John Cleese

Cleese is best known for playing imposing and bumbling characters; he rarely plays villains.

Cleese wrote a script for two radio comics he would listen to when he was sick in bed at age 12.

As a child, he loved "The Goon Show".

At 6'5" he was the tallest member of Monty Python. As well as being the tallest member of Monty Python, he was also the oldest.

During the 1990s, John turned down both a Peerage and a CBE from the then leader of the Liberal Democrats, Paddy Ashdown.

John is a longtime fan of Bristol City Football Club; even going so far as to locate Sports Bars in New York to watch their games.

Following John's third wife instigating rather drawn out divorce proceedings, his good friend Michael Winner took him on a 'divorcey-moon' and wrote about it for The Sunday Times.

In the summer of 2008, John returned to Bristol's Redgrave Theatre for three Q and A performances with broadcaster Chris Searle, in aid of Bristol Zoo. A lemur called Colin was also featured. In addition, Urs Thalmann of Zurich University has named a woolly lemur after him - Avahi cleesei.

In the 1965-1966 Season, John appeared in Half a Sixpence as Young Walshingham.

He is a strict vegetarian.

John Cleese would have been John Cheese if his father had not changed the family surname back in 1915 before he joined the army.

John Cleese was the writer and host of the BBC mini series The Human Face.

In 2005, offered a part of his colon, removed due to diverticulitis, for sale on his official website. The proceeds are reportedly to be divided between Cleese himself and his surgeon.

Former supporter of the Liberal Democrat political party.

Has resided for many years in the prestigious Chicago North Shore suburb of Lake Forest, Illinois.

Has played the father of two of the Charlie's Angels. First he played Lucy Liu's father in Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003). The next year he played Cameron Diaz's father in Shrek 2 (2004).

Voiced Jean-Bob, a frog who believes he's a prince, in The Swan Princess (1994), then went on to voice a king who used to be a frog in Shrek 2 (2004).

In 2002, he appeared in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), with Maggie Smith, and in Die Another Day (2002), opposite her son, Toby Stephens.

Appeared in a series of educational short subjects produced by Video Arts [gb] designed to teach management and trainees how to handle stress and unusual situations. Cleese took advantage of his comic talents and portrayed events as absurd situations so that audiences would better remember their training.

Father-in-law of Ed Solomon.

When the Globe Theatre was rebuilt in London, a service was offered whereby you could have your name on a tile in the courtyard, for a donation to the project. Cleese and fellow python Michael Palin both signed up for tiles, but Palin's was spelled wrong. Cleese paid extra to ensure it would be spelled "Pallin."

In the late nineties he appeared in German TV commercials for a lottery service. He actually spoke German in some of these spots (while some had no dialogue and others where dubbed later on). In addition, he has shot several commercials for the Polish WBK Bank - the first of which was the most watch Polish commercial ever.

The inspiration for "Fawlty Towers" (1975) came from a hotel stay he had with the other Pythons in the Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay, England. The hotel manager was called Donald Sinclair, someone Cleese considered to be the rudest man he had ever encountered. He later played a character by the name of Donald P. Sinclair in Rat Race (2001).

He is an Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University.

John has been married three times and has two daughters: Connie Booth, married 1968 - 1978, and their daughter is Cynthia, born in 1971. Barbara Trentham, married 1981 - 1990, and their daughter is Camilla, born in 1983. Alyce Faye Eichelberger, married 1992-2008.