The success of this Footlights Revue led to the recording of short series 'I’m Sorry I’ll Read That Again'. The popularity of this soon grew, and a regular series was commissioned. 1964 saw the show take to the road, under the name Cambridge Circus, for a tour of New Zealand and New York. Cleese remained in America beyond the end of this show, to perform both on and off-Broadway. During his time stateside, he met Terry Gilliam, another future Monty Python writer, and Connie Booth who would become his wife in 1968.

He returned to England, and the cast of 'I’m Sorry I’ll Read That Again' in 1965. During this time Cleese began writing 'The Frost Report' with Chapman, along with a host of other well-known names such as Bill Oddie, Tim Brooke-Taylor, The Two Ronnies and future Pythons Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin.

Over the next few years Cleese made a name for himself and finally in 1969 he and Chapman were offered their own series.

If it weren’t for Chapman’s severe alcohol problems, making him difficult to work with alone, Cleese may never have offered Michael Palin the opportunity to join them. They had met whilst working on 'The Frost Report', and Cleese has always maintained that he has been his favourite person to work with. Palin knew Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam from work on 'Do Not Adjust Your Set', and the four of them agreed to join Cleese and Chapman.

'Monty Python’s Flying Circus' ran for four series from October 1969 to December 1974 on the BBC. They went on to create three feature length films, namely 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail', 'Life of Brian' and 'The Meaning of Life'.

During this time, Cynthia Cleese was born in 1971, his only child with American actress Connie Booth. In addition, he served as rector of the University of St Andrews between 1970 and 1973. His posting there is viewed as a landmark for helping the university modernise its practices; for example he appointed an elected student as his deputy who was to sit in his place when he was unable to be in Scotland.

Following the successes of Monty Python, Cleese went on to create one of the most celebrated shows in British comedy. 'Fawlty Towers' followed the day-to-day running of a hotel in Torquay, where mishaps and blunders were common. The title character, Basil Fawlty, played by Cleese, was based on a rude and neurotic hotel manager he had come across during his days touring with Monty Python’s Flying Circus. Cleese has since described him as “the most wonderfully rude man I have ever met.” The series was co-written by Connie Booth, and premiered in 1975. The second series did not come until four years later, by which time Cleese and Booth had split. However, they agreed to reprise their writing and acting roles alongside each other for another six episodes.

In 1984, he married Barbara Trentham, and she gave birth to his second daughter Camilla in 1984. Soon after, Cleese moved into film, with his most famous success being 'A Fish Called Wanda' (1988) starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline and Michael Palin. This film saw him nominated for an Academy Award.

By 1990 he was divorced again, and married for the third time in 1992 to Alyce Eichelberger, another actress. He also penned two books with Robin Skynner, as well as famously turning down a CBE because he thought it was “silly”.

Cleese is now one of the most famous Brits in the world, and has remained in the public eye with high profile film roles in 'James Bond', 'Shrek' and 'Winnie the Pooh' (2011), as well as maintaining a TV presence with roles in 'Will and Grace' and 'Entourage', the latter in which he plays a version of himself.