John Marwood Cleese (born October 27, 1939) is an English comedian, actor, screenwriter, producer, and presenter whose work helped redefine British television comedy. Known for his tall frame, precise comic timing, controlled eruptions of anger, and talent for physical farce, he became internationally recognized through Monty Python, Fawlty Towers, and a long film career.
Cleese studied law at the University of Cambridge, where he joined the Cambridge Footlights and began writing and performing with Graham Chapman. The success of the Footlights revue Cambridge Circus led to professional stage work in London and on Broadway, but Cleese soon moved toward radio and television comedy. He wrote and performed on the BBC radio series I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again and contributed to The Frost Report, where he worked alongside future Python collaborators including Graham Chapman, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, and Eric Idle. His early television credits also included At Last the 1948 Show, a series that demonstrated his interest in surreal sketches, verbal absurdity, and exaggerated character comedy.
In 1969, Cleese joined Chapman, Palin, Jones, Idle, Terry Gilliam, and later the wider Monty Python creative team for Monty Python's Flying Circus. The series rejected conventional sketch-comedy structure, often abandoning punchlines in favor of abrupt transitions, visual invention, and deliberately irrational premises. Cleese's performances were central to its style. He played characters ranging from pompous officials and aggressive bureaucrats to the Minister of Silly Walks, combining theatrical diction with sudden physical collapse. He appeared in the first three seasons as a principal writer and performer, then reduced his involvement, although he continued to collaborate with the group in films and stage appearances.
The character that established Cleese as a major solo star was Basil Fawlty, the irritable and increasingly desperate proprietor of a struggling seaside hotel. Cleese created Fawlty Towers with Connie Booth, who also co-wrote the series and played waitress Polly. Broadcast in two short seasons in 1975 and 1979, the sitcom turned social embarrassment, class anxiety, and escalating misunderstanding into tightly constructed farce. Its small number of episodes became an advantage: the series maintained an unusually high level of comic precision and remains one of British television's most influential sitcoms.
Cleese continued to work across film and television. With Michael Palin, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Kevin Kline, he starred in the successful comedy A Fish Called Wanda (1988), for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Other notable film roles included Time Bandits, Silverado, Clockwise, Fierce Creatures, and The Out-of-Towners. He played R and later Q in the James Bond series, Nearly Headless Nick in the Harry Potter films, and King Harold in Shrek 2 and Shrek the Third.
Beyond entertainment, Cleese co-founded Video Arts, a company known for using professional comedians in business training films. He also wrote books with psychotherapist Robin Skynner, including Families and How to Survive Them. His career has been marked by a rare combination of intellectual comedy, broad physical performance, and a willingness to expose the absurdity beneath respectable institutions.