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14 unusual facts about John Cleese


Alex Willcock

He had both corporate and private clients including Sir Terence Conran, the Storehouse Group and the actor John Cleese.

AM America

One notable episode of AM America aired on April 25, 1975, when members of the British comedy troupe Monty Python (with the exception of John Cleese, who had temporarily left the group) made one of their earliest appearances on American television.

BMC ADO16

The Austin 1100 Countryman appeared in the legendary "Gourmet Night" episode of Fawlty Towers, in which short tempered owner of Fawlty Towers Basil Fawlty (John Cleese) gave it a "damn good thrashing".

Erik the Viking

Halfdan the Black (John Cleese) joins them, afraid that peace will mean the end of his reign, and sets sail in pursuit.

Holy Flying Circus

The film is a "Pythonesque" dramatization of the 1979 televised debate on the talk show Friday Night, Saturday Morning between John Cleese and Michael Palin, members of British comedy troupe Monty Python, and Malcolm Muggeridge and Mervyn Stockwood, the then Bishop of Southwark.

Killinaskully

It is used to describe the loss of Father Philip Eno's state of mind to the Widow Gilhooley when the priest refers to cheddar cheese as John Cleese.

Kirk DeMicco

John Cleese and DeMicco co-wrote the film adaptation of the Roald Dahl's children classic The Twits.

Matthew d'Ancona

He is also reportedly writing a History of England with John Cleese.

Mervyn Stockwood

He memorably told John Cleese and Michael Palin at the end of the discussion that they would "get their thirty pieces of silver".

Pleasure at Her Majesty's

The event was organized by a team of three: Monty Python member John Cleese, Amnesty's Assistant Director Peter Luff and Transatlantic Records executive Martin Lewis.

Robin Day

Monty Python's Flying Circus often used Day as a reference, including the 'Eddie Baby' sketch in which John Cleese turns to the camera and states: 'Robin Day's got a hedgehog called Frank.'

Superman: True Brit

Written by John Cleese and Kim Howard Johnson, with art by John Byrne and Mark Farmer, it reimagines the origin of Superman, by considering how Clark Kent's upbringing would be different if his spaceship had crashed in Weston-super-Mare in England instead of the fictional town of Smallville in Kansas, America.

The Thing That Wouldn't Die

The action in the episode directly follows that of the previous two-parter "Mary Loves Scoochie", which ended with Dick transforming Dr. Liam Neesam, a malevolent alien played by John Cleese, into a chimpanzee.

Wine for the Confused

Wine for the Confused is a documentary hosted by John Cleese.


Cynthia Cleese

The daughter of British actor John Cleese and American actress Connie Booth, she is best known for A Fish Called Wanda, where she played daughter Portia to Cleese's character Archie Leach.

Four Yorkshiremen sketch

A near derivative of the sketch appears in the BBC Radio show I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again Series 7, Episode 5 on 9 February 1969, in which the cast, John Cleese, Graeme Garden, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Bill Oddie, David Hatch, in the guise of old buffers at a gentlemen's club, employ the same trope of out-doing each other for hardship, this time in the context of how far and how slowly they had to walk to get to various places in former days.

Galaxy Song

The surgeon (John Cleese), upon failing to persuade Mrs Brown (Terry Jones) to donate her liver, opens the refrigerator doors to reveal a man wearing a pink tuxedo (Idle) who accompanies her through outer space singing about the universe.

George Reinblatt

He has also been a writer for Rick Mercer's Monday Report, was the head writer for Canada's Walk of Fame in 2006, and has been a writer at Montreal's Just for Laughs comedy festival, where he has written for the likes of John Cleese, Tina Fey, Kelly Ripa, William Shatner, Howie Mandel, Jason Alexander, Dame Edna, Joan Rivers, George Lopez, Tom Arnold and James Belushi, amongst others.

J. B. Handelsman

He also illustrated many books, including Families and How to Survive Them and Life and How to Survive It, both by Monty Python star John Cleese and psychotherapist Robin Skynner, and The Mid-Atlantic Companion by David Frost and Michael Shea, plus a number of books for children.

Not the Nine O'Clock News

As the show was originally scheduled to air after Fawlty Towers, John Cleese was to have introduced the first episode in a sketch referring to a technicians' strike then in progress, explaining (in character as Basil Fawlty) that there was no show that week so a "tatty revue" would be broadcast instead.

The Debbie Reynolds Show

Monty Python's Flying Circus spoofed the series in a sketch primarily written by John Cleese and Graham Chapman entitled "The Attila the Hun Show".

The Germans

The Hitler impression has become famous, and has been compared with the silly walk, also performed by John Cleese.

The Seventh Python

The film features Innes in performance in Los Angeles, Sussex, England and Melbourne, Australia and features Pythons John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin, as well as singer-songwriter Aimee Mann, Matt Groening (creator of The Simpsons), and composer/arranger John Altman, among others.