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John Marwood Cleese (born October 27, 1939) is a
British comedian and actor best
known for being one of the members of the comedy
group Monty Python and for playing Basil Fawlty in
the sitcom Fawlty Towers.

==Biography==
John Cleese was born in Weston-super-Mare, North
Somerset|Somerset, England to Reginald Francis
Cheese and Muriel Cross. His family's surname was
previously "Cheese", but his father Reginald
Francis Cheese, an insurance salesman, changed his
surname to "Cleese" upon joining the army in 1915
http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node=John%20Cl
eese.

As a boy, Cleese was educated at Clifton College
in Bristol, from which he was expelled for a
humorous defacing of school grounds: he used
painted footsteps to suggest that the school's
statue of Field Marshal Douglas Haig had got down
from his stand and gone to the toilet. His talent
for comedy furthered as a member of the
Footlights|Cambridge Footlights Revue while he was
studying for a law degree at Downing College,
Cambridge|Downing College at The University of
Cambridge. Here he met his future writing partner
Graham Chapman. As Cleese's comic reputation
flourished, he was soon offered a position as a
writer with BBC Radio, working on among others,
sketches for The Dick Emery Show and as a cast
member of the highly successful BBC Radio show I'm
Sorry, I'll Read That Again, which ran 1965-1974.
His fellow cast members were Tim Brooke-Taylor,
Graeme Garden, Bill Oddie, David Hatch and Jo
Kendall. He rejoined the Cambridge Revue,
Cambridge Circus (comedy) | Cambridge Circus, for
a tour of New Zealand and Broadway
Theatre|Broadway, and decided to stay on in
America performing on and off-Broadway. It was
during this time he met future Python Terry
Gilliam and his future wife, American actress
Connie Booth whom he married on February 20 1968.

On his return to London in 1965, Cleese and
Chapman began writing on The Frost Report, an
important landmark in satire and British Comedy in
the 1960s. The writing staff chosen for The Frost
Report were, in many ways, the finest comedic
minds of the 1960s United Kingdom, consisting of
many writers and performers who would go on to
make names for themselves in comedy. They included
future The Goodies|Goodies Bill Oddie and Tim
Brooke-Taylor, Frank Muir, Barry Cryer, Marty
Feldman, Ronnie Barker, Ronnie Corbett, Dick
Vosburgh and future Python members Eric Idle,
Terry Jones and Michael Palin. It was whilst
working on The Frost Report, in fact, that the
future Pythons developed their unique writing
styles that would become so significant later.
Cleese and Chapman's sketches often involved
authority figures (some of which were performed by
Cleese). Terry Jones and Michael Palin were both
infatuated with filmed scenes that open with
idyllic countryside panoramas. Eric Idle was one
of those charged with writing David Frost
(broadcaster)|David Frost's monologue. It was
during this period that Cleese met and befriended
influential British comedian Peter Cook.

Such was the popularity of the series that, in
1966, John Cleese and Graham Chapman were invited
to work as writers and performers with Tim
Brooke-Taylor and Marty Feldman on At Last the
1948 Show, during which time the Four Yorkshiremen
sketch was written by all four writers/performers
(the Four Yorkshiremen sketch is now better known
as a Monty Python sketch).  John Cleese and Graham
Chapman also wrote episodes of Doctor In The House
(TV series)| Doctor in the House. These series
were successful and, in 1969, Cleese and Chapman
were offered their very own series. However, due
to Chapman's nature, Cleese found himself bearing
an increasing workload in the partnership and was
therefore unenthusiastic about doing a series with
just the two of them. He had found working with
Michael Palin on The Frost Report an enjoyable
experience, and invited him to join the series.
Palin had previously been working on Do Not Adjust
Your Set, with Eric Idle and Terry Jones, with
Terry Gilliam doing animations. The four of them
had, on the back of the success of Do Not Adjust
Your Set, been offered a series for ITV, which
they were waiting to begin when Cleese's offer
arrived. Palin agreed to work with Cleese and
Chapman in the mean time, bringing with him
Gilliam, Jones and Idle. This union led to the
creation of Monty Python. Many have suggested that
this important landmark in comedy was brought
about by Cleese's desire to work with Palin, who
Cleese has maintained is his favourite Python to
work with. Monty Python's Flying Circus ran for
four series from 1969-1974 on BBC. Cleese is
particularly remembered for the "Cheese Shop",
"The Ministry of Silly Walks", and "Dead Parrot"
sketches. Though the programme lasted four series,
by the start of series 3, Cleese - who was
probably the most experienced and well known
member of the group, and who was beginning to find
working with the alcoholic Chapman an unfair
strain - began to become agitated, wanting to move
on. Though he stayed for the third series, he did
not appear in the fourth series, and received only
a minor writing credit. This did not stop him,
however, from writing for and starring in the
Monty Python films Monty Python and the Holy
Grail, Life of Brian and The Meaning of Life.

In 1971, Connie Booth gave birth to Cynthia
Cleese, their only child.

Having left Python, Cleese went on to achieve
possibly greater success in the United Kingdom, as
the awful hotel manager Basil Fawlty in Fawlty
Towers, which he cowrote with Connie Booth. The
series won mass critical acclaim and is still
considered one of the finest examples of British
comedy. The series also famously starred Andrew
Sachs as the much abused Spanish waiter Manuel
("...he's from Barcelona"), Prunella Scales as
Basil's fire-breathing dragon of a wife Sybil, and
Booth as waitress Polly. Cleese based Basil Fawlty
on a real character, Donald Sinclare, who he
encountered when he and the rest of the Monty
Python team were staying at a hotel in Torquay
called the Gleneagles whilst filming Monty
Python's Flying Circus.  During the Pythons stay,
Sinclare threw Eric Idle's briefcase out of the
hotel "in case it contained a bomb", complained
about Terry Gilliam's "American" table manners,
and threw a bus timetable at another guest after
they dared to ask the time of the next bus to
town. The series encapsulated such elements as the
British psyche towards sex, death and complaining,
violence towards employees, unhappy marriages and
Cleese's madcap physical performances. The first
series began on 19 September 1975, and whilst not
an instant hit, soon gained momentum. However, the
second series did not appear until 1979, during
which time Cleese's marriage to Booth broke down.
Despite this the two both reprised their writing
and performing roles in the second series. Fawlty
Towers famously only comprised of twelve episodes.
Cleese and Booth both maintain that this was to
prevent a gradual decline in the quality of the
series.

During the 1980s and 1990s, Cleese focused on film
work, though he did work with Peter Cook in his
one off TV special Peter Cook and Co. in 1980. He
also re-united with the Pythons for Monty Python
Live at the Hollywood Bowl (1982), and starred in
The Secret Policeman's Ball for Amnesty
International. He married Barbara Trentham on 15
February 1981. Their daughter Camilla was born
1984. In 1988 he wrote A Fish Called Wanda and
starred in it, along with Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin
Kline and fellow python Michael Palin. The film
became the most successful British film ever.
Cynthia Cleese starred as John's daughter.
However, his marriage had hit trouble and in 1990
he and Trentham divorced. He was married on 28
December 1992 to Alice Faye Eichelberger, his
third blonde American actress wife.   

Cleese became the first person to say 'fuck' at a
British memorial service given for Graham Chapman,
and delivered a comic speech bringing the whole
audience to laughter, considered by some to be the
perfect tribute.

Cleese 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.

With Robin Skynner, Cleese wrote two books on
relationships: Families and how to survive them,
and Life and how to survive it. The books are
presented as a dialogue between Skynner and
Cleese.

In 1996 Cleese List of people who have declined a
British honour|declined the British honour of
Commander of the Order of the British Empire
(CBE).

In 1999, Cleese appeared in the James Bond movie,
The World Is Not Enough as Q (James Bond)|Q's
assistant, referred to as Q (James Bond)|R. In
2002, when Cleese reprised his role in Die Another
Day, the character was promoted, making Cleese the
new quartermaster (Q) of MI6.

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 town of Montecito,
California. From 1973-1975 Cleese was rector of St
Andrews University, a position which he left to
make Fawlty Towers.

In a 2005 poll of comedians and comedy insiders
The Comedian's Comedian, Cleese's peers showed
their appreciation of his talent when he was voted
second only to Peter Cook.

John Cleese recently lent his voice to the BioWare
video game Jade Empire. His role was that of an
"outlander" named Sir Roderick Ponce von
Fontlebottom the Magnificent Bastard, stranded in
the Imperial City of the Jade Empire. His
character is essentially a British colonialist
stereotype who refers to the people of the Jade
Empire (effectively like the ancient Chinese) as a
lot of savages in need of enlightenment. While
perhaps a small role in John Cleese's respect,
such lines as "half of you can't even grow a
decent moustache" and "your idea of honour is
outdated, too. (shoots player). PERCIVAL! My
towel" were a welcome touch of humour.

==Further Reading==

Further information about John Cleese can be found
in the following books:

*From Fringe to Flying Circus - 'Celebrating a
Unique Generation of Comedy 1960-1980' - Roger
Wilmut, Eyre Methuen Ltd, 1980, ISBN 0413469506.

*Footlights! - 'A Hundred Years of Cambridge
Comedy' - Robert Hewison, Methuen London Ltd,
1983, ISBN 0413511502.

== Radio credits ==
*I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again

== Television credits ==
*The Frost Report (1966)
*Frost on Sunday
*Do Not Adjust Your Set
*At Last the 1948 Show
*The Goodies (1973, guest cameo appearance as a
Genie in the episode The Goodies and the
Beanstalk)
*Doctor Who (1979, guest cameo appearance as an
Art Lover in the episode City of Death as a favour
to writer / script editor Douglas Adams)
*How to Irritate People (1968) with Michael Palin
*Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969-1974)
*Fawlty Towers (1975, 1979)
*Cheers
*3rd Rock from the Sun (1998–2001) as
recurring character Dr. Liam Neesam.
*Wednesday 9:30 (8:30 Central) (2002) as Red
*Will & Grace (2003-2004) as recurring character
Supporting characters on Will & Grace#Love
Interests|Lionel Finster.
*Numerous commercials, including for supermarket
chain Sainsbury's, snack firm Planters and a
British government Stop Tobacco_smoking|Smoking
campaign
*Party political broadcasts for the Liberal
Democrats (UK)|Liberal Democrats and predecessor,
the SDP-Liberal Alliance

== Filmography ==
*The Magic Christian (1969)
*Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1974) (writer
and actor: various roles including Lancelot|Sir
Lancelot and Tim the Enchanter)
*Life of Brian|The Life of Brian (1979) (writer
and actor: various roles including Reg)
*The Secret Policeman's Ball (1980)
*The Great Muppet Caper (1981)
*Time Bandits (1981) (as a gormless Robin Hood)
*Privates on Parade (1982) (Major Giles Flack)
*Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (1983) (writer
and actor) (various roles)
*Silverado (1985) (plays Langston an English
sheriff in a town in the western United
States|USA. His first line, as he walks in to a
bar to break up a brawl, is, "What's all this,
then?")
*Clockwise (movie)|Clockwise (1986) (as Mr.
Stimpson, a school headmaster)
*A Fish Called Wanda (1988) (writer and actor) (as
lawyer Archie Leach (Cary Grant's real name))
*Bullseye (movie)|Bullseye! (1990) (as Man on the
Beach in Barbados Who Looks Like John Cleese)
*An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991) (Cat R.
Waul)
*Splitting Heirs (1993) (Raoul P. Shadgrind)
*Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994)
*Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book (1994) (Dr.
Julien Plumford)
*Fierce Creatures (1996) (as Rollo Lee, owner of
an English zoo; the novelization suggests that he
is actually the twin brother of Archie Leach from
A Fish Called Wanda, with a slight change of
surname)
*The Out-of-Towners (1999)
*The World Is Not Enough (1999) (a James Bond
film) (as Q (James Bond)|Q's assistant, nicknamed
R by Bond)
*Rat Race (2001) (as eccentric millionaire Donald
P. Sinclair)
*Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
(movie)|Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
(2001) (as the ghost "Nearly Headless Nick")
*Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
(movie)|Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
(2002) (ditto)
*Die Another Day (2002) (second appearance in a
James Bond film; replaces Desmond Llewelyn as Q in
the series)
*Shrek 2 (2004) (voice of Princess Fiona's father,
King Harold)
*Around the World in 80 Days (2004 movie)|Around
the World in 80 Days (2004) (Grizzled Sergeant)

== Video Game Credits==
*007 Racing (2000) Electronic Arts
*The World Is Not Enough (video game) (2000)
Electronic Arts
*Agent Under Fire (video game) (2001) Electronic
Arts
*Everything or Nothing (video game) (2003)
Electronic Arts
*Jade Empire (2005) Bioware

== References ==
* Clifton College Register

	Web Quotableonline.com Frasescelebres.org Greatbookscollection.org

John Marwood Cleese (born October 27, 1939) is a
United Kingdom|British comedian and actor best
known for being one of the members of the comedy
group Monty Python and for playing Basil Fawlty in
the sitcom Fawlty Towers.

==Biography==
John Cleese was born in Weston-super-Mare, North
Somerset|Somerset, England to Reginald Francis
Cheese and Muriel Cross. His family's surname was
previously "Cheese", but his father Reginald
Francis Cheese, an insurance salesman, changed his
surname to "Cleese" upon joining the army in 1915
http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node=John%20Cl
eese.

As a boy, Cleese was educated at Clifton College
in Bristol, from which he was expelled for a
humorous defacing of school grounds: he used
painted footsteps to suggest that the school's
statue of Field Marshal Douglas Haig had got down
from his plinth and gone to the toilet. His talent
for comedy progressed with his membership of the
Footlights|Cambridge Footlights Revue while he was
studying for a law degree at Downing College,
Cambridge|Downing College at The University of
Cambridge. Here he met his future writing partner
Graham Chapman. As Cleese's comic reputation
flourished, he was soon offered a position as a
writer with BBC Radio, working on, among others,
sketches for The Dick Emery Show and as a cast
member of the highly successful BBC Radio show I'm
Sorry, I'll Read That Again, which ran from 1965
to 1974. His fellow cast members were Tim
Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden, Bill Oddie, David
Hatch and Jo Kendall. He rejoined the Cambridge
Revue, Cambridge Circus (comedy) | Cambridge
Circus, for a tour of New Zealand and Broadway
Theatre|Broadway, and decided to stay on in
America performing on and off-Broadway. It was
during this time he met future Python Terry
Gilliam and his future wife, American actress
Connie Booth, whom he married on February 20 1968.

On his return to London in 1965, Cleese and
Chapman began writing on The Frost Report, an
important landmark in satire and British Comedy in
the 1960s. The writing staff chosen for The Frost
Report were, in many ways, the finest comedic
minds of the 1960s United Kingdom, consisting of
many writers and performers who would go on to
make names for themselves in comedy. They included
future The Goodies|Goodies Bill Oddie and Tim
Brooke-Taylor, Frank Muir, Barry Cryer, Marty
Feldman, Ronnie Barker, Ronnie Corbett, Dick
Vosburgh and future Python members Eric Idle,
Terry Jones and Michael Palin. It was whilst
working on The Frost Report, in fact, that the
future Pythons developed their unique writing
styles that would become so significant later.
Cleese and Chapman's sketches often involved
authority figures (some of which were performed by
Cleese). Terry Jones and Michael Palin were both
infatuated with filmed scenes that open with
idyllic countryside panoramas. Eric Idle was one
of those charged with writing David Frost
(broadcaster)|David Frost's monologue. It was
during this period that Cleese met and befriended
influential British comedian Peter Cook.

Such was the popularity of the series that, in
1966, John Cleese and Graham Chapman were invited
to work as writers and performers with Tim
Brooke-Taylor and Marty Feldman on At Last the
1948 Show, during which time the Four Yorkshiremen
sketch was written by all four writers/performers
(the Four Yorkshiremen sketch is now better known
as a Monty Python sketch).  John Cleese and Graham
Chapman also wrote episodes of Doctor In The House
(TV series)| Doctor in the House. These series
were successful and, in 1969, Cleese and Chapman
were offered their very own series. However, due
to Chapman's alcoholism, Cleese found himself
bearing an increasing workload in the partnership
and was therefore unenthusiastic about doing a
series with just the two of them. He had found
working with Michael Palin on The Frost Report an
enjoyable experience, and invited him to join the
series. Palin had previously been working on Do
Not Adjust Your Set, with Eric Idle and Terry
Jones, and Terry Gilliam doing animations. The
four of them had, on the back of the success of Do
Not Adjust Your Set, been offered a series for
ITV, which they were waiting to begin when
Cleese's offer arrived. Palin agreed to work with
Cleese and Chapman in the mean time, bringing with
him Gilliam, Jones and Idle. This union led to the
creation of Monty Python. Many have suggested that
this important landmark in comedy was brought
about by Cleese's desire to work with Palin, who
Cleese has maintained is his favourite Python to
work with. Monty Python's Flying Circus ran for
four series from 1969 to 1974 on BBC. Cleese is
particularly remembered for the "Cheese Shop",
"The Ministry of Silly Walks", and "Dead Parrot"
sketches. Though the programme lasted four series,
by the start of series 3, Cleese - who was
probably the most experienced and well known
member of the group, and who was beginning to find
working with Chapman an unfair strain - began to
become agitated, wanting to move on. Though he
stayed for the third series, he did not appear in
the fourth series, and received only a minor
writing credit. This did not stop him, however,
from writing for and starring in the Monty Python
films Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Life of
Brian and The Meaning of Life.

In 1971, Connie Booth gave birth to Cynthia
Cleese, their only child.

Having left Python, Cleese went on to achieve
possibly greater success in the United Kingdom as
the awful hotel manager Basil Fawlty in Fawlty
Towers, which he cowrote with Connie Booth. The
series won mass critical acclaim and is still
considered one of the finest examples of British
comedy. The series also famously starred Andrew
Sachs as the much abused Spanish waiter Manuel
("...he's from Barcelona"), Prunella Scales as
Basil's fire-breathing dragon of a wife Sybil, and
Booth as waitress Polly. Cleese based Basil Fawlty
on a real character, Donald Sinclare, whom he
encountered when he and the rest of the Monty
Python team were staying at the Gleneagles hotel
in Torquay whilst filming Monty Python's Flying
Circus.  During the Pythons' stay, Sinclare threw
Eric Idle's briefcase out of the hotel "in case it
contained a bomb", complained about Terry
Gilliam's "American" table manners, and threw a
bus timetable at another guest after they dared to
ask the time of the next bus to town. The series
encapsulated such elements as the British psyche
towards sex, death and complaining, violence
towards employees, unhappy marriages and Cleese's
madcap physical performances. The first series
began on 19 September 1975, and whilst not an
instant hit, soon gained momentum. However, the
second series did not appear until 1979, during
which time Cleese's marriage to Booth broke down.
Despite this the two both reprised their writing
and performing roles in the second series. Fawlty
Towers famously comprised only twelve episodes.
Cleese and Booth both maintain that this was to
prevent a gradual decline in the quality of the
series.

During the 1980s and 1990s, Cleese focused on film
work, though he did work with Peter Cook in his
one-off TV special Peter Cook and Co. in 1980. He
also rejoined the Pythons for Monty Python Live at
the Hollywood Bowl (1982), and starred in The
Secret Policeman's Ball for Amnesty International.
He married Barbara Trentham on 15 February 1981.
Their daughter Camilla was born 1984. In 1988 he
wrote and starred in A Fish Called Wanda, along
with Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline and fellow
python Michael Palin. Wanda became the most
successful British film ever. Cynthia Cleese
starred as John's daughter. However, his marriage
was in trouble and in 1990 he and Trentham
divorced. On 28 December 1992 he married Alice
Faye Eichelberger, his third blonde American
actress wife.   

Cleese purportedly became the first person to say
'fuck' at a British memorial service, at the one
given for Graham Chapman, where he delivered a
comic speech bringing the whole audience to
laughter, considered by some to be the perfect
tribute.

Cleese 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.

With Robin Skynner, Cleese wrote two books on
relationships: Families and how to survive them,
and Life and how to survive it. The books are
presented as a dialogue between Skynner and
Cleese.

In 1996 Cleese List of people who have declined a
British honour|declined the British honour of
Commander of the Order of the British Empire
(CBE).

In 1999, Cleese appeared in the James Bond movie,
The World Is Not Enough as Q (James Bond)|Q's
assistant, referred to as Q (James Bond)|R. In
2002, when Cleese reprised his role in Die Another
Day, the character was promoted, making Cleese the
new quartermaster (Q) of MI6.

In 2003 Cleese contributed to Mike Oldfield’s
rerecording of the album Tubular Bells (Tubular
Bells 2003) by introducing the instruments. He
acted as a replacement for the late Vivian
Stanshall who had contributed the 'Master of
Ceremonies' part to the original 1973 Tubular
Bells.

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 town of Montecito,
California. From 1973 to 1975 Cleese was rector of
St Andrews University, a position which he left to
make Fawlty Towers.

In a 2005 poll of comedians and comedy insiders
The Comedian's Comedian, Cleese's peers showed
their appreciation of his talent when he was voted
second only to Peter Cook.

John Cleese recently lent his voice to the BioWare
video game Jade Empire. His role was that of an
"outlander" named Sir Roderick Ponce von
Fontlebottom the Magnificent Bastard, stranded in
the Imperial City of the Jade Empire. His
character is essentially a British colonialist
stereotype who refers to the people of the Jade
Empire (effectively like the ancient Chinese) as a
lot of savages in need of enlightenment. While
perhaps a small role in John Cleese's respect,
such lines as "half of you can't even grow a
decent moustache" and "your idea of honour is
outdated, too. (shoots player). PERCIVAL! My
towel" were a welcome touch of humour.

==Further Reading==

Further information about John Cleese can be found
in the following books:

*From Fringe to Flying Circus - 'Celebrating a
Unique Generation of Comedy 1960-1980' - Roger
Wilmut, Eyre Methuen Ltd, 1980, ISBN 0413469506.

*Footlights! - 'A Hundred Years of Cambridge
Comedy' - Robert Hewison, Methuen London Ltd,
1983, ISBN 0413511502.

== Radio credits ==
*I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again

== Television credits ==
*The Frost Report (1966)
*Frost on Sunday
*Do Not Adjust Your Set
*At Last the 1948 Show
*The Goodies (1973, guest cameo appearance as a
Genie in the episode The Goodies and the
Beanstalk)
*Doctor Who (1979, guest cameo appearance as an
Art Lover in the episode City of Death as a favour
to writer / script editor Douglas Adams)
*How to Irritate People (1968) with Michael Palin
*Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969-1974)
*Fawlty Towers (1975, 1979)
*Cheers
*3rd Rock from the Sun (1998–2001) as
recurring character Dr. Liam Neesam.
*Wednesday 9:30 (8:30 Central) (2002) as Red
*Will & Grace (2003-2004) as recurring character
Supporting characters on Will & Grace#Love
Interests|Lyle Finster.
*Numerous commercials, including for supermarket
chain Sainsbury's, snack firm Planters and a
British government Stop Tobacco_smoking|Smoking
campaign
*Party political broadcasts for the Liberal
Democrats (UK)|Liberal Democrats and predecessor,
the SDP-Liberal Alliance

== Filmography ==
*The Magic Christian (1969)
*Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1974) (writer
and actor: various roles including Lancelot|Sir
Lancelot and Tim the Enchanter)
*Life of Brian|The Life of Brian (1979) (writer
and actor: various roles including Reg)
*The Secret Policeman's Ball (1980)
*The Great Muppet Caper (1981)
*Time Bandits (1981) (as a gormless Robin Hood)
*Privates on Parade (1982) (Major Giles Flack)
*Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (1983) (writer
and actor) (various roles)
*Silverado (1985) (plays Langston an English
sheriff in a town in the western United
States|USA. His first line, as he walks in to a
bar to break up a brawl, is, "What's all this,
then?")
*Clockwise (movie)|Clockwise (1986) (as Mr.
Stimpson, a school headmaster)
*A Fish Called Wanda (1988) (writer and actor) (as
lawyer Archie Leach (Cary Grant's real name))
*Bullseye (movie)|Bullseye! (1990) (as Man on the
Beach in Barbados Who Looks Like John Cleese)
*An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991) (Cat R.
Waul)
*Splitting Heirs (1993) (Raoul P. Shadgrind)
*Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994)
*Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book (1994) (Dr.
Julien Plumford)
*Fierce Creatures (1996) (as Rollo Lee, owner of
an English zoo; the novelization suggests that he
is actually the twin brother of Archie Leach from
A Fish Called Wanda, with a slight change of
surname)
*The Out-of-Towners (1999)
*The World Is Not Enough (1999) (a James Bond
film) (as Q (James Bond)|Q's assistant, nicknamed
R by Bond)
*Rat Race (2001) (as eccentric millionaire Donald
P. Sinclair)
*Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
(movie)|Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
(2001) (as the ghost "Nearly Headless Nick")
*Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
(movie)|Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
(2002) (ditto)
*Die Another Day (2002) (second appearance in a
James Bond film; replaces Desmond Llewelyn as Q in
the series)
*Shrek 2 (2004) (voice of Princess Fiona's father,
King Harold)
*Around the World in 80 Days (2004 movie)|Around
the World in 80 Days (2004) (Grizzled Sergeant)

== Video Game Credits==
*Starship Titanic (1998) Simon & Schuster
Interactive (voice of the Bomb)
*007 Racing (2000) Electronic Arts
*The World Is Not Enough (video game) (2000)
Electronic Arts
*Agent Under Fire (video game) (2001) Electronic
Arts
*Everything or Nothing (video game) (2003)
Electronic Arts
*Trivial Pursuit: Unhinged (2004) Atari
*Jade Empire (2005) Bioware

== References ==
* Clifton College Register

== External links ==

*http://www.thejohncleese.com/ Official web site
*http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/C/htmlC/cleesej
ohn/cleesejohn.htm John Cleese at the Museum of
Broadcast Communication website
*http://www.bbcamerica.com/genre/comedy_games/mont
y_pythons_flying_circus/mp_cleese_bio.jsp John
Cleese - BBC America
* imdb name|id=0000092|name=John Cleese
*http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/talent/c/cleese
_john.shtml John Cleese - BBC Guide to Comedy
*http://www.montypythonpages.com/CSection/index.ht
ml A Taste of Cheese
*http://movies.yahoo.com/shop?d=hc&cf=gen&id=18000
17738 John Cleese - Yahoo Movies
*http://www.the-numbers.com/people/JCLEE.html John
Cleese - The Numbers
*http://orangecow.org/pythonet/otherprepythonshows
.html The Origin of Monty Python


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