{{Infobox_Company | company_name = Kaupþing banki hf. | company_logo = | company_type = Public () | company_slogan = Thinking Beyond | fate = Government custodianship, moratorium on payments | successor = Arion banki (Icelandic business only) | foundation = Reykjavík, Iceland, 1930 (foundation of Búnaðarbanki) | location = Reykjavík, Iceland | key_people = Hreiðar Már Sigurðsson (CEO), Sigurður Einarsson (Chairman of the board), Ingólfur Helgason (CEO in Iceland), Ármann Þorvaldsson (CEO in United Kingdom) | industry = Banking| net_income = €812 million (2007) | assets = €58.34 billion (2007) In 2006, it ranked number 1,006 on Forbes Global 2000, which is an annual ranking of top 2000 corporations in the world by Forbes magazine. The same year, it ranked number 177 (up by 34 places from 2005) on the list of the world's largest banks composed annually by the international finance magazine The Banker. In 2007, Kaupthing Bank had net earnings of €812 million, compared with €986 million in 2006. About 70% of the operating profit originated outside Iceland (33% in Iceland, 31% in the UK, 26% in Scandinavia, 8% in Luxembourg and 2% in other countries). So far, it has not been declared bankrupt, although it has obtained a moratorium on payments from the District Court of Reykjavík and has been suspended from trading in the Iceland Stock Exchange.

On November 20, 2009, New Kaupthing, the name given to the spin-off of the bank's Icelandic based operations, changed its name to Arion Banki. Non-Icelandic assets are still held within the bank which continues to be called Kaupthing, as of August, 2010.

Kaupthing had cross-shareholdings with other companies such as Exista. It also allegedly loaned money to various to parties with the purpose of buying Kaupthing shares.

The name

The bank is known as Kaupthing Bank outside of Iceland.

In Iceland, its official name is Kaupþing Banki hf.

Formerly, its official name was Kaupþing Búnaðarbanki hf., but the name was changed as the former name was considered too unwieldy for most people. From 2003 to 2006 the company used the name KB banki for its retail operations in Iceland. In December 2006, however, the bank started using the old name of Kaupþing for its network of high-street banks. It was announced that the change was part of the bank's plan to operate under the same name.

In November 2009 the bank changed its name to Arion Bank.

History

Established in 1982 as a small agency for financial advisory and securities brokerage, Kaupthing has since then been at the forefront of changes in the Icelandic financial market, continually setting trends and being one of the five founding partners of the Icelandic Stock Exchange. In the mid 1990s Kaupthing widened its focus to include opportunities abroad, and becoming the first Icelandic financial institution to operate outside Iceland.

Kaupthing was listed on the Iceland Stock Exchange in October 2000, at which point the original owners of the Bank, the savings banks in Iceland, reduced their holdings, and individuals and institutional investors replaced them as shareholders. Kaupthing Bank shares were listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange (now OMX Nordic Exchange in Stockholm) in 2002.

By 9 October 2008, Kaupthing Bank HF was forced into government receivership - only days after a crisis at Landsbanki placed it into government control. Due to the crisis throughout the Icelandic financial system, all trading in the country's equity markets was suspended on 13 October 2008. On 29 July 2009 Wikileaks exposed a confidential 210 page document listing Kaupthing's exposure to loans ranging from 45 million to 1.25 billion Euros. The leaked presentation revealed the bank had loaned billions of euros to its major shareholders, including a total of €1.43 billion to Exista and subsidiaries which own 23% of the bank.

On 9 December 2009, Daniel Thordarsson, former asset manager and Stefnir Ingi Agnarsson, former stock broker, both of Kaupthing Hf, were sentenced to an eight month prison term by the Reykjavik District Court.

The pair was charged with putting in offers to buy Exista shares six times in January and February last year shortly before the close of business, so that the offers would affect the end-of-day value of Exista shares. The charges were of submitting false purchase enquiries and of share price manipulation.

Acquisitions, mergers, subsidiaries

1930 Búnaðarbanki Íslands (English: Agricultural Bank of Iceland) founded in Iceland

1982 Kaupthing hf. founded in Iceland

1998 Kaupthing Luxembourg, S.A. opened

2000 Kaupthing Faroe Islands opened, Kaupthing New York opened, Kaupthing Stockholm opened

2001 Kaupthing Bank Copenhagen opened, Kaupthing Lausanne opened, Sofi acquired in Finland

2002 Aragon acquired in Sweden, JP Nordiska acquired in Sweden, Auðlind acquired in Iceland

2003 Kaupthing merges with Búnaðarbanki Íslands to form Kaupthing Bank, Tyren acquired in Norway, Norvestia acquired in Finland, Kaupthing Limited opened in the UK

2004 A. Sundvall acquired in Norway, FIH acquired in Denmark

2005 Singer & Friedlander acquired in the UK

2006 Kaupthing Limited merges with Singer & Friedlander to form Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander in the UK

2007 Kaupthing buys Dutch merchant bank NIBC for €3 billion (as of late January 2008, Kaupthing decided to cancel the acquisition of NIBC) 2007 Kaupthing acquired a 20% stake in New Delhi-based Indian investment services company Finoble Advisors with in option to buy the remaining 80% in 5 year's time 2007 Kaupthing buys Belgian private banking and asset management operations of Robeco Bank, for an unspecified amount, further strengthening its position in the Benelux market.

2007 Kaupthing hf acquired Derbyshire Offshore, the Isle of Man subsidiary of Derbyshire Building Society, continuing Derbyshire Offshore's irrevocable and binding guarantee for all depositors funds in the new subsidiary, Kaupthing, Singer and Friedlander (Isle of Man) Ltd.

2007 - 2008 Kaupthing launches internet based Kaupthing Edge in the UK, Belgium, Norway, Germany, Finland, Sweden, Luxembourg, the Isle of Man, Austria and Switzerland.

2008 The UK business of Kaupthing Edge, covering £2.5 billion in deposits and 160,000 customers, is taken over by ING Direct after the Financial Services Authority closed its London centre of operations.

Kaupthing Edge

Kaupthing Edge was a pan-European retail deposit taking brand. The purpose of the brand was to diversify liabilities on the Kaupthing balance sheet by currency, customer type (personal/retail) and country. Kaupthing Edge offered two deposit products: a savings account and a fixed term deposit account. Both were straightforward high-interest products. In Belgium customers could choose a third product which was a current account. Kaupthing Edge savings and fixed term deposit accounts were managed over the Internet with the support of telephony call centres.

Kaupthing Edge was available in eleven countries in Europe:

Finland - available since October 2007; liabilities taken over by the Finnish Financial Supervision Authority on 9 October 2008 Sweden - available since November 2007; accounts closed and all deposits repaid by 20 October 2008. Norway - available since January 2008; liabilities taken over by the Norwegian government on 12 October 2008

Belgium - available since January 2008, all accounts were frozen on the 9th of October 2008. The amount above 20000€ came available after a takeover by Keytrade bank on 29 March 2009.

United Kingdom - available since February 2008; accounts transferred to Dutch bank ING Direct on 8 October 2008

Germany - available since March 2008; 30,000 depositors in Germany are still awaiting repayment of their deposits by the bank. Kaupthing Bank Liquidation Committee has announced that it has secured funds to repay German depositors. German depositors started to get their money back on the 22. of June and are to be paid in full.

Luxembourg - available since April 2008

Isle of Man - available since April 2008

Switzerland - available since June 2008; in liquidation from 17 November 2008. Depositors partially repaid. Austria - available since September 2008; accounts frozen on 9 October, accounts transferred to other banks on 29 October

Kaupthing Edge accounts were protected within the EU by compulsory depositors protection schemes. These schemes are financed by a levy on the respective countries financial industry. In the case of the UK, the government would forward a loan to the scheme against future increased payments in case of a shortfall.

Kaupthing Edge is a word play on 'cutting edge'.

Ownership

Meidur (later renamed to Exista) acquired a 12% stake of Kaupthing Bank in October 2002.

Government takes control

On 8 October 2008, The UK's FSA transferred the UK deposit accounts to ING. In its statement, "The FSA has determined that Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander no longer meets its threshold conditions, and is likely to be unable to continue to meet its obligations to depositors...The FSA concluded that KSF is in default for the purposes of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme"..

On 9 October 2008, the Icelandic Financial Supervisory Authority took control of Kaupthing after the resignation of the entire board of directors. This came about when "Britain transferred control of the business of Kaupthing Edge, its Internet bank, to ING Direct and put Kaupthing's UK operations into administration" placing Kaupthing in technical default according to loan agreements. The prime minister of Iceland, Geir Haarde, has stated that the British government brought down Kaupthing unnecessarily by abusing their power.

The same day the EBK (Swiss Federal Banking Commission) started proceedings under the Swiss Deposit Insurance scheme with respect to the Geneva branch of Kaupthing Bank Luxembourg. EKB requested customers of that branch to contact them so that compensation of up to 30000 Swiss Francs could be paid.

In Finland, the Financial Supervision Authority (Rahoitustarkastus) took control over the Finnish branch to prevent funds being transferred to Iceland. Finnish branch paid all its liabilities to its customers with debt it got from three major Finnish banks. Finnish branch then liquidated all of its assets and paid back debt to the Finnish banks. According to Finnish authorities Kaupthing Edge ended its operations in Finland on 30 January 2009.

Wikileaks has made available an internal document from Kaupthing Bank from just prior to the collapse of Iceland's banking sector, which led to the 2008–2009 Icelandic financial crisis. The document shows that suspiciously large sums of money were loaned to various owners of the bank, and large debts written off. Kaupthing's lawyers have threatened Wikileaks with legal action, citing banking privacy laws. The leak has caused an uproar in Iceland and may result in criminal charges against the individuals involved.

See also

Glitnir

Landsbanki

Central Bank of Iceland

References

External links

Kaupthing Singer Friedlander Depositors Action Group Site Oct 2008

Company Profile September 2008

2007 Annual Report

Official website Official website Kaupthing IoM Depositors Memorial Website Isle of Man site for Kaupthing Edge

Financial Crisis in Iceland: The Icelandic Government Information Center

Category:Bank failures Category:Banks of Iceland Category:Banks established in 1930

Name	John Cleese
Caption	Cleese in 2008
Birth name	John Marwood Cleese
Birth date	October 27, 1939
Birth place	Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, England
Medium	Film, television, radio,stand-up comedy
Genre	Surreal comedy,dark comedy,physical comedy
Active	1961–present
Influences	Stephen Leacock, Spike Milligan, The Goons, William Shakespeare
Spouse	(divorced) (divorced) (divorced)
Domesticpartner	Barbie Orr (2008–2009)Jennifer Wade (2010–present)
Website	TheJohnCleese.com

John Marwood Cleese (born 27 October 1939) is an English actor, comedian, writer and film producer. He achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and as a scriptwriter on The Frost Report. In the late 1960s he became a member of Monty Python, the comedy troupe responsible for the sketch show Monty Python's Flying Circus and the four Monty Python films: And Now for Something Completely Different, Holy Grail, Life of Brian and The Meaning of Life.

In the mid 1970s, Cleese and his first wife Connie Booth, co-wrote and starred in the British sitcom Fawlty Towers. Later, he co-starred with Kevin Kline, Jamie Lee Curtis and former Python colleague Michael Palin in A Fish Called Wanda and Fierce Creatures. He also starred in Clockwise, and has appeared in many other films, including two James Bond films, two Harry Potter films, and three Shrek films.

With Yes Minister writer Antony Jay he co-founded the production company Video Arts, responsible for making entertaining training films.

Early life

Cleese was born in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, the only child of Muriel (née Cross), an acrobat, and Reginald Francis Cleese (b. 1894), who worked in insurance sales. His family's surname was previously "Cheese", but his father changed it to "Cleese" in 1915, upon joining the Army.

Cleese was educated at St Peter's Preparatory School where he was a star pupil, receiving a prize for English studies and doing well at sport including cricket and boxing. At 13 he received an exhibition to Clifton College, an English public school in Bristol. He was tall as a child and was well over 6 ft when he arrived there. While at the school he is said to have defaced the school grounds for a prank by painting footprints to suggest that the school's statue of Field Marshal Earl Haig had got down from his plinth and gone to the toilet. Cleese played cricket for the first team, and after initial indifference he did well academically, passing 8 O levels and 3 A-Levels in mathematics, physics and chemistry.

After leaving school, he went back to his prep school to teach science before taking up a place he had won at Downing College, Cambridge, where he studied Law and joined the Cambridge Footlights Revue. There he met his future writing partner Graham Chapman. Cleese wrote extra material for the 1961 Footlights Revue I Thought I Saw It Move, and was Registrar for the Footlights Club during 1962, as well as being one of the cast members for the 1962 Footlights Revue Double Take!

Career

Pre-Python

Cleese was one of the script writers, as well as being a member of the cast, for the 1963 Footlights Revue, A Clump of Plinths, John Cleese and Graham Chapman also wrote episodes for the first series of Doctor in the House (and later Cleese wrote six episodes of Doctor at Large on his own in 1971). These series were successful, and in 1969 Cleese and Chapman were offered their very own series. However, owing to Chapman's alcoholism, Cleese found himself bearing an increasing workload in the partnership, and was therefore unenthusiastic about doing a series with just the two of them. He had found working with Palin on The Frost Report an enjoyable experience, and invited him to join the series. Palin had previously been working on Do Not Adjust Your Set, with Idle and Jones, with Terry Gilliam creating the animations. The four of them had, on the back of the success of Do Not Adjust Your Set, been offered a series for Thames Television, which they were waiting to begin when Cleese's offer arrived. Palin agreed to work with Cleese and Chapman in the meantime, bringing with him Gilliam, Jones and Idle.

Monty Python

Monty Python's Flying Circus ran for four seasons from October 1969 to December 1974 on BBC Television, though with only limited participation of Cleese in the last six shows. Cleese's two primary characterisations were as a sophisticate and a stressed-out loony. He portrayed the former as a series of announcers, TV show hosts, government officials (for example, "The Ministry of Silly Walks"). The latter is perhaps best represented in the "Cheese Shop", and by Cleese's Mr Praline character, the man with a dead Norwegian Blue parrot and a menagerie of other animals all named "Eric". He was also known for his working-class "Sergeant Major" character, who worked as a Police Sergeant, Roman Centurion, etc. he is also seen as the opening announcer, with the now famous line: "And now for something completely different" a phrase that premiered in the sketch, "Man with Three Buttocks".

Partnership with Graham Chapman

Along with Gilliam's animations, Cleese's work with Chapman provided Python with its darkest and angriest moments, and many of his characters display the seething suppressed rage that later characterised his portrayal of Basil Fawlty.

Unlike Palin and Jones, Cleese and Chapman actually wrote together—in the same room; Cleese claims that their writing partnership involved him sitting with pen and paper, doing most of the work, while Chapman sat back, not speaking for long periods, then suddenly coming out with an idea that often elevated the sketch to a different level. A classic example of this is the "Dead Parrot" sketch, envisaged by Cleese as a satire on poor customer service, which was originally to have involved a broken toaster, and later a broken car (this version was actually performed and broadcast, on the pre-Python special How To Irritate People). It was Chapman's suggestion to change the faulty item into a dead parrot, and he also suggested that the parrot be specifically a Norwegian Blue, giving the sketch a surreal air which made it far more memorable.

Their humour often involved ordinary people in ordinary situations behaving absurdly for no obvious reason. Like Chapman, Cleese's poker face, clipped middle-class accent and imposing height allowed him to appear convincing as a variety of authority figures, such as policemen, detectives, Nazi officers, or government officials—which he would then proceed to undermine. Most famously, in the "Ministry of Silly Walks" sketch (actually written by Palin and Jones), Cleese exploits his stature as the crane-legged civil servant performing a grotesquely elaborate walk to his office.

Chapman and Cleese also specialised in sketches where two characters would conduct highly articulate arguments over completely arbitrary subjects, such as in the "cheese shop", the "dead parrot" sketch and "The Argument Sketch", where Cleese plays a stone-faced bureaucrat employed to sit behind a desk and engage people in pointless, trivial bickering. All of these roles were opposite Palin (who Cleese often claims is his favourite Python to work with)—the comic contrast between the towering Cleese's crazed aggression and the shorter Palin's shuffling inoffensiveness is a common feature in the series. Occasionally, the typical Cleese-Palin dynamic is reversed, as in "Fish Licence", wherein Palin plays the bureaucrat with whom Cleese is trying to work.

Though the programme lasted four series, by the start of series 3, Cleese was growing tired of dealing with Chapman's alcoholism. According to Gilliam, Cleese was the "most Cambridge" of the Cambridge-educated members of the group (Cleese, Chapman and Idle), by which Gilliam meant that Cleese was the tallest (6' 5") and most aggressive of the whole group. He felt, too, that the show's scripts had declined in quality. For these reasons, he became restless and decided to move on. Though he stayed for the third series, he officially left the group before the fourth season. Despite this, he remained friendly with the group, and all six began writing Monty Python and the Holy Grail; Cleese received a credit on episodes of the fourth series which used material from these sessions, and even makes a brief appearance in one episode as the voice of a cartoon in the "Hamlet" episode, though he was officially unconnected with the fourth series. Cleese returned to the troupe to co-write and co-star in the Monty Python films Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Monty Python's Life of Brian and Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, and participated in various live performances over the years.

Post-Python

From 1970 to 1973 Cleese served as rector of the University of St Andrews. His election proved a milestone for the University, revolutionising and modernising the post. For instance, the Rector was traditionally entitled to appoint an "Assessor", a deputy to sit in his place at important meetings in his absence. Cleese changed this into a position for a student, elected across campus by the student body, resulting in direct access and representation for the student body for the first time in over 500 years. This was one of many changes that Cleese brought in.

Cleese achieved greater prominence in the United Kingdom as the neurotic hotel manager Basil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers, which he co-wrote with his wife Connie Booth. The series won three BAFTA awards when produced and in 2000, it topped the British Film Institute's list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes. The series also featured Prunella Scales as Basil's acerbic wife Sybil, Andrew Sachs as the much abused Spanish waiter Manuel ("...he's from Barcelona"), and Booth as waitress Polly, the series' voice of sanity. Cleese based Basil Fawlty on a real person, Donald Sinclair, whom he had encountered in 1970 while the Monty Python team were staying at the Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay while filming inserts for their television series. Reportedly, Cleese was inspired by Sinclair's mantra "I could run this hotel just fine, if it weren't for the guests." He later described Sinclair as "the most wonderfully rude man I have ever met," although Sinclair's widow has said her husband was totally misrepresented in the series. During the Pythons' stay, Sinclair allegedly threw Idle's briefcase out of the hotel "in case it contained a bomb," complained about Gilliam's "American" table manners, and threw a bus timetable at another guest after they dared to ask the time of the next bus to town.

The first series was screened from 19 September 1975 on BBC 2, initially to poor reviews, but gained momentum when repeated on BBC 1 the following year. Despite this, a second series did not air until 1979, by which time Cleese's marriage to Booth had ended, but they revived their collaboration for the second series. Fawlty Towers consisted of only twelve episodes; Cleese and Booth both maintain that this was to avoid compromising the quality of the series.

]]

In December 1977, Cleese appeared as a guest star on The Muppet Show. Cleese was a fan of the show, and co-wrote much of the episode. He appears in a "Pigs in Space" segment as a pirate trying to hijack the spaceship Swinetrek, and also helps Gonzo restore his arms to "normal" size after Gonzo's cannonball catching act goes wrong. During the show's closing number, Cleese refuses to sing the famous show tune from Man of La Mancha, "The Impossible Dream". Kermit The Frog apologises and the curtain re-opens with Cleese now costumed as a Viking trying some Wagnerian opera as part of a duet with Sweetums. Once again, Cleese protests to Kermit, and gives the frog one more chance. This time, as pictured opposite this text, he is costumed as a Mexican maraca soloist. He has finally had enough and protests that he is leaving the show, saying "You were supposed to be my host. How can you do this to me? Kermit – I am your guest!". The cast joins in with their parody of "The Impossible Dream", singing "This is your guest, to follow that star...". During the crowd's applause that follows the song, he pretends to strangle Kermit until he realises the crowd loves him and accepts the accolades. During the show's finale, as Kermit thanks him, he shows up with a fictional album, his own new vocal record John Cleese: A Man & His Music, and encourages everyone to buy a copy.

This would not be Cleese's final appearance with The Muppets. In their 1981 movie The Great Muppet Caper, Cleese does a cameo appearance as Neville, a local homeowner. As part of the appearance, Miss Piggy borrows his house as a way to impress Kermit The Frog.

Cleese won the TV Times award for Funniest Man On TV – 1978 / 1979.

1980s and 1990s

During the 1980s and 1990s, Cleese focused on film, though he did work with Peter Cook in his one-off TV special Peter Cook and Co. in 1980. In the same year Cleese played Petruchio, in Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew in the BBC Television Shakespeare series. In 1981 he starred with Sean Connery and Michael Palin in the Terry Gilliam-directed Time Bandits as Robin Hood. He also participated in Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl (1982), and starred in The Secret Policeman's Ball for Amnesty International. In 1985, Cleese had a small dramatic role as a sheriff in Silverado, which had an all-star cast that included Kevin Kline, with whom he would star with in A Fish Called Wanda 3 years later. In 1986, he starred in Clockwise as an uptight school headmaster obsessed with punctuality and constantly getting in to trouble during a journey to a headmaster's conference.

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Timed with the 1987 UK elections, he appeared in a video promoting proportional representation.

In 1988, he wrote and starred in A Fish Called Wanda, as the lead, Archie Leach, along with Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline and Michael Palin. Wanda was a commercial and critical success, and Cleese was nominated for an Academy Award for his script. Cynthia Cleese starred as Leach's daughter.

Chapman was diagnosed with throat cancer in 1989; Cleese, Michael Palin, Peter Cook and Chapman's partner David Sherlock, witnessed Chapman's passing. Chapman's death occurred one day before the 20th anniversary of the first broadcast of Flying Circus, with Jones commenting, "the worst case of party-pooping in all history." Cleese's eulogy at Chapman's memorial service—in which he "became the first person ever at a British memorial service to say 'fuck'"—has since become legendary.

Cleese would later play a supporting role in Kenneth Branagh's adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein alongside Branagh himself and Robert De Niro. He also produced and acted in a number of successful business training films, including Meetings, Bloody Meetings and More Bloody Meetings. These were produced by his company Video Arts.

With Robin Skynner, the group analyst and family therapist, Cleese wrote two books on relationships: Families and How to Survive Them, and Life and How to Survive It. The books are presented as a dialogue between Skynner and Cleese.

In 1996, Cleese declined the British honour of Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). The follow-up to A Fish Called Wanda, Fierce Creatures—which again starred Cleese alongside Kevin Kline, Jamie Lee Curtis and Michael Palin—was also released that year, but was greeted with mixed reception by critics and audiences. Cleese has since often stated that making the second movie had been a mistake. When asked by his friend, director and restaurant critic Michael Winner, what he would do differently if he could live his life again, Cleese responded, "I wouldn’t have married Alyce Faye Eichelberger and I wouldn’t have made Fierce Creatures."

In 1999, Cleese appeared in the James Bond movie, The World Is Not Enough as Q's assistant, referred to by Bond as "R". In 2002, when Cleese reprised his role in Die Another Day, the character was promoted, making Cleese the new quartermaster (Q) of MI6. In 2004, Cleese was featured as Q in the video game , featuring his likeness and voice. Cleese did not appear in the subsequent Bond films, Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace.

2000 to present

Cleese is currently Provost's Visiting Professor at Cornell University, after having been Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large from 1999–2006. He makes occasional, well-received appearances on the Cornell campus, but he lives in the town of Montecito, California.

In 2001, Cleese was cast in the comedy Rat Race as the eccentric hotel owner Donald P. Sinclair.

In a 2005 poll of comedians and comedy insiders The Comedian's Comedian, Cleese was voted second only to Peter Cook. Also in 2005, a long-standing piece of Internet humour, "The Revocation of Independence of the United States", was wrongly attributed to Cleese.

In 2006, Cleese hosted a television special of football’s greatest kicks, goals, saves, bloopers, plays and penalties, as well as football’s influence on culture (including the famous Monty Python sketch, “Philosophy Football”), featuring interviews with pop culture icons Dave Stewart, Dennis Hopper and Henry Kissinger, as well as football greats including Pelé, Mia Hamm and Thierry Henry. The Art of Soccer with John Cleese was released in North America on DVD in January 2009 by BFS Entertainment & Multimedia.

Cleese recently lent his voice to the BioWare video game Jade Empire. His role was that of an "outlander" named Sir Roderick Ponce von Fontlebottom the Magnificent Bastard, stranded in the Imperial City of the Jade Empire. His character is essentially a British colonialist stereotype who refers to the people of the Jade Empire as savages in need of enlightenment. His armour has the design of a fork stuck in a piece of cheese.

He also had a cameo appearance in the computer game Starship Titanic as "The Bomb" (credited as "Kim Bread"), designed by Douglas Adams. When the bomb is activated it tells the player that "The ship is now armed and preparing to explode. This will be a fairly large explosion, so you'd best keep back about ". When the player tries to disarm the bomb, it says "Well, you can try that, but it won't work because nobody likes a smart-arse!"

In 2002, Cleese made a cameo appearance in the movie The Adventures of Pluto Nash, where he played "James", a computerised chauffeur of a hover car stolen by the title character (played by Eddie Murphy). The vehicle is subsequently destroyed in a chase, leaving the chauffeur stranded in a remote place on the moon.

In 2003, Cleese also appeared as Lyle Finster on the US sitcom Will & Grace. His character's daughter, Lorraine, was played by Minnie Driver. In the series, Lyle Finster briefly marries Karen Walker (Megan Mullally).

In 2004, Cleese was credited as co-writer of a DC Comics graphic novel entitled . Part of DC's "Elseworlds" line of imaginary stories, True Brit, mostly written by Kim Howard Johnson, suggests what might have happened had Superman's rocket ship landed in Britain, not America.

From 10 November to 9 December 2005, Cleese toured New Zealand with his stage show, John Cleese—His Life, Times and Current Medical Problems. Cleese described it as "a one-man show with several people in it, which pushes the envelope of acceptable behaviour in new and disgusting ways." The show was developed in New York with William Goldman and includes Cleese's daughter Camilla as a writer and actor (the shows were directed by Australian Bille Brown). His assistant of many years, Garry Scott-Irvine, also appeared, and was listed as a co-producer. It then played in universities in California and Arizona from 10 January to 25 March 2006 under the title "Seven Ways to Skin an Ocelot". His voice can be downloaded for directional guidance purposes as a downloadable option on some personal GPS-navigation device models by company TomTom.

In June 2006, while promoting a football (soccer) song in which he was featured, entitled Don't Mention the World Cup, Cleese appears to have claimed that he decided to retire from performing in sitcoms, instead opting to writing a book on the history of comedy and to tutor young comedians. This was an erroneous story, the result of an interview with The Times of London (the piece was not fact checked before printing).

In 2007, Cleese appeared in ads for Titleist as a golf course designer named "Ian MacCallister", who represents "Golf Designers Against Distance".

In 2007, he started filming the sequel to The Pink Panther, titled The Pink Panther 2 with Steve Martin and Aishwarya Rai.

On 27 September 2007, The Podcast Network announced it had signed a deal with Cleese to produce a series of video podcasts called HEADCAST to be published on TPN's website. Cleese released the first episode of this series in April 2008 on his own website, headcast.co.uk

In 2008, Cleese collaborated with Los Angeles Guitar Quartet member William Kanengiser on the text to the performance piece "The Ingenious Gentleman of La Mancha". Cleese, as narrator, and the LAGQ premiered the work in Santa Barbara.

According to recent reports, Cleese is currently working on a musical version of A Fish Called Wanda with his daughter Camilla. He also said that he is working on a new film screenplay for the first time since 1996's Fierce Creatures. Cleese collaborates on it with writer Lisa Hogan, under the current working title "A Taxing Time". According to him, it is "about the lengths to which people will go to avoid tax. [...] It's based on what happened to me when I cashed in my UK pension and moved to Santa Barbara."

At the end of March 2009, Cleese published his first article as 'Contributing Editor' to The Spectator: "The real reason I had to join The Spectator".

On 6 May 2009, he appeared on The Paul O'Grady Show. Cleese has also hosted comedy galas at the Montreal Just for Laughs comedy festival in 2006, and again in 2009. He had to cancel the 2009 appearance due to prostatitis, but hosted it a few days later.

Towards the end of 2009 and into 2010, Cleese appeared in a series of television adverts for the Norwegian electric goods shop chain, Elkjøp.

In March 2010 it was announced that John Cleese would be playing Jasper in the video game "Fable III".

In 2009 and 2010, Cleese toured Scandinavia and the US with his Alimony Tour Year One and Year Two. In May 2010, it was announced that this tour would extend to the UK (his first tour in UK), set for May 2011 – The show is dubbed the 'Alimony Tour' in reference to the financial implications of Cleese's recent divorce. The UK tour starts in Cambridge on 3 May visiting Birmingham, Salford, Liverpool, Oxford, Leeds, Edinburgh and finishing in Bristol.

Personal life

1960s to 1980s

Cleese met Connie Booth in the US during the late 1960s and the couple married in 1968.

Cleese remarried in 1981, to American actress Barbara Trentham. Their daughter Camilla, Cleese's second child, was born in 1984. He and Trentham divorced in 1990. It was also during this time that Cleese moved from the United Kingdom to California.

1990s to present

On 28 December 1992, he married American psychotherapist Alyce Faye Eichelberger. In January 2008, the couple announced they had split. The divorce was settled in December 2008. The divorce settlement left Eichelberger with £12 million in finance and assets, including £600,000 a year for seven years. Cleese stated that "What I find so unfair is that if we both died today, her children would get much more than mine".

He had begun to date American comedienne Barbie Orr in November 2008 but they split up in January 2009.

In April 2010, Cleese revealed on The Graham Norton Show on BBC One that he had started a new relationship with a woman 31 years his junior, Jennifer Wade.

He is a vegetarian.

During the disruption caused by the Eyjafjallajökull eruption in 2010 Cleese became stranded in Oslo and decided to take a taxi to Brussels. The 1500 km journey cost £3,300 and was completed with the help of three drivers who took shifts in driving Cleese to his destination where he planned to take a Eurostar passenger train to the UK.

Political views

Currently a member of the Liberal Democrats after previously being a Labour party voter, Cleese switched to the SDP after their formation in 1981, and during the 1987 general election, Cleese recorded a nine minute party political broadcast for the SDP-Liberal Alliance, which spoke about the similarities and failures of the other two parties in a more humorous tone than standard political broadcasts. Cleese has since appeared in broadcasts for the Liberal Democrats, in the 1997 general election and narrating a radio election broadcast for the party during the 2001 general election. In April 2010, Cleese posted a Twitter declaring his support for the Lib Dems after Nick Clegg performed strongly in the first leaders' debate on ITV1, stating: "Well, well, well. First leaders debate, and LibDems do so well. Good luck to them."

Cleese expressed support for Barack Obama's presidential candidacy, donating US$2,300 to his campaign and offering his services as a speech writer. He also criticised Republican Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin—saying that "Michael Palin is no longer the funniest Palin"— and wrote a satirical poem about Fox News commentator Sean Hannity for Countdown with Keith Olbermann.

Radio credits

I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again

I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue (1972–73)

Television credits

Major roles

The Frost Report (1966)

Frost on Sunday

At Last the 1948 Show

How to Irritate People (1968) with Michael Palin, Graham Chapman, Connie Booth and Tim Brooke-Taylor

Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969–1974)

Sez Les (1971, 1974)

Fawlty Towers (1975, 1979)

Cheers (episode "Simon Says") (1987), he won an Emmy Award for best actor in a guest starring role

The Taming of the Shrew (1980) as Petruchio

True Stories: Peace in our Time? as Neville Chamberlain

As host

The Human Face

Wine for the Confused

We Are Most Amused: Master of Ceremonies for a stand-up comedy show celebrating Prince Charles's 60th Birthday.

Guest appearances

The Avengers (1968), guest appearance as Marcus Rugman (egg clown-face collector) in the episode Look (Stop Me if You've Heard this One)...

The Goodies (1973), guest cameo appearance as a Genie in the episode The Goodies and the Beanstalk

Ripping Yarns (1979), guest cameo appearance as a 'Spooty Youth' in the episode Golden Gordon

Doctor Who (1979), guest cameo appearance as an Art Lover in the episode City of Death as a favour to writer/script editor Douglas Adams

The Muppet Show (1977)

Cheers (5th Season) as Dr. Simon Finch-Royce, an acquaintance of Kelsey Grammer's character Frasier Crane and fellow psychiatrist, who offers pre-marriage counseling advice to Sam and Diane, much to his later chagrin.

Last of the Summer Wine (1993), guest cameo appearance in the episode Welcome to Earth.

25 Years of Last of the Summer Wine (1997)

3rd Rock from the Sun (1998–2001) as recurring character Dr. Liam Neesam.

Casper & Mandrilaftalen (1999) both as the repairman of the purple Gunrack, and as the Danish soccer coach Bosse Bo Johansson.

(2002) as Red

Will & Grace (2003–2004) as recurring character Lyle Finster.

Numerous commercials, including for supermarket chain Sainsbury's, snack firm Planters and a British government Stop Smoking campaign

Party political broadcasts for the Liberal Democrats and predecessor, the SDP-Liberal Alliance

In November 2009 commercials, in which he appears for Swedish electrical appliance chain "Elgiganten", began broadcasting in Sweden, as well as broadcasting in Denmark in late 2010.

Song "Don't Mention The World Cup"animated video played on ITV, BBC and Channel 4 News June 2006

Batteries Not Included—gadget show on UKTV channel Dave (2008)

Entourage as himself, season 7 finale (2010)

Filmography

{| class="wikitable sortable" |+ Films |- ! Year ! Title ! Role ! class="unsortable" | Notes |- | 1968 | ''Interlude | TV Publicist | |- | 1969 | | Mr. Dougdale (director in Sotheby's) | |- | 1969 | | Jones | Uncredited |- | 1970 | | Pummer | Writer |- | 1971 | And Now for Something Completely Different | Various Roles | Writer |- | 1974 | Romance with a Double Bass | Musician Smychkov | Writer |- | 1975 | Monty Python and the Holy Grail | Various Roles | Writer |- | 1976 | Meetings, Bloody Meetings | Tim | Writer/Executive ProducerDocumentary Short |- | 1977 | | Arthur Sherlock Holmes | |- | 1979 | Monty Python's Life of Brian | Various Roles | Writer |- | 1980 | | Himself-Various Roles | |- | 1981 | | Neville | |- | 1981 | Time Bandits | Gormless Robin Hood | |- | 1982 | Privates on Parade | Major Giles Flack | |- | 1983 | Yellowbeard | Blind Pew | |- | 1983 | Monty Python's The Meaning of Life | Various Roles | Writer |- | 1985 | Silverado | Langston | His first line, as he walks into a bar tobreak up a brawl, is, "What's all this, then?") |- | 1986 | Clockwise | Mr. Stimpson | Evening Standard British Film Awards Peter Sellers Award for Comedy |- | 1988 | | lawyer Archie Leach | Writer/Executive ProducerBAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading RoleNominated—Academy Award For Best Original ScreenplayNominated—BAFTA Award for Best Original ScreenplayNominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy |- | 1989 | ''Erik the Viking | Halfdan the Black | |- | 1990 | Bullseye! | Man on the Beach inBarbados Who Looks Like John Cleese | |- | 1991 | | Cat R. Waul | Voice Only |- | 1992 | Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are? | | Narrator |- | 1993 | Splitting Heirs | Raoul P. Shadgrind | |- | 1994 | Mary Shelley's Frankenstein | Professor Waldman | |- | 1994 | | Dr. Julius Plumford | |- | 1994 | | Jean-Bob | |- | 1996 | '' | Mr. Toad's Lawyer | |- | 1996 | Fierce Creatures | Rollo Lee | Writer/Producer |- | 1997 | George of the Jungle | An Ape Named 'Ape' | Voice Only |- | 1998 | In the Wild: Operation Lemur with John Cleese | Host | Narrator |- | 1999 | | Mr. Mersault | |- | 1999 | | R | |- | 2000 | Isn't She Great | Henry Marcus | |- | 2000 | | Albert, The Magic Pudding | Voice Only |- | 2001 | Quantum Project | Alexander Pentcho | |- | 2001 | Here's Looking at You: The Evolution of the Human Face | | Narrator |- | 2001 | Rat Race | Donald P. Sinclair | |- | 2001 | Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone | "Nearly Headless Nick" | |- | 2002 | Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets | "Nearly Headless Nick" | Nominated—Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Ensemble Acting |- | 2002 | ''Roberto Benigni's Pinocchio | The Talking Crickett | Voice Only: English Version |- | 2002 | Die Another Day | Q | Second appearance in a James Bond film,replaces Desmond Llewelyn as Q in the series |- | 2002 | | James | |- | 2003 | | Mr. Munday | |- | 2003 | Scorched | Charles Merchant | |- | 2003 | George of the Jungle 2 | An Ape Named 'Ape' | Voice Only |- | 2004 | Shrek 2 | King Harold | Voice Only |- | 2004 | Around the World in 80 Days | Grizzled Sergeant | |- | 2005 | Valiant | Mercury | Voice Only |- | 2006 | Charlotte's Web | Samuel the Sheep | Voice Only |- | 2006 | Man About Town | Dr. Primkin | |- | 2007 | Shrek the Third | King Harold | Voice Only |- | 2008 | Igor | Dr. Glickenstein | Voice Only |- | 2008 | | Dr. Barnhardt | |- | 2009 | | Inspector Charles Dreyfus | |- | 2009 | Planet 51 | Professor Kipple | Voice Only |

|- |2010 | Spud | The Guv | Awaiting release |- | 2010 | | Ghost | Voice Only |- | 2010 | Shrek Forever After | King Harold | Voice Only |- | 2011 | Happy Feet 2 | Himself | Voice Onlypost-production |- |2011 |Winnie the Pooh |Narrator |Voice Only |- |}

Video game credits

Monty Python's Complete Waste of Time (1994) 7th Level

Monty Python & the Quest for the Holy Grail (1996) 7th Level

Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (1997) Panasonic

Starship Titanic (1998) Simon & Schuster Interactive (voice of the Bomb) — (Credited as Kim Bread)

007 Racing (2000) Electronic Arts

The World Is Not Enough (2000) Electronic Arts

(2004) Electronic Arts

(2004) Atari

Jade Empire (2005) BioWare (as Sir Roderick Ponce von Fontlebottom the Magnificent Bastard)

Shrek the Third (2007) King Harold, Narrator

Fable III (2010) Jasper

Awards

Academy Awards

* (1988) Nominated—Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay / A Fish Called Wanda (shared with Charles Crichton)

Golden Globe Awards

* (1988) Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy / A Fish Called Wanda

BAFTA Awards

* (1970) Nominated—BAFTA Television Award for "Best Light Entertainment Performance" / Monty Python's Flying Circus

* (1971) Nominated—BAFTA Television Award for "Best Light Entertainment Performance" / Monty Python's Flying Circus

* (1976) Nominated—BAFTA Television Award for "Best Light Entertainment Performance" / Fawlty Towers

* (1980) Won—BAFTA Television Award for "Best Light Entertainment Performance" / Fawlty Towers

* (1989) Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay / A Fish Called Wanda

* (also 1989) Won—BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role''

Primetime Emmy Awards

* (1987) Won—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor - Comedy Series / Cheers (as Dr. Simon Finch-Royce)

* (1998) Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor – Comedy Series / 3rd Rock from the Sun (as Dr. Liam Neesam)

* (2002) Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Nonfiction Special" / The Human Face

* (2004) Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor – Comedy Series / Will & Grace (as Lyle Finster)

Writers Guild of America

* (1989) Nominated—Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay / A Fish Called Wanda (shared with Charles Crichton)

Other credits

In 2003, John Cleese took part in Mike Oldfield's re-recording of the 1973 hit Tubular Bells, Tubular Bells 2003. He took over the "Master of Ceremonies" duties in the ‘Finale’ part, in which he announced the various instruments eccentrically, from the late Vivian Stanshall.

Cleese recorded the voice of God for Spamalot, the musical based on Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Cleese narrated the audio version of C. S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters.

In the mid 1980s, Cleese starred in British advertisements for Compaq computers.

In the late-1990s, Cleese appeared in a set of poorly-received commercials for the UK supermarket chain Sainsbury's. Around the same time, his Fawlty Towers co-star, Prunella Scales, appeared in more well-received commercials for rival chain Tesco.

He has enunciated a set of directions for the TomTom in-car navigation system. This allows itself humorous notes at non-critical moments, for instance when asking for a U-turn and when signing off: "I'm not going to carry your baggage—from now on, you're on your own" and "Bear right..Beaver left."

He plays the voice of Samuel the Sheep in the 2006 adaptation of Charlotte's Web. Samuel repeatedly tells the other sheep to be individuals, not sheep. This is a reference to Monty Python's Life of Brian.

He has a speaking part at the end of the Alan Parsons song "Chomolungma" from the album A Valid Path.

In 2008, John Cleese appeared in a humorous TV commercial in Poland advertising a bank loan.

From 2006 to 2008 John Cleese has appeared in humorous TV commercials in Iceland advertising Kaupþing.

Honours and tributes

A species of lemur, Bemaraha Woolly Lemur or the "Avahi cleesei", has been named in his honour. John Cleese has mentioned this in television interviews. Also there is mention of this honour in "New Scientist"—and John Cleese's response to the honour.

An asteroid, 9618 Johncleese, is named in his honour.

Cleese declined a CBE (Commander of The British Empire) in 1996.

There is a municipal rubbish heap of in altitude that has been named Mt Cleese at the Awapuni landfill just outside Palmerston North after he dubbed the city "suicide capital of New Zealand".

"The Universal Language" skit from All in the Timing, a collection of short plays by David Ives, centres around a fictional language (Unamunda) in which the word for the English language is "johncleese".

Bibliography

The Rectorial Address of John Cleese, Epam, 1971, 8 pages

Foreword for Time and the Soul, Jacob Needleman, 2003  ISBN 1-57675-251-8 (paperback)

The Human Face (with Brian Bates) (DK Publishing Inc., 2001, ISBN 978-0-7894-7836-8)

Cleese Encounters: The Unauthorized Biography of Monty Python Veteran John Cleese, Jonathan Margolis, St. Martin's Press, 1992, ISBN 0-312-08162-6

Scripts

The Strange Case of the End of Civilisation As We Know It, w/Jack Hobbs & Joseph McGrath, 1977  ISBN 0-352-30109-0

Fawlty Towers, w/Connie Booth, 1977 (The Builders, The Hotel Inspectors, Gourmet Night)   ISBN 0-86007-598-2

Fawlty Towers: Book 2, w/Connie Booth, 1979 (The Wedding Party, A Touch of Class, The Germans)

The Golden Skits of Wing Commander Muriel Volestrangler FRHS & Bar, 1984  ISBN 0-413-41560-0

The Complete Fawlty Towers, w/Connie Booth, 1988  ISBN 0-413-18390-4 (hardcover), ISBN 0-679-72127-4 (paperback)

A Fish Called Wanda: The Screenplay, w/Charles Crichton, 1988  ISBN 1-55783-033-9

Fawlty's Hotel: Sämtliche Stücke, w/Connie Booth, (The Complete Fawlty Towers in German), Haffmans Verlag AG Zürich, 1995

Dialogues

Families and How to Survive Them, w/A.Robin Skynner, 1983  ISBN 0-413-52640-2 (hardc.), ISBN 0-19-520466-2 (p/back)

Life and How to Survive It, w/A.Robin Skynner 1993  ISBN 0-413-66030-3 (hardcover), ISBN 0-393-31472-3 (paperback)

See also

Declining a British honour

References

External links

Official Podcast

John Cleeseat the Museum of Broadcast Communications

John Cleese at the BBC Guide to Comedy

Podcast to celebrate The Life of Brian (March 2008)

Daily Llama: John Cleese Visits Lemurs at San Francisco Zoo

Category:Alumni of Downing College, Cambridge Category:BAFTA winners (people) Category:Best Actor BAFTA Award winners Category:English expatriates in the United States Category:Cornell University faculty Category:Emmy Award winners Category:English comedians Category:English comedy writers Category:English film actors Category:English musical theatre actors Category:English radio actors Category:English radio writers Category:English stage actors Category:English television actors Category:English television personalities Category:English television writers Category:English vegetarians Category:English voice actors Category:Monty Python members Category:Old Cliftonians Category:People from Weston-super-Mare Category:Rectors of the University of St Andrews Category:1939 births Category:Living people