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John Marwood Cleese (born October 27, 1939 in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, England) is a British comedian and actor.
Cleese was educated at Clifton College in Bristol. His talent for comedy emerged as a member of the Cambridge Footlights Revue during the time that he was a law student at Downing College, Cambridge.
His family's surname was previously "Cheese", but his father Reginald Francis Cheese, an insuranceInsurance is the business of providing protection against financial aspects of risk, such as those to property, life, health and legal liability. It is one method of the overall concept known as risk management. Introduction In insurance, the insured make salesman, changed his surname to "Cleese" upon joining the armyAn army comprises all of a nation's land-based military forces or a specific large military force. Military land forces An army is a military organization. The word army can refer to any armed force, or more specifically a force primarily designed for lan in 1915Events January 12 The Rocky Mountain National Park is established by an act of Congress. January 12 United States House of Representatives rejects proposal to give women the right to vote. January 13 An earthquake (6. 8 in Richter scale) in Avezzano, Ital [1].
He married Connie BoothConnie Booth (born 1944) is a writer and actress who appeared regularly in the British television series Monty Python's Flying Circus''. She also appeared in Monty Python and the Holy Grail as the woman accused of being a witch. She cowrote and co-starred on February 20February 20 is the 51st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 314 days remaining, 315 in leap years. Events 1472 Orkney and Shetland are annexed to the crown of Scotland. 1547 Edward VI of England is crowned King of England at Westminster A 1968Events Undated Booker Prize for Fiction is established by Booker plc. 1968 is known as the year of the Prague Spring and also the year of the Paris riots. The ASCII character code is standardized as ANSI Standard X3. Nauru adopt his national anthem of the and they divorced in 1978Events January January 1 The Copyright Act of 1976 takes effect, making sweeping changes to United States copyright law. January 1 Air India's Boeing 747 explodes near Bombay 213 dead. January 4 Referendum in Chile supports policies of Augusto Pinochet..
He became famous as one of the members of the Monty PythonMonty Python or The Pythons were the creators and stars of Monty Python's Flying Circus the television comedy series first aired on October 5, 1969. As a television series it consisted of 45 episodes over 4 series; however, the phenomenon that is Monty Py team which created the 1969-74 television series Monty Python's Flying Circus; Cleese is particularly remembered for the " Cheese Shop", " The Ministry of Silly Walks", and " Dead Parrot" sketches. He achieved later success as the awful hotel manager Basil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers, which he also cowrote with then wife Connie Booth. Cleese is noted for his talent for expressing indignation and peevish outrage. In 1988 he wrote and starred in A Fish Called Wanda along with Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline and fellow python Michael Palin. The film became the most successful British film ever.
With Robin Skynner , Cleese wrote a number of books on dealing with relations: Families and how to survive them , and Life and how to survive it . The books are presented as an ongoing dialogue between Skynner and Cleese.
He also produced and acted in a number of successful business training films, including Meetings, Bloody Meetings and More Bloody Meetings about how to set up and run successful meetings.
In 1996 Cleese declined becoming a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).
He is currently an Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University, his term having been extended until 2006. Although he makes occasional, well-received appearances on the Cornell campus, he lives in the city of Santa Barbara, California. During the years 1973-1975 Cleese was rector of St Andrews University, a position which he left in favour of making Fawlty Towers.
In 1999, Cleese starred in the James Bond movie, The World Is Not Enough as Q's assistant, referred to as R. In 2002 Cleese reprised his role in Die Another Day, however, the character was promoted, thus making Cleese the new quartermaster (Q) of MI6.