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John Marwood Cleese ( / ˈkliːz / KLEEZ; born 27 October 1939) is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter, producer, and presenter. Emerging from the Cambridge Footlights in the 1960s, he first achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and performer on The Frost Report.
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John Cleese is an English actor, comedian, producer, screenwriter and writer. He is known for his work on screen and stage. He was a member of the comedy sketch group Monty Python. This is a filmography of his work which consists of about 180 various roles.
YearTitleRole2023The Martini ShotDr. Auyeung2023Arthur William Dallas III2023Archie Vainglorious2022FrankJohn Marwood Cleese (born 27 October 1939) is an English actor, comedian, producer and writer. He was born in Weston-super-Mare, England. He graduated from Downing College, Cambridge. Cleese has a degree in law. He was a member of the comedy team Monty Python.
- Origins
- Production
- Plot Directions and Examples
- Characters
- Episodes
- Reception
- Remakes, Adaptations and Reunions
- Overseas
- Home Media and Merchandise
- Further Reading
In May 1970, the Monty Python comedy group stayed at the now demolished Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay, Devon while filming on location in Paignton. John Cleese was fascinated with the behaviour of the owner, Donald Sinclair, later describing him as "the rudest man I've ever come across in my life". Among such behaviour by Sinclair was his criticism o...
Although the series is set in Torquay, no part of it was shot in South West England. For the exterior filming, the Wooburn Grange Country Club in Wooburn Green, Buckinghamshire was used instead of a hotel. In several episodes of the series (notably "The Kipper and the Corpse", "The Anniversary", and "Basil the Rat"), the entrance gate at the bottom...
The series focuses on the exploits and misadventures of short-fused hotelier Basil Fawlty and his acerbic wife Sybil, as well as their employees: waiter Manuel, Polly Sherman, and, in the second series, chef Terry. The episodes typically revolve around Basil's efforts to "raise the tone" of his hotel and his increasing frustration at numerous compl...
Basil Fawlty
Basil Fawlty, played by John Cleese, is a cynical and snobbish misanthrope who is desperate to belong to a higher social class. He sees a successful hotel as a means of achieving this, yet his job forces him to be polite to people he despises. He is intimidated by his wife Sybil Fawlty. He yearns to stand up to her, but his plans frequently conflict with her demands. She is often verbally abusive (describing him as "an ageing, brilliantined stick insect") but although he towers over her, he o...
Sybil Fawlty
Sybil Fawlty, played by Prunella Scales, is Basil's wife. Energetic and petite, she prefers a working wardrobe of tight skirt-suits in shiny fabrics and sports a tower of permed hair augmented with hairpieces and wigs necessitating the use of overnight curlers. She often is a more effective manager of the hotel, making sure Basil gets certain jobs done or stays out of the way when she is handling difficult guests. Typically when Basil is on the verge of a meltdown due to a crisis (usually of...
Polly Sherman
Polly Sherman, played by Connie Booth, is a waitressand general assistant at the hotel with artistic aspirations. She is the most competent of the staff and the voice of sanity during chaotic moments, but is frequently embroiled in ridiculous masquerades as she loyally attempts to aid Basil in trying to cover up a mistake or keep something from Sybil. In "The Anniversary" she snaps and refuses to help Basil out when he wants her to impersonate Sybil in the semi-darkness of her bedroom in fron...
The first episode of Fawlty Towers was recorded as a pilot on 24 December 1974, the rest of the series being recorded later in 1975. It was then originally broadcast on 19 September. The 12th and final episode was first shown on 25 October 1979. The first series was directed by John Howard Davies, the second by Bob Spiers. Both had their premieres ...
Awards and accolades
Three British Academy Television Awards (BAFTAs) were awarded to people for their involvement with the series. Both of the series were awarded the BAFTA in the category Best Scripted Comedy, the first being won by John Howard Davies in 1976, and the second by Douglas Argent and Bob Spiers in 1980. In 1980, Cleese received the BAFTA for Best Entertainment Performance. In a list drawn up by the British Film Institute in 2000, voted by industry professionals, Fawlty Towerswas named the best Brit...
Legacy
John Lennon was a fan of the show. He said in 1980: "I love Fawlty Towers. I'd like to be in that. [It's] the greatest show I've seen in years... what a masterpiece, a beautiful thing." Kate Bush stated, "I still think Fawlty Towers is the best sitcom ever." Filmmaker Martin Scorsese has remarked he is a great fan of Fawlty Towers and named "The Germans" as his favourite episode.He described the scene with Basil impersonating Hitler as "so tasteless, it's hilarious".
Three attempted remakes of Fawlty Towers were started for the American market, with two making it into production. The first, Chateau Snavely, starring Harvey Korman and Betty White, was produced by ABC for a pilot in 1978, but the transfer from coastal hotel to highway motel proved too much and the series was never produced. The second, also by AB...
In 1977 and 1978 alone, the original TV show was sold to 45 stations in 17 countries and was the BBC's best-selling overseas programme for that year. Fawlty Towers became a huge success in almost all countries in which it aired. Although it initially was a flop in Spain, largely because of the portrayal of the Spanish waiter Manuel, it was successf...
Audio releases
Four albums were released by BBC Recordson vinyl LP and cassette. These consisted of the original television soundtracks, and from the second album onwards had additional voice-over from Sachs (in character as Manuel) describing scenes which relied on visual humour. The first album, simply titled Fawlty Towers, was released in 1979 and contained audio from "Communication Problems" (as "Mrs Richards") and "Hotel Inspectors". The second album, Second Sitting, was released in 1981 and contained...
Home media
Fawlty Towers was originally released by BBC Video in 1984, with three episodes on each of four tapes. Each was edited with the credits from all three episodes put at the end of the tape. A LaserDisc containing all episodes spliced together as a continuous episode was released in the U.S. on 23 June 1993. It was re-released in 1994, unedited but digitally remastered. It also was re-released in 1997 with a special interview with Cleese. Fawlty Towers—The Complete Series was released on DVD on...
Computer game
A Fawlty Towersgame was released on PC in 2000 and featured a number of interactive games, desktop-customizing content, and clips from the show.
Apter, Michael J. (1982), first published online in 2004. "Fawlty Towers: A Reversal Theory Analysis of A Popular Television Comedy Series". The Journal of Popular Culture (Blackwell Publishing) 16...Bright, Morris; Robert Ross (2001). Fawlty Towers: Fully Booked. London: BBC Books. ISBN 0-563-53439-7.Cleese, John; Connie Booth (1988). The Complete Fawlty Towers. London: Methuen. ISBN 0-413-18390-4.Dalla Costa, Dario (2004). The Complexities of Farce: With a Case Study on Fawlty Towers . Unpublished Master's thesis, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia. Retrieved from http://rese...John Marwood Cleese ( / ˈkliːz / KLEEZ; born 27 October 1939) is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter, producer, and presenter. Emerging from the Cambridge Footlights in the 1960s, he first achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and performer on The Frost Report.
Feb 14, 2024 · Cleese officially joined Monty Python, the groundbreaking comedy troupe, in the late 1960s. Alongside Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, and Graham Chapman, Cleese helped create and starred in the influential sketch show Monty Python's Flying Circus, which aired from 1969 to 1974.
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A Fish Called Wanda is a 1988 heist comedy film directed by Charles Crichton and written by Crichton and John Cleese. It stars Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline, and Michael Palin. The film follows a gang of diamond thieves who double-cross one another to recover stolen diamonds hidden by their jailed leader.
