He and Terry Gilliam are the only members of Monty Python to be nominated for Oscars. Coincidentally, they were both for Best Original Screenplay, Gilliam for Brazil (1985) and Cleese for A Fish Called Wanda (1988). Both screenplays did not win their Oscars, and both films featured Michael Palin.
He was a cast member of the highly successful radio show "I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again". His fellow cast members were Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden, Bill Oddie, David Hatch and Jo Kendall. It was during this radio show that Cleese's famous 'Ferret Song' (later sung on the television series, "At Last the 1948 Show" (1967)) was first heard.
Helped his daughter, Camilla Cleese, to kick her drug habit (which started when she was 11) by sending her to a psychiatric ward and then a rehab clinic. After more stints in rehab, she finally kicked her drug and alcohol habit in 2007 and praised her father for helping turn her life around [December 21, 2008).
His mother, Muriel Cleese (b. Cross, 5 October 1899 - 5 October 2000) died on her 101st birthday.
Holds a law degree from Cambridge University.
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.
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.
In the late 1990s 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 were dubbed later on).
Is an Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University.
John's father's name was Reg Cleese but his grandfather was named John Edwin Cheese. He changed his name when he joined the British army in 1915.
Just to see if anyone would notice, during the early 1970s Cleese added one obviously fake film per year to his annual filmography listing in Who's Who. For the record, these fake films were "The Bonar Law Story" (1971), "Abbott & Costello Meet Sir Michael Swann" (1972), "The Young Anthony Barber" (1973) and "Confessions of a Programme Planner" (1974). Although Cleese confessed to the gag in the 1980s, mentions of these bogus films still appear from time to time in scholarly works on Cleese, including the entry in the Encyclopedia of Television, 1st ed. (1996) edited by Horace Newcomb.
Member of Monty Python along with Graham Chapman, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, Eric Idle and Terry Gilliam.
Member of the comedy group "Monty Python".
Offered to write speeches for Democratic Presidential candidate 'Barack Obama'. [2008]
Provided the voice of God in Spamalot.
Reached adult height of 6' 4 3/4" by the age of 13.
Rector of University of St Andrews from 1970-1973.
Said he was to be the first person to say the F-word at a memorial service when he spoke at Graham Chapman's.
Supports Bristol City Football Club.
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).