John Cleese was born in Weston-Super-Mare in Somerset, on 27th October 1939, his father, an insurance salesman, thoughtfully changed their family name from Cheese to Cleese during WWI.
A shy, unconfident child due to his stature, Cleese was six feet tall by the age of twelve, and was the butt of jokes throughout his schooldays. He attended Clifton college in Weston, and passed an entrance exam to study at Downing College, Cambridge. He had to wait two years before going, so John Cleese joined Cambridge to read Law, at the age of twenty one.
Cleese finally joined the Cambridge Footlights, after embarrassing himself at an audition and refusing to go near them for two terms. John Cleese was the first Python to meet Terry Gilliam who approached him, asking him to be the main character in a photo-strip he was making about a middle-class man in love with a Barbie doll.
John was offered a job in New York and although he knew it was doomed to fail and quit to return to England before he was fired, the journey was not wasted. In New York, he had met a young actress by the name of Connie Booth. After he returned to England, in 1965, their relationship was reduced to meeting twice a year, until 1968, when having established himself, he proposed and she moved to London, and in 1971, their daughter Cynthia was born.
Cleese felt he was married to Python, and began to resent the workload and the lack of originality he felt the show had. As the fourth series was being written, taking place without him, he was working with Connie on what was to become the alltime classic comedy "Fawlty Towers" with John as hotelier Basil Fawlty, and Connie as receptionist, maid and general all-round helper, Polly.
Since Python and Fawlty Towers, John has starred in such films as "Privates On Parade", "Clockwise" and the inimitable "A Fish Called Wanda."
Cleese and Connie Booth divorced in 1976, and in 1981 he married director Barbara Trentham with whom he had a daughter Camilla in 1984. Barbara and John split up in 1990. He is now married to Alyce Eichelberger, whom he wed in 1992 and lives in London.
Born: 27th October 1939
