Terry Gilliam was born 22nd November 1940 in the oddly named Medicine Lake, Minnesota, in the land they call the US of A. He has a younger, by ten years, brother who is a senior detective with the LAPD. In 1951, the Gilliams moved from snowy Minnesota to California, due to his sisters asthma. His mother still lives there.
Terry went to Birmingham High School and achieved straight A's. He began a Physics major at Occidental college, but switched after six weeks to Fine Art, and then again to Political Sciences. The infrequency of his lessons allowed him to put in substantial time with the college magazine.
After barely graduating due to all his extra-curricular activities, he moved to New York when he recieved a favourable response from "Help!" magazine editor Harvey Kurtzman whom he eventually worked for. This was where he met John Cleese who was in New york with the Cambridge Circus.
When the draft forced him to enroll in the National Guard, he avoided too many unpleasantries by drawing flattering caricatures of the officers. As the months passed and he returned to civilian life, he decided not to return to "Help!" figuring he was better off on unemployment benefits then the meagre salary he was getting.
For a time, Terry lived with a british journalist called Glenys Roberts, who persuaded him to move to London, where he had difficulty finding work, so eventually called John Cleese, who passed him onto Humphrey Barclay who was putting together a new show called "Do Not Adjust Your Set" where he met Terry Jones and Michael Palin.
Since Python, Terry Gilliam has had an incredibly succesful career directing films, like "Jabberwocky", "Time Bandits", "Brazil", "The Fisher King", "Twelve Monkeys" and "Fear And Loathing in Las Vegas".
Gilliam is married to Maggie Weston, the make-up girl on Monty Python's Flying Circus and they have three children, Harry, Amy, and the beautifully named Holly. They live in London.
Born: 22nd November 1940
