Eleanor Bron (born 14 March 1938) is an English stage, film and television actress and author.

Early life and family

Bron was born in 1938 in Stanmore, Middlesex, to a Jewish family of Eastern European origin. Before her birth, her father Sidney had legally shortened the surname from Bronstein to Bron as an effort to enhance his newly-founded commercial enterprise, Bron's Orchestral Service. Her brother Gerry explained the change simply: "Bronstein's Orchestral Service was a bit of a mouthful."

She attended North London Collegiate School and Newnham College, Cambridge: the latter she would later characterize as "three years of unparalleled pampering and privilege."

Bron was the longtime partner of noted architect Cedric Price until his death in 2003; they had no children. Her elder brother is record producer Gerry Bron.

Career

Early work

Bron began her career in the Cambridge Footlights revue of 1959, entitled ''The Last Laugh'', in which Peter Cook also appeared. The addition of a female performer to the Footlights was a departure, having been until that point all-male, with female characters portrayed in drag.

Film appearances

Her film appearances include the role of Ahme in the Beatles film, ''Help!'' (her given name inspired Paul McCartney while composing "Eleanor Rigby"). Other roles included the doctor who grounds the Lothario played by Michael Caine in ''Alfie'', the unattainable Margaret Spencer in Peter Cook and Dudley Moore's film ''Bedazzled'', and Hermione Roddice in Ken Russell's ''Women in Love''.

She appeared in the film ''Two for the Road'' alongside Albert Finney, Audrey Hepburn and William Daniels. More recently she has appeared in the film adaptations of ''A Little Princess'', ''The House of Mirth'', ''Black Beauty'' and in ''Wimbledon''.

Television work

Eleanor Bron's earliest work for television included appearances on David Frost's ''Not So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life'', ''My Father Knew Lloyd George'' and ''BBC-3'', where she performed in sketches with John Fortune; they had already worked together at Peter Cook's Establishment Club. Later, her work included such programmes as ''Where Was Spring?'' (1969) and ''After That, This'' (1975) – the one with the "egg" timer in the opening credits.

She collaborated with novelist and playwright Michael Frayn on the BBC programmes ''Beyond a Joke'' (1972) and ''Making Faces'' (1975).)

She appeared in a 1982 episode ("Equal Opportunities") of the BBC series ''Yes Minister'', playing a senior civil servant in Jim Hacker's Department. Hacker plans to promote her — ostensibly to strike a blow for women's rights — only to be sorely disappointed.

Bron appeared in a brief scene in the BBC science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'' serial ''City of Death'' (1979) alongside John Cleese as art critics in Denise Rene's art gallery in Paris. The pair are admiring the TARDIS, thinking it to be a piece of art, when the Doctor (Tom Baker), Romana (Lalla Ward) and Duggan (Tom Chadbon) rush into it and it dematerialises. Bron's character, believing this to be part of the work, states that it is "Exquisite, absolutely exquisite!" Later, she had a more substantial guest role in another ''Doctor Who'' television serial, ''Revelation of the Daleks'' (1985). Bron also appeared in a ''Doctor Who'' radio drama, ''Loups-Garoux'' (2001), in which she played the wealthy heiress Ileana de Santos.

Bron played an art critic again in 1990, appearing on the BBC sketch comedy show ''French and Saunders'' in a parody of an Andy Warhol documentary. Later she made frequent appearances on Jennifer Saunders' television series ''Absolutely Fabulous'' (1992–1996). Bron played, via flashback, the recurring character of Patsy's mother, an exuberantly horrible woman who "scattered bastard babies across Europe like a garden sprinkler". After giving birth, she would always say "''Now take it away!'' And bring me another lover."

Stage appearances

In 1975 she appeared in the West End musical ''The Card''. Throughout the 1980s she appeared in Amnesty International's ''Secret Policeman's Balls'' live benefit shows, working alongside Peter Cook and Rowan Atkinson. In 2005 she appeared in the Liverpool Empire Theatre in the musical play ''Twopence To Cross The Mersey''. She appeared in the role of an abbess in Howard Brenton's play ''In Extremis'', staged in Shakespeare's Globe in 2007. She also appeared in the dramatized version of Pedro Almodovar's film ''All About My Mother'' which opened at the Old Vic theatre in the late summer of 2007.

Bron also gave the premiere performance of ''The Yellow Cake Revue'' (1980), a series of pieces for voice and piano written by Peter Maxwell Davies in protest against uranium mining in the Orkney Islands.

Recent work

In 1985, Bron was selected for her authoritative tone to become "the voice of BT" and can still be heard on various error messages such as "Please hang up and try again" and "The number you have dialled has not been recognised".

In 2001 and 2002 she has appeared in the BBC radio comedy sketch show, ''The Right Time'', along with Graeme Garden, Paula Wilcox, Clive Swift and Neil Innes. Another notable radio appearance was in ''The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes'' in the 2002 episode "The Madness of Colonel Warburton". In 2001 she played the great-grandmother in the seven-part ITV series ''Gypsy Girl'', based on books by Elizabeth Arnold.

In 2006 she narrated the BBC Radio 4 adaptation of the Craig Brown book ''1966 and All That''. Other work includes a recorded tour of Sir John Soane's Museum in London, England.

In April 2010, Bron, along with Ian McKellen and Brian Cox, appeared in a series of TV advertisements to support Age UK, the charity recently formed from the merger of Age Concern and Help the Aged. All three actors gave their time free of charge.

Writer

She is the author of several books, including ''Life and Other Punctures'', an account of bicycling in France and Holland on an early Moulton bicycle; and ''Cedric Price Retriever'', an inventory of the contents of the bookshelves of her partner, the architect Cedric Price.

Publications

Cultural influences

She is mentioned in the Yo La Tengo song "Tom Courtenay", in the line "''dreaming 'bout Eleanor Bron, in my room with the curtains drawn...''".

References

External links

Category:Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge Category:English actors Category:English Jews Category:English satirists Category:Jewish actors Category:Old North Londoners Category:People from Stanmore Category:1938 births Category:Living people

de:Eleanor Bron es:Eleanor Bron fr:Eleanor Bron gl:Eleanor Bron

Coordinates	51°02′17″N31°53′10″N
name	John Cleese
birth name	John Marwood Cleese
birth date	October 27, 1939
birth place	Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, England
nationality	British
medium	Film, television, radio,stand-up
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 }}

Lord John Marwood Cleese, Baron 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 and performer 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. 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!'' He graduated from Cambridge in 1963 with a 2:1 classification in his degree. Despite his successes on The Frost Report, his father would send him cuttings from the ''Daily Telegraph'' offering management jobs in places like Marks and Spencer.

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'', which was so successful during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe that it was renamed ''Cambridge Circus'' and taken to the West End in London and then on a tour of New Zealand and Broadway, with the cast also appearing in some of the revue's sketches on ''The Ed Sullivan Show'' in September 1964.

After ''Cambridge Circus'', Cleese briefly stayed in America, performing on and Off-Broadway. While performing in the musical ''Half a Sixpence'', Cleese met future Python Terry Gilliam, as well as American actress Connie Booth, whom he married on 20 February 1968.

He was soon offered work as a writer with BBC Radio, where he worked on several programmes, most notably as a sketch writer for ''The Dick Emery Show''. The success of the Footlights Revue led to the recording of a short series of half-hour radio programmes, called ''I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again'', which were so popular that the BBC commissioned a regular series with the same title which ran from 1965 to 1974. Cleese returned to England and joined the cast. In many episodes, he is credited as "John Otto Cleese".

Also in 1965, Cleese and Chapman began writing on ''The Frost Report''. The writing staff chosen for ''The Frost Report'' consisted of a number of writers and performers who would go on to make names for themselves in comedy. They included co-performers from ''I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again'' and future Goodies Bill Oddie and Tim Brooke-Taylor, and also Frank Muir, Barry Cryer, Marty Feldman, Ronnie Barker, Ronnie Corbett, Dick Vosburgh and future Python members Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin. It was while working on ''The Frost Report'', in fact, that the future Pythons developed the writing styles that would make their collaboration significant. Cleese and Chapman's sketches often involved authority figures, some of which were performed by Cleese, while Jones and Palin were both infatuated with filmed scenes that open with idyllic countryside panoramas. Idle was one of those charged with writing David Frost's monologue. It was during this period that Cleese met and befriended influential British comedian Peter Cook.

It was as an actual performer on the Frost Report that Cleese achieved his breakthrough on British television as a comedy actor, appearing as the tall, patrician figure on the classic class sketch, contrasting comically in a line-up with the shorter, middle-class Ronnie Barker and the shortest, working-class Ronnie Corbett. Such was the popularity of the series that in 1966 Cleese and Chapman were invited to work as writers and performers with Brooke-Taylor and Feldman on ''At Last the 1948 Show'', during which time the ''Four Yorkshiremen sketch'' was written by all four writers/performers (the Four Yorkshiremen sketch is now better known as a Monty Python sketch). Cleese and 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", although in its premiere in the sketch "Man with Three Buttocks", the phrase was spoken by Eric Idle.

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. 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'' three 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.

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 death. Chapman's death occurred a 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 ''James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing'', 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, the name of the Torquay Hotel owner that Cleese had based the character of Basil Fawlty.

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 ''Superman: True Brit''. 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 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 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 Palmerston North, New Zealand.

In October 2010 Cleese was featured in the launch of an advertising campaign by The Automobile Association for a new home emergency response product. Cleese appeared as a man who believed the AA couldn't help him during a series of disasters, including water pouring through his ceiling, with the line, “The AA? For faulty showers?”

Personal life

1960s to 1980s

Cleese met Connie Booth in the US during the late 1960s and the couple married in 1968. In 1971, Booth gave birth to Cynthia Cleese, their only child. With Booth, Cleese wrote the scripts for and co-starred in both series of the TV series ''Fawlty Towers'', even though the two were actually divorced before the second series was finished and aired. Cleese and Booth are said to have remained close friends since.

Cleese married American actress Barbara Trentham in 1981. Their daughter Camilla, Cleese's second child, was born in 1984. He and Trentham divorced in 1990. During this time, 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".

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. In this same show, he revealed that he is no longer a vegetarian, as he claimed to have enjoyed eating dog in Hong Kong.

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.

Cleese has a passion for lemurs. Following the 1997 comedy film ''Fierce Creatures'', in which the ring-tailed lemur played a key role, he hosted the 1998 BBC documentary ''In the Wild: Operation Lemur with John Cleese'', which tracked the progress of a reintroduction of Black-and-white Ruffed Lemurs back into the Betampona Reserve in Madagascar. The project had been partly funded by Cleese's donation of the proceeds from the London premier of ''Fierce Creatures''. Cleese is quoted as saying, "I adore lemurs. They're extremely gentle, well-mannered, pretty and yet great fun... I should have married one."

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."

In April 2011, Cleese revealed that he had declined a life peerage for political services in 1999. Outgoing leader of the Liberal Democrats, Paddy Ashdown, had put forward the suggestion shortly before he stepped down, with the idea that Cleese would take the party whip and sit as a working peer, but the actor quipped that he "realised this involved being in England in the winter and I thought that was too much of a price to pay."

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 "Passer-by" 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''.

''Wednesday 9:30 (8:30 Central)'' (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)

''Ronnie Corbett's Comedy Britain'' as Himself

Filmography

+ Films
! Year	! Title	! Role	Notes
1968		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		Langston	His first line, as he walks into a bar tobreak up a brawl, is, "What's all this, then?")
1986		Mr. Stimpson
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	''An American Tail: Fievel Goes West''	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		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		Donald P. Sinclair
2001		"Nearly Headless Nick"
2002		"Nearly Headless Nick"	Nominated—Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Ensemble Acting
2002		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	''Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle''	Mr. Munday
2003		Charles Merchant
2003	''George of the Jungle 2''	An Ape Named 'Ape'	Voice Only
2004	''Shrek 2''	King Harold	Voice Only
2004		Grizzled Sergeant
2005		Mercury	Voice Only
2006		Samuel the Sheep	Voice Only
2006		Dr. Primkin
2007	''Shrek the Third''	King Harold	Voice Only
2008		Dr. Glickenstein	Voice Only
2008	''''	Dr. Barnhardt
2009	''''	Inspector Charles Dreyfus
2009	''Planet 51''	Professor Kipple	Voice Only
2010		The Guv	Awaiting international release
2010	''Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole''	Ghost	Voice Only
2010	''Shrek Forever After''	King Harold	Voice Only
2011	''Happy Feet 2''	Himself	Voice Onlypost-production
2011		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

''James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing'' (2004) Electronic Arts

''Trivial Pursuit: Unhinged'' (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".

The post-hardcore rock band, I Set My Friends On Fire, has a song on their You Can't Spell Slaughter Without Laughter album entitled "Reese's Pieces, I Don't Know Who John Cleese Is?".

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 Cleese at 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

On-line video interview for Czech TV (24. 7. 2011)

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 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

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Coordinates	51°02′17″N31°53′10″N
name	Sir Ian McKellen
birth name	Ian Murray McKellen
birth date	May 25, 1939
birth place	Burnley, Lancashire, England
occupation	Actor
years active	1959–present
partner	Brian Taylor (1964–1972)Sean Mathias (1978–1988)
website	http://www.mckellen.com/ }}

Sir Ian Murray McKellen, CH, CBE (born 25 May 1939) is an English actor. He has received a Tony Award, two Academy Award nominations, and five Emmy Award nominations. His work has spanned genres from Shakespearean and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction. He is known to many for roles such as Sir Leigh Teabing in ''The Da Vinci Code'', Gandalf in the ''Lord of the Rings'' film trilogy and as Magneto in the ''X-Men'' films.

In 1988, McKellen came out and announced he was gay. He became a founding member of Stonewall, one of the United Kingdom's most influential LGBT rights groups, of which he remains a prominent spokesman. McKellen was knighted in 1991 for services to the performing arts.

Early life

McKellen was born in Burnley, Lancashire, England, though he spent most of his early life in Wigan. Born shortly before the outbreak of World War II, the experience had some lasting impact on him. In response to an interview question when an interviewer remarked that he seemed quite calm in the aftermath of the 11 September attacks, he said: "Well, darling, you forget — I slept under a steel plate until I was four years old."

McKellen's father, Denis Murray McKellen, a civil engineer, was a lay preacher, and both of his grandfathers were preachers. At the time of Ian's birth, his parents already had a five-year-old daughter, Jean. His home environment was strongly Christian, but non-orthodox. "My upbringing was of low nonconformist Christians who felt that you led the Christian life in part by behaving in a Christian manner to everybody you met." When he was 12, his mother, Margery Lois (''née'' Sutcliffe), died; his father died when he was 24. When he came out of the closet to his stepmother, Gladys McKellen, who was a member of the Religious Society of Friends: "Not only was she not fazed, but as a member of a society which declared its indifference to people's sexuality years back, I think she was just glad for my sake that I wasn't lying anymore."

McKellen attended Bolton School (boys division), of which he is still a supporter, attending regularly to talk to pupils. McKellen's acting career started at Bolton Little Theatre, of which he is now the patron. An early fascination with the theatre was encouraged by his parents, who took him on a family outing to ''Peter Pan'' at the Manchester Opera House when he was three. When he was nine, his main Christmas present was a wood and bakelite, fold-away Victorian Theatre from Pollocks Toy Theatres, with cardboard scenery and wires to push on the cut-outs of Cinderella and of Laurence Olivier's Hamlet. His sister took him to his first Shakespeare play, ''Twelfth Night'', by the amateurs of Wigan's Little Theatre, shortly followed by their ''Macbeth'' and Wigan High School for Girls' production of ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' with music by Mendelssohn and with the role of Bottom played by Jean McKellen. (Jean continued to act, direct, and produce amateur theatre up to her death.)

He won a scholarship to St Catharine's College, Cambridge, when he was eighteen, where he developed an attraction to Derek Jacobi. He has characterised it as "a passion that was undeclared and unrequited".

Career

Theatre

While at Cambridge McKellen was a member of the Marlowe Society, appearing in ''Henry IV'' (as Shallow) alongside Trevor Nunn and Jacobi (March 1959), ''Cymbeline'' (as Posthumus, opposite Margaret Drabble as Imogen) and ''Doctor Faustus''. His first professional appearance was in 1961 at the Nottingham Playhouse, as Roper in ''A Man for All Seasons'', although an audio recording of the Marlowe Society's ''Cymbeline'' had gone on commercial sale as part of the Argo Shakespeare series. After four years in regional repertory theatres he made his first West End appearance, in ''A Scent of Flowers'', regarded as a "notable success". In 1965 he was a member of Laurence Olivier's National Theatre Company at the Old Vic, which led to rôles at the Chichester Festival. In the 1970s and 1980s McKellen became a well-known figure in British theatre, performing frequently at the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal National Theatre, where he played several leading Shakespearean roles, including the titular part in ''Macbeth'' (which he had first assayed for Trevor Nunn in a "gripping...out of the ordinary" production, with Judi Dench, at Stratford in 1976), and Iago in ''Othello'', in award-winning productions directed by Nunn. Both of these productions were adapted into TV films, also directed by Nunn.

In 2007 he returned to the Royal Shakespeare Company, in productions of ''King Lear'' and ''The Seagull'', both directed by Trevor Nunn. In 2009 he appeared in a very popular revival of ''Waiting for Godot'' at London's Haymarket Theatre, directed by Sean Mathias and playing opposite Patrick Stewart.

Sir Ian is also President and Patron of the Little Theatre Guild of Great Britain, an association of amateur theatre organisations throughout the UK.

Popular success

McKellen had taken film roles throughout his career — beginning in 1969 with his role of George Matthews in ''A Touch of Love'', but it was not until the 1990s that he became more widely recognised in this medium, through several roles in blockbuster Hollywood movies.

In 1993, McKellen had a supporting role as a South African tycoon in the critically acclaimed ''Six Degrees of Separation'', in which he starred with Stockard Channing, Donald Sutherland, and Will Smith. In the same year, he appeared in minor roles in the television miniseries ''Tales of the City'' (based on the novel by his friend Armistead Maupin) and the film ''Last Action Hero'', in which he played Death. The same year, McKellen appeared in the TV movie ''And the Band Played On'', about the discovery of the AIDS virus, for which McKellen won a CableACE Award for Supporting Actor in a Movie or Miniseries and was nominated for the Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie.

In 1995, he played the title role in the critical hit ''Richard III'', which transported the setting into an alternative 1930s wherein England is ruled by Fascists. McKellen co-produced and co-wrote the film, adapting the play for the screen based on a stage production of Shakespeare's play directed by Richard Eyre for the Royal National Theatre, in which McKellen had appeared. In McKellen's role as executive producer he returned his £50,000 fee in order to complete the filming of the final battle. In his review of the film, Hal Hinson of ''The Washington Post'', called McKellen's performance a "lethally flamboyant incarnation" and said his "florid mastery ... dominates everything". His performance in the title role garnered best actor nominations for the BAFTA Award and Golden Globe, and won the European Film Award for Best Actor. His screenplay was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

His breakthrough role among mainstream American audiences came with the modestly acclaimed ''Apt Pupil'', based on a story by Stephen King. McKellen portrayed an old Nazi officer, living under a false name in the U.S., who was befriended by a curious teenager (Brad Renfro) who threatened to expose him unless he told his story in detail. His casting was based partly on his performance in ''Cold Comfort Farm'', seen by ''Apt Pupil'' director Bryan Singer, despite the BBC's refusal to release it in cinemas. He was subsequently nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in the 1998 film ''Gods and Monsters'', wherein he played James Whale, the director of ''Show Boat'' (1936) and ''Frankenstein''.

He reteamed with Bryan Singer to play the comic book character Magneto in ''X-Men'' and its sequels ''X2: X-Men United'' and ''X-Men: The Last Stand''. It was while filming ''X-Men'' that he was cast as the wizard Gandalf in Peter Jackson's three-film adaptation of ''The Lord of the Rings'' (consisting of ''The Fellowship of the Ring'', ''The Two Towers'', and ''The Return of the King''). McKellen received honors from the Screen Actors Guild for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture for his work in ''The Fellowship of the Ring'' and was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the same role. He also voiced Gandalf in the video game adaptions of the film trilogy as well as in ''The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age''. On January 10, 2011 it was officially confirmed that Mckellen would reprise the role of Gandalf in the film adaptation of ''The Hobbit''. On 16 March 2002, he was the host on ''Saturday Night Live''. In 2003, McKellen made a guest appearance as himself on the American cartoon show ''The Simpsons'', in a special British-themed episode entitled "The Regina Monologues", along with Tony Blair and J. K. Rowling. In April and May 2005, he played the role of Mel Hutchwright in Granada Television's long running soap opera, ''Coronation Street'', fulfilling a lifelong ambition. He is also known for his voicework, having narrated Richard Bell's film ''Eighteen'', as a grandfather who leaves his World War II memoirs on audiocassette for his teenage grandson.

McKellen has appeared in limited release films, such as ''Emile'' (which was shot in a few days during the ''X2'' shoot), ''Neverwas'' and ''Asylum''. He appeared as Sir Leigh Teabing in ''The Da Vinci Code.'' During a 17 May 2006 interview on ''The Today Show'' with the ''Da Vinci Code'' cast and director, Matt Lauer posed a question to the group about how they would have felt if the film had borne a prominent disclaimer that it is a work of fiction, as some religious groups wanted. McKellen responded, "I've often thought the Bible should have a disclaimer in the front saying 'This is fiction.' I mean, walking on water? It takes... an act of faith. And I have faith in this movie — not that it's true, not that it's factual, but that it's a jolly good story." He continued, "And I think audiences are clever enough and bright enough to separate out fact and fiction, and discuss the thing when they've seen it". McKellen appeared in the 2006 series of Ricky Gervais' comedy series ''Extras'', where he played himself directing Gervais' character Andy Millman in a play about gay lovers. McKellen received a 2007 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor - Comedy Series nomination for his performance. He also appeared in the 2009 remake of the 1967 The Prisoner, where he played the character Number Two.

Personal life

McKellen and his first serious partner, Brian Taylor, a history teacher from Bolton, began their relationship in 1964. It lasted for eight years, ending in 1972. They lived in London, where McKellen continued to pursue his career as an actor. For over a decade, he has lived in a five-story Victorian conversion in Narrow Street, Limehouse. In 1978 he met his second partner, Sean Mathias, at the Edinburgh Festival. This relationship lasted till 1988. According to Mathias, the ten-year love affair was tempestuous, with conflicts over McKellen's success in acting versus Mathias' somewhat less-successful career.

A friend of Ian Charleson and a great admirer of his work, McKellen contributed a chapter to the 1990 book, ''For Ian Charleson: A Tribute''.

In the late 1980s, McKellen lost his appetite for meat except for fish, and so mostly excludes it from his diet.

Activism

LGBT rights campaigning

While McKellen had made his sexual orientation known to his fellow actors early on in his stage career, it was not until 1988 that he came out to the general public, in a programme on BBC Radio 3. The context that prompted McKellen's decision — overriding any concerns about a possible negative effect on his career — was that the controversial Section 28 of the Local Government Bill, simply known as Section 28 was under consideration in the British Parliament. McKellen has stated that he was influenced in his decision by the advice and support of his friends, among them noted gay author Armistead Maupin.

In 2003, during an appearance on ''Have I Got News For You'', McKellen claimed that when he visited Michael Howard, then Environment Secretary (responsible for local government), in 1988 to lobby against Section 28, Howard refused to change his position but did ask him to leave an autograph for his children. McKellen agreed, but wrote "Fuck off, I'm gay." McKellen also described Howard's junior ministers, the Conservatives David Wilshire and Dame Jill Knight, who were the architects of Section 28, as the 'ugly sisters' of a political pantomime.

Section 28, which proposed to prohibit local authorities from "promoting homosexuality" 'as a kind of pretended family relationship', was ambiguous and the actual impact of the amendment was uncertain. McKellen became active in fighting the proposed law, and declared himself gay on a BBC Radio programme where he debated the subject of Section 28 with the conservative journalist Peregrine Worsthorne. He has said of this period: "My own participating in that campaign was a focus for people [to] take comfort that if Ian McKellen was on board for this, perhaps it would be all right for other people to be as well, gay and straight". Section 28 was, however, enacted and remained on the statute books until 2003.

McKellen has continued to be very active in LGBT rights efforts. In a statement on his website regarding his activism, the actor commented that: }}

McKellen is a co-founder of Stonewall, a LGB rights lobby group in the United Kingdom, named after the Stonewall riots. McKellen is also Patron of LGBT History Month, Pride London, GAY-GLOS and The Lesbian & Gay Foundation. and FFLAG where he appears in their video Parents Talking.

In 1994, at the closing ceremony of the Gay Games, he briefly took the stage to address the crowd, saying, "I'm Sir Ian McKellen, but you can call me Serena" (This nickname, originally given to him by Stephen Fry, had been circulating within the gay community since McKellen's knighthood was conferred). In 2002, he attended the Academy Awards with his then-boyfriend, New Zealander Nick Cuthell — possibly a first for a major nominee since Nigel Hawthorne, the first openly gay performer to be nominated for an Academy Award, who attended the ceremonies with his partner, Trevor Bentham, in 1995.

In 2006, McKellen spoke at the pre-launch of the 2007 LGBT History Month in the UK, lending his support to the organisation and its founder, Sue Sanders. In 2007 McKellen became a patron of The Albert Kennedy Trust, an organisation that provides support to young, homeless and troubled LGBT people.

In 2006, McKellen became a Patron of Oxford Pride. At the time he said:

}}

McKellen has taken his activism internationally, where it caused a major stir in Singapore. Invited to do an interview on a morning show, he shocked the interviewer by asking if they could recommend him a gay bar. The program immediately ended. In December 2008, he was named in ''Out'''s annual Out 100 list.

In May 2011, McKellen called Sergey Sobyanin, the Mayor of Moscow, a "coward" when he refused to allow gay parades in the city.

Charity work

In April 2010, along with Brian Cox and Eleanor Bron, appeared in a series of TV advertisements to support Age UK, the charity recently formed from the merger of Age Concern and Help the Aged. All three actors gave their time free of charge.

Selected stage and screen credits

Stage

''Much Ado About Nothing'', Royal National Theatre, Old Vic, London, 1965

''Trelawny of the 'Wells''', National Theatre, London & Chichester Festival, 1965

''The Promise'', West End; Broadway, 1967

''Edward II'' (in title role), Edinburgh Festival & West End, 1969

''Hamlet'' (title role), UK/European Tour, 1971

'''Tis Pity She's a Whore'', UK Tour, 1972

''Dr Faustus'' (title role), Royal Shakespeare Company, Edinburgh Festival & Aldwych Theatre (London), 1974

''King John'', RSC, 1975

''Romeo and Juliet'' (as Romeo), RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon & London, 1976

''The Winter's Tale'', RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon, 1976

''Macbeth'' (title role), RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon & Young Vic (London), 1976–1977

''The Alchemist'', RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon & London, 1977

''Every Good Boy Deserves Favour'', RSC, Barbican Arts Centre (London), 1977

''Three Sisters'', RSC, UK Tour, 1978

''Bent'', (as Max) Royal Court and Criterion, London, 1979

''Amadeus'' (as Salieri), Broadway, 1980

''Coriolanus'' (title role), National Theatre, 1984

''Wild Honey'', National Theatre, 1984 (& Broadway, 1986)

''The Cherry Orchard'' (as Lopakhin), National Theatre, 1985

''The Duchess of Malfi'', National Theatre, 1985

''The Real Inspector Hound'', National Theatre, London & Paris, 1985

''Othello'' (as Iago), RSC, London & Stratford-upon-Avon, 1989

''Richard III'' (title role), National Theatre, world tour, 1990 & US tour, 1992

''Uncle Vanya'' (title role), National Theatre, 1992

''Peter Pan'' (as Mr. Darling/Captain Hook), National Theatre, 1997

''An Enemy of the People'', National Theatre, 1997 & Ahmanson Theatre (Los Angeles), 1998

''Present Laughter'', West Yorkshire Playhouse (Leeds, England), 1998

''Dance of Death'', at the Broadhurst Theatre (New York) in 2001. At the Lyric Theatre (London, England) in 2003

''Aladdin'', (as Widow Twankie) Old Vic, 2004 & 2005

''The Cut'', Donmar Warehouse, 2006

''King Lear'' by ''William Shakespeare'', (as Lear), Courtyard Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, 2007; New Zealand, 2007; New York (Brooklyn Academy of Music), 2007, Minneapolis, 2007, New London Theatre (West End), 2007–8

''The Seagull'' by ''Anton Chekhov'', (as Sorin), Courtyard Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, 2007; New York (Brooklyn Academy of Music), 2007 Minneapolis, 2007, New London Theatre (West End), 2007–8

''Waiting for Godot'' by ''Samuel Beckett'', (as Estragon), Theatre Royal Haymarket, London, 2009 and 2010; Comedy Theatre, Melbourne, Australia, 2010 and Fugard Theatre, Cape Town, South Africa, 2010

''The Syndicate'' by Eduardo de Filippo, Chichester Festival, 2011

Filmography

Year	! Title	! Role	Notes
1966			(TV)
		Leonidik
	Roger
	George Matthews
	''Priest of Love''	Lawrence
	Narrator
		Paul Chauvelin
	Walter
1983		Dr. Theodore Cuza
		Sir Andrew Charleson
	Arthur Kronfeld
1989		John Profumo
		Geoffrey Miller
''The Ballad of Little Jo''	Percy Corcoran
''Last Action Hero''	Death	(cameo appearance)
	Bill Kraus	CableACE Awards
		Quilt Documentary Narrator	(voice)
	Dr. Reinhardt Lane
''[[I'll Do Anything''	John Earl McAlpine
		Will Gates
		European Film Awards
''[[Jack and Sarah''	William
1996	''Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny''	Nicholas II
	''Swept from the Sea''	Dr. James Kennedy
	Uncle Freddie
		Kurt Dussander	Saturn Award for Best Supporting ActorBroadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor (also for ''Gods and Monsters'')Florida Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor (also for ''Gods and Monsters'')
''Gods and Monsters''	James Whale	British Independent Film Award for Best ActorBroadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor (also for ''Apt Pupil'')Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best ActorChlotrudis Award for Best ActorFlorida Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor (also for ''Apt Pupil'')Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead MaleKansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best ActorLos Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best ActorNational Board of Review Award for Best ActorOnline Film Critics Society Award for Best ActorSan Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best ActorSan Sebastián International Film Festival Award for Best ActorToronto Film Critics Association Award for Best ActorNominated—Academy Award for Best ActorNominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture DramaNominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading RoleNominated—Satellite Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
1999		Mr. Creakle	(TV)
2000
2001	''The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring''		Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best CastSaturn Award for Best Supporting ActorScreen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting RoleNominated—Academy Award for Best Supporting ActorNominated—BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading RoleNominated—Empire Awards
	2002	''[[The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers''	Gandalf the White
	''The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King''	Gandalf the White
	Emile	Nominated—Genie Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
''The Simpsons''	Himself	The Regina Monologues episode
2004		Jason Anders (in voice)
	''Neverwas''	Gabriel Finch
	Dr. Peter Cleave
	Zebedee	(voice)
''Coronation Street''	Mel Hutchwright	(10 episodes)
		Ian McKellen	Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series
''Flushed Away''	The Toad
''X-Men: The Last Stand''		Nominated—Irish Film & Television Award for Best International ActorNominated—Teen Choice Awards for Movies – Choice Sleazebag (also for ''The Da Vinci Code'')
	Sir Leigh Teabing
		Narrator	(voice)
	Iorek Byrnison	(voice)
2008		King Lear
2009
2012		Gandalf the Grey	Filming
2013		Gandalf the Grey	Filming

Music

Vampire in the music video "Heart" by Pet Shop Boys

The man who's "falling out of reach" in the music video "Falling Out of Reach" by Guillemots

Appears on the Scissor Sisters track "Invisible Light", from their 2010 album "Night Work", reciting a passage regarding the "Invisible Light" of the title.

Audiobooks

Audiobook narrator of Michelle Paver's ''Chronicles of Ancient Darkness'' series ''Wolf Brother'', ''Spirit Walker'', ''Soul Eater'', ''Outcast'', "Oath Breaker", "Ghost Hunter"

Other work

A recording of McKellen's voice is heard before performances at the Royal Festival Hall, reminding patrons to ensure their mobile phones and watch alarms are switched off, and to keep coughing to a minimum.

Awards and honours

Honours

He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1979, and knighted in 1991 New Year Honours for his outstanding work and contributions to theatre. In the 2008 New Year Honours he was made a Companion of Honour (CH) for services to drama and to equality.

Honourary degrees

In 2004 McKellen was conferred an honourary Doctor of Letters by Lancaster University. He was praised for his diversity of roles, his "deeply considered dramatic technique" and his Lancastrian roots.

Awards

1981: New York Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play, for ''Amadeus''

1984: London Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Revival, for ''Wild Honey''

1984: London Evening Standard Award for Best Actor, for ''Coriolanus''

1989: London Evening Standard Award for Best Actor, for ''Othello''

1990: London Olivier Award for Best Actor, for ''Richard III''

1998: Back Stage West Garland Awards, for his one-man show ''A Knight Out in Los Angeles''

2004: Manila, Philippines Pride International Film Festival's Lifetime Achievement & Distinction Award''

2007: Annie Award for Best Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production, for ''Flushed Away''

In May 2007, he was named, by the Independent on Sunday Pink List, the fifth most influential gay person in Britain, down from the 1st place the previous year. 2009: San Sebastián International Film Festival Donostia Award in recognition of an extensive professional career. 2010: Empire Awards 2010: Empire Icon Award

References

External links

McKellen's home page

Interviews, blogs and clips

Good Morning (TVNZ) interview with McKellen - Waiting for Godot/The Hobbit

Interview and photoshoot factory-publishing.com

McKellen's personal pages on the Lord of the Rings movie, with a diary and answers to questions by fans

Interview at www.sci-fi-online.com

Podcast interview

Interview at AfterElton.com

Extended BBC interviews with McKellen as he prepares to play King Lear

"A conversation with Sir Ian": Interactive video interview with McKellen on Shakespeare, Richard III and Richard's opening speech

Emma Brockes, ''Every inch a king'' (interview) ''The Guardian'', November 2007

Ian McKellen: A Free Man The Telegraph, 15 December 2008

Category:2012 Summer Olympics cultural ambassadors Category:Actors awarded British knighthoods Category:Alumni of St Catharine's College, Cambridge Category:American Theatre Hall of Fame inductees Category:Annie Award winners Category:European Film Awards winners (people) Category:Back Stage West Garland Award recipients Category:Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe (television) winners Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Category:Drama Desk Award winners Category:English atheists Category:English film actors Category:English stage actors Category:English video game actors Category:English voice actors Category:Evening Standard Award for Best Actor Category:Gay actors Category:Independent Spirit Award winners Category:Knights Bachelor Category:LGBT people from England Category:LGBT rights activists from the United Kingdom Category:Members of the Order of the Companions of Honour Category:Old Boltonians Category:Olivier Award winners Category:Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Screen Actors Guild Award winners Category:People from Burnley Category:People from Wigan Category:Royal National Theatre Company members Category:Royal Shakespeare Company members Category:Shakespearean actors Category:Tony Award winners Category:Audio book narrators Category:1939 births Category:Living people Category:GLAAD Media Awards winners

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Coordinates	51°02′17″N31°53′10″N
name	Simon Gray
birth name	Simon James Holliday Gray
birth date	October 21, 1936
birth place	Hayling Island, Hampshire, England
death date	August 06, 2008
death place	London
occupation	Playwright, screenwriter, memoirist, novelistacademic (1965–1985)
nationality	English
education	Westminster School
alma mater	Dalhousie University (B.A., 1967) and Trinity College, Cambridge (B.A., 1971)
period	1963–2008
genre	Drama, screenplay, memoir, novel
notableworks	''Butley'', ''Quartermaine's Terms'', ''Otherwise Engaged'', ''The Smoking Diaries''
spouse	Beryl Kevern Gray (1965–1997)Victoria Katherine Rothschild Gray (1997–2008)
children	2
website	http://www.simongray.org.uk/
portaldisp	yes }}

Simon James Holliday Gray, CBE (21 October 1936 – 7 August 2008), was an English playwright and memoirist who also had a career as a university lecturer in English literature at Queen Mary, University of London, for 20 years. While teaching at Queen Mary, Gray began his writing career as a novelist in 1963 and, during the next 45 years, in addition to 5 published novels, wrote 40 original stage plays, screenplays, and screen adaptations of his own and others' works for stage, film, and television and became well known for the self-deprecating wit characteristic of several volumes of memoirs or diaries.

Biography

Simon James Holliday Gray was born on 21 October 1936 on Hayling Island, in Hampshire, England, where his father, James, a G.P. who became a pathologist later, worked. In 1939, during World War II, when he was three years old, he was evacuated to Montreal, Canada, to live in "a house where his grandfather and [his grandfather's] alcoholic wife were attended upon by a younger aunt"; in 1945, when he was nearly 10, he returned to England, where he was educated at Westminster School, in London. In 1965, he was appointed a lecturer in English at Queen Mary College, London. In 1967, he received a B.A. from Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia; and, in 1971, another B.A. from Trinity College, Cambridge.

He married his first wife, Beryl Kevern, in 1965; they had two children, a son, Benjamin, and a daughter, Lucy, and were divorced in 1997. During their marriage, he had an eight-year affair with another Queen Mary lecturer, Victoria Katherine Rothschild (b. 1953), a daughter of Sir Nathaniel Rothschild, 3rd Baron Rothschild; in 1997, after his divorce, they married, living together in west London, until his death on 6 August 2008.

In 2004 he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to drama and literature.

Suffering from both lung cancer and prostate cancer and related ailments at the time of his death, he died of an abdominal aortic aneurysm, on 7 August 2008, at the age of 71.

Career

When he was still in his 20s, he began his writing career as a novelist with ''Colmain'', published by Faber and Faber in 1963. His career in drama began when he adapted one of his own short stories, ''The Caramel Crisis'', for television. He subsequently wrote a number of plays for, amongst others, ''The Wednesday Play'' and ''Play for Today'' BBC anthology series, frequently in collaboration with the producer Kenith Trodd. Gray wrote 40 plays and screenplays for the stage, television, and film and 8 volumes of memoirs based on his diaries.

''Wise Child'', an adaptation of a TV play deemed too shocking for the small screen, was his first stage play. It starred Simon Ward and Alec Guinness and was produced by Michael Codron at Wyndham's Theatre in 1967. Subsequently, he wrote original plays for both radio and television and adaptations, including: an TV adaptation of ''The Rector’s Daughter'', by F. M. Mayor); stage adaptations of ''Tartuffe'' and ''The Idiot''. His original television screenplays include ''Running Late'', ''After Pilkington'', ''Unnatural Pursuits'', and ''A Month in the Country''. His 1971 play ''Butley'', produced by Codron, began a long creative partnership with Harold Pinter as director (of both the play and the film versions) and continued the partnership with the actor Alan Bates begun with Gray's 1967 television play ''Death of a Teddy Bear''; Bates starred in 11 of Gray's works, while Pinter directed 10 separate productions of Gray's works for stage, film, and television, beginning with ''Butley''; the last one was a stage production of ''The Old Masters'', starring Peter Bowles and Edward Fox.

As with ''Butley'' (1971) and ''Otherwise Engaged'' (1975), whose London productions and films both starred Bates, and ''Quartermaine's Terms'' (1981), starring Fox, Gray "often returned to the subject of the lives and trials of educated intellectuals."

He wrote many other successful stage plays, including ''The Common Pursuit'', ''The Late Middle Classes'', ''Hidden Laughter'', ''Japes'', ''Close of Play'', ''The Rear Column'', and ''Little Nell'', several of which he directed himself.

In 1984, at the suggestion of Robert McCrum, Faber editor-in-chief at that time, he kept a diary of the London premiere of ''The Common Pursuit'' (directed by Pinter at the Lyric Hammersmith), resulting in the first of his 8 volumes of theatre-related and personal memoirs, ''An Unnatural Pursuit'' (Faber 1985), and culminating in the critically acclaimed trilogy entitled ''The Smoking Diaries'' (Granta, 2004–2008).

Gray's play about George Blake, ''Cell Mates'' (1995), starring Rik Mayall, Stephen Fry and Simon Ward, attracted media attention when Stephen Fry abruptly "fled to Bruges" after the third performance, thus leaving the show without its lead actor. Gray subsequently wrote his theatrical memoir ''Fat Chance'', providing a scathingly hilarious account of the episode.

In August 2008, shortly before his death, he attracted further press attention with his criticism of the Royal National Theatre's "cowardice" in dealing with the subject of radical Islam.

Posthumous tributes and related developments

Gray's final volume of diaries, ''Coda'', "so named because it rounds off the trilogy of 'Smoking Diaries' (The Smoking Diaries, The Year of the Jouncer and The Last Cigarette) … a meditation on death, or rather dying, an account of living on borrowed time," was published posthumously by Faber and Faber and Granta in November 2008. From 8 to 12 December 2008, in five 15-minute episodes, actor Toby Stephens read from this "candid and darkly comic account of coming to terms with terminal cancer" for BBC Radio 4's ''Book of the Week''.

''Simon Gray: A Celebration'', directed by Harry Burton, who directed Gray's last stage production in Spring 2008 (''Quartermaine's Terms'' at Theatre Royal, Windsor), was held at the Comedy Theatre, in London, on 15 March 2009.

A production entitled ''The Last Cigarette'', based on Gray's and Hugh Whitemore's adaptation of the three volumes of his memoirs called ''The Smoking Diaries'' and directed by Richard Eyre, is being staged at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester, England, through 11 April 2009. On 28 April 2009, after previewing from 21 April, the production, in which Felicity Kendal, Nicholas Le Prevost, and Jasper Britton all continue to "portray the playwright through the course of the play," transfers to the Trafalgar Studios, in London's West End, where it runs through 1 August 2009.

An official web site was launched in October 2009.

''The Late Middle Classes'' finally received its London premiere on 27 May 2010 at the Donmar Warehouse in London, directed by David Leveaux and starring Helen McCrory, Eleanor Bron, Peter Sullivan and Robert Glenister. The original production of the play, directed by Harold Pinter, was prevented from reaching its intended West End theatre by a musical about a boy band. Gray's experience of this production is the subject of his diary "Enter a Fox".

Plays

''Wise Child'', Wyndham's Theatre (1967)

''Dutch Uncle'', Aldwych Theatre (1969)

''The Idiot'' (adapted from Dostoyevsky), Old Vic (1970)

''Spoiled'', Haymarket Theatre (February 1971)

''Butley'', Criterion Theatre (1971)

''Otherwise Engaged'', Queen's Theatre (1975)

''Dog Days'', Oxford 1976; Eyre Methuen (1976) ISBN 0413372707

''Molly'', stage adaptation of his television play ''Death of a Teddy Bear'' (1967), based on the Francis Rattenbury 1935 murder case, Comedy Theatre (1978)

''The Rear Column'', The Globe Theatre (1978); Eyre Methuen (1978) ISBN 0413391701

''Close of Play'', National Theatre Lyttelton (1979)

''Stage Struck'', Vaudeville Theatre (1979)

''Quartermaine's Terms'', Queen's Theatre (1981)

''Tartuffe (adaptation), Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C. (1982)

''The Common Pursuit'', Lyric Hammersmith (1984)

''Melon'' (later revised as ''The Holy Terror''), Theatre Royal Haymarket (1987)

''Hidden Laughter'', Vaudeville Theatre (1990)

''The Holy Terror'', Temple of Arts Theater, Tucson, Arizona (1991)

''Cell Mates'', Albery Theatre (1995)

''Simply Disconnected'', sequel to ''Otherwise Engaged'', Minerva Theatre, Chichester (1996)

''Life Support'', Aldwych Theatre (1997)

''Just the Three of Us'', Yvonne Arnaud Theatre (1997); Nick Hern Books (1999) ISBN 1854594346

''The Late Middle Classes'', Watford Palace (1999)

''Japes'', Peter Hall Company, Mercury Theatre, Colchester (2000) and Theatre Royal Haymarket (2001)

''Japes Too'' and ''Michael'', published in ''Four Plays'' by Faber (2004) ISBN 0571219888

''The Pig Trade'', published in ''Four Plays'' (2004)

''The Holy Terror'' (revival), Duke of York's Theatre (2004) ''The Old Masters'' featuring art critic Berenson and art dealer Duveen, Comedy Theatre (2004) ''Little Nell'', BBC Radio 4 (2006); Theatre Royal, Bath (2007)

''Missing Dates'', BBC Radio 4 (1 March 2008)

Screenplays

''Butley'' (1974)

''A Month in the Country'' adapted from the novel by J. L. Carr (1987)

Television plays

''The Caramel Crisis'' (BBC, Thirty Minute Theatre, 25 April 1966)

''Death of a Teddy Bear'', based on the Francis Rattenbury 1935 murder case (BBC, Wednesday Play, 15 February 1967)

''A Way with the Ladies'' (BBC, Wednesday Play, 10 May 1967)

''Sleeping Dogs'' (BBC, Wednesday Play, 11 October 1967)

''The Princess'', adapted from a D. H. Lawrence short story (BBC, ''The Jazz Age'', 1968)

''Spoiled'' (BBC, Wednesday Play 28 August 1968); Methuen Plays (1971) ISBN 0416186300

''Mother Love'', adapted from W. Somerset Maugham (BBC, August 1969)

''Pig in a Poke'' (ITV, Saturday Night Theatre, March 1969)

''The Dirt on Lucy Lane'' (ITV, Saturday Night Theatre, April 1969)

''The Style of the Countess'', adapted from the novel by Gavin Lambert (ITV, Playhouse, August 1970)

''Man in a Side-Car'' (BBC, Play for Today, May 1971)

''Plaintiffs and Defendants'' (BBC, October 1975)

''Two Sundays'' (BBC, October 1975)

''The Rear Column'' (BBC, 1980)

Films for television

''Quartermaine's Terms'' (BBC, 1987)

''After Pilkington'' (BBC, January 1987)

''Old Flames'' (BBC, 1990)

''They Never Slept'' (BBC, March 1991)

''The Common Pursuit'' (BBC, March 1992)

''Running Late'' (BBC, October 1992)

''Unnatural Pursuits'' (semi-autobiographical, two-part satire, BBC, December 1992)

''Femme Fatale'' (BBC, February 1993)

Novels

''Colmain'', Faber (1963)

''Simple People'', Faber (1965)

''A Comeback for Stark'' (writing as Hamish Reade), Putnam (1968), Faber (1969)

''Little Portia'', Faber (1986) ISBN 0571145980

''Breaking Hearts'', Faber (1997) ISBN 0571172385

Memoirs

''An Unnatural Pursuit and Other Pieces'', Faber (1985) ISBN 0571137199

''How's that for Telling 'em, Fat Lady?'', Faber (1988) ISBN 0571151396

''Fat Chance'', Faber (1995) ISBN 0571177921

''Enter A Fox'', Faber (2001) ISBN 0571209408

''The Smoking Diaries'', Granta Books (2004) ISBN 186207688X ''The Year of the Jouncer'', Granta Books (2006) ISBN 1862078963 ''The Last Cigarette: Smoking Diaries Volume 3'', Granta Books (2008) ISBN 1847080383 ''Coda'', Granta Books (2008) ISBN 1847080944

Collected plays

''The Definitive Simon Gray''. In 4 vols. London: Faber, 1992–1994. :Vol. 1: Butley ''and Other Plays'' (1992). ISBN 0571162231. :Vol. 2: Otherwise Engaged ''and Other Plays'' (1992). ISBN 0571162401. :Vol. 3 (1993). ISBN 0571164536. :Vol. 4 (1994). ISBN 0571166598.

''Key Plays''. Introd. Harold Pinter. London: Faber, 2002. ISBN 057121634X. (Includes: ''Butley''; ''Otherwise Engaged''; ''Close of Play''; ''Quartermaine's Terms''; and ''The Late Middle Classes''.)

Honours and awards

1967 Writer's Guild Award for Best Play, for ''Death of a Teddy Bear''

1971 Evening Standard Award, for ''Butley''

1975 Best Play, New York Drama Critics' Circle and Evening Standard Award, for ''Otherwise Engaged''

1977 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play (foreign), for ''Otherwise Engaged''

1982 Cheltenham Literary Prize, for ''Quartermaine's Terms''

1987 Prix Italia, for ''After Pilkington''

1993 Golden Gate Award for a Television Feature, San Francisco International Film Festival, for ''Running Late''

1999 Barclays Theatre Award for Best New Play, for ''The Late Middle Classes''

2004 Appointed CBE for services to Drama and Literature

See also

Comedy

Notes

Further reading

;Articles and book reviews Barber, Lynn. "'I wrote a lot of my plays drunk. It liberated me'." ''Guardian''. Guardian Media Group, 4 Apr. 2004. Web. 30 Mar. 2009.

Billington, Michael. "Memo to the BBC: Bring Back Simon Gray's TV Plays". ''Guardian'', Theatre Blog. Guardian Media Group, 16 Mar. 2009. Web. 29 Mar. 2009.

"Gray, Simon." ''Who's Who in the Theatre''. 15th and 16th eds. London: Pitman, 1972 & 1977; 17th ed. London: Gale, 1981.

Scurr, Martin. "Ask the Doctor: By the Way". ''Mail on Sunday'', Health. Daily Mail and General Trust, 26 Aug. 2008. Web. 29 Mar. 2009. (" ... My friend and patient Simon Gray, the playwright, died on August 7. His most recent book, The Last Cigarette, is part of his memoirs, The Smoking Diaries." [Book rev.])

"Simon Gray". ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Encyclopædia Britannica Online, 2009. Web. 7 Apr. 2009.

Taylor, Alan. "Benefit of the Dowt". ''Sunday Herald''. SMG Sunday Newspapers Ltd., 25 Apr. 2004. ProQuest. ''FindArticles.com'' (BNET). Web. 6 Apr. 2009. (Book rev. of ''The Smoking Diaries''.) ;Interviews Fort, Viola. "Simon Gray". ''Untitled Books''. UntitledBooks.com, 6 June 2008. Web. 29 Mar. 2009. ("His reflective, moving and often very funny memoirs have brought Simon Gray a whole new readership outside theatre circles. The third volume, The Last Cigarette, is a triumph. He tells Viola Fort how memory is an act of imagination.")

Hattenstone, Simon. "Interview: Simon Gray: The Butt-ends of His Days". ''Guardian''. Guardian Media Group, 28 July 2007. Web. 30 Mar. 2009. ("His memoirs made him a poster boy for smoking, but at 70 playwright Simon Gray has finished the final volume and is finally cutting down, he tells Simon Hattenstone.") ;Obituaries and tributes Alberge, Dalya. "Simon Gray, Self-Deprecating Writer and Smoker Dies". ''Times,'' Obituary. News Corporation, 8 Aug. 2008. Web. 29 Mar. 2009.

Billington, Michael. "Remembering Simon Gray". ''The Guardian''. Guardian Media Group, 8 Aug. 2008. Web. 29 Mar. 2009.

Gardner, Lyn. "Simon Gray: Playwright, Diarist and Novelist Who Bridged the Gulf between Intellectual and Popular Drama. ''The Guardian''. Guardian Media Group, 7 Aug. 2008. Web. 29 Mar. 2009.

Gould, Tony. Appreciation: Simon Gray, 1936–2008: Smoker, Gambler, Teacher and Writer with an Enviable Gift for Friendship". ''Observer''. Guardian Media Group, 10 Aug. 2008. Web. 30 Mar. 2009.

"Simon Gray: Rakish and Versatile Playwright". ''Times Online'', Obituaries. News Corporation, 8 Aug. 2008. Web. 29 Mar. 2009.

Spencer, Charles. "Simon Gray: 'I will never forget his kindness' ". ''Daily Telegraph''. Telegraph Media Group, 15 Aug. 2009. Web. 30 Mar. 2009.

Strachan, Alan. "Simon Gray, Playwright, Novelist and Author of a Series of Hilarious Irascible Memoirs". ''Independent''. Independent News & Media, 8 Aug. 2008. Web. 29 Mar. 2009.

Weber, Bruce. "Simon Gray, Playwright, Dies at 71: Aimed Wit at Intellectuals, and Himself". ''New York Times'', Obituary. New York Times Company, 8 Aug. 2008. Web. 30 Mar. 2009.

Young, Josa. "The Late Great Simon Gray". ''The Huffington Post'', 25 Mar. 2009. Web. 29 Mar. 2009. ;Performance reviews ''Theatre Record'' and its annual Indexes.

External links

Simon Gray articles index in the ''Guardian''.

Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Category:Dalhousie University alumni Category:English dramatists and playwrights Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Category:Old Westminsters Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Category:Academics of Queen Mary, University of London Category:People from Hayling Island Category:1936 births Category:2008 deaths

cy:Simon Gray de:Simon Gray es:Simon Gray

Coordinates	51°02′17″N31°53′10″N
name	Paul Jesson
birth name	Paul George Jackson
birth date	July 06, 1946
birth place	Hitchin, Hertfordshire, England
death date
occupation	Stage and film actor
yearsactive	1971–present
spouse	Maggie Lunn
website	}}

Paul Jesson (born 6 July 1946) is a British stage, television and film actor. Described in The Observer as "one of the quiet men of the British theatre" he has played leading roles with all the major theatre companies. He won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role 1986 for his role in ''The Normal Heart'' at The Royal Court. He was nominated for a Scottish Critics' Award 2004 for his portrayal of Willie Loman in ''Death of a Salesman'' at the Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh. His most recent performance was as the Earl of Gloucester in the Donmar Theatre production of ''King Lear'' with Sir Derek Jacobi. Recent film: Brutus in ''Coriolanus'' directed by and starring Ralph Fiennes.

References

External links

Category:British stage actors Category:British film actors Category:Olivier Award winners Category:1946 births Category:Living people Category:People from Hitchin