Monty Python

 

Monty Python, sometimes known as The Pythons, were a British surreal comedy group, Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin, who created their sketch comedy show 'Monty Python's Flying Circus', that first aired on the BBC on October 5th, 1969.

Graham Chapman was born in Leicester and studied medicine at Cambridge and St. Bartholomew's, but he first participed in Cambridges footlights club, where he met and partnered with John Cleese which then led to his touring in New Zealand with 'Cambridge Circus'. Comedy overtook his medical career so Chapman and Cleese together wrote for "That was the week that was", "The frost report", "At last the 1948 show", "Marty" and "How to irritate people".

John Cleese was born in Weston-Super-Mare in North Somerset. Cleese studied law at Cambridge University, where he also wrote and performed in Cambridge Footlights revues with medical student Graham Chapman. He escaped a projected career as a solicitor by accepting an offer to write for BBC Radio. Cleese later worked on the pun-filled radio sketch show, "Im sorry, i'll read that again", which led to writing and starring in David Frosts's "The Frost Report" where he met fellow writers Michael Palin, Terry Jones and Eric Idle.




Eric Idle was born in South Shields in Northern England. Idle was president of Footlights at Cambridge University and was the first to allow women into the theatrical club. He appeared on stage in "Oh! What a lonely war" contributed to the BBC Radio series "Im sorry, I'll read that again", and worked on "The Frost Report" and "We have ways of making you laugh" which also featured cartoonist Terry Gilliam. He later invited Terry Jones and Michael Palin and eventually Gilliam to join him on "Do not adjust your set".




Terry Gilliam was born and raised in Minneapolis and Los Angeles, Terry Gilliam's youthful enthusiasm for drawing cartoons infused his academic life and his streak of anti-authoritarianism. His early knockabout career, as a magazine illustrator and art director in L.A. and New York City in the 1960's, allowed him to cross paths with "Cambridge Cricus" starr John Cleese, who he featured in a "Help" magazine photo essay about a man's lust for a Barbie doll.




 Terry Jones was born in Colwyn Bay, Wales. Among the Pythons, was an enthusiastic and passionate driver of the group. He has pursued perhaps the broadest range of artistic and intellectual pursuits, from writing and preforming to directing from comedian and childrens book author to Middle Ages scholar from documentary host to political columnist. Jones teamed up with fellow Oxford student Michael Palin to write and perform revues for the University's theatre club.





Michael Palin was born in Sheffield, Yorkshire. Michael was a student of history at Oxford, where he wrote and performed in theatrical shows with Terry Jones. The two became writing partners whose TV credits included "The Frost Report", "Marty", "Do not adjust your set" and "The complete and utler history of Britain".




 

Buster Keaton

Keaton was an American actor born in Kansas, US and passed in LA, US age 70.

As well as acting he was also well known for his directory, stunts, producing and writings. He began performing in 1917 featuring for the film The Butcher Boy. In 1924 he performed in the short film The Navigator the film shows how far Keaton would go to capture such a perfect gag sequence, the gags in the scenes that were performed underwater created the surreality in the scene though if the background of the underwater scene were to look more realistic then Keaton's actions would look more surreal.

One week

Buster Keaton stared in One Week. Many of the scenes are so unrealistic others however are really artfully constructed. A young couple has just got married and arrive at their new property, a truck arrives and drops a wooden box at their feet, inside the box is a wooden build it yourself kit for their new house. The couples efforts to build the house are both adorable and hilarious, involving slapstick manor and risky stunts. The next day the husband is stood at the front of the house, which looks as though it had been involved in a train wreck. The roof is too small and the house opens and closes at different parts on the walls.

 In the next scene a man is carrying a piano over his shoulder it was seen by the public as a very surrealist image. The piano then becomes the centre of attention in which the couple both use ropes to pull the piano inside the house but fails at the end as it falls through the floor.

Its easy to see why films such as One Week appealed to surrealists such as Bunuel who described Keaton and Chaplin as 'The finest poets that cinemas could have produced'

Bruce Lacey

Bruce Lacey



 

Bruce Lacey was born in 1927, London and is still alive today. He is a British artist, performer and eccentric. When he completed his national service in the Navy, he became established on the scene with his performance art and mechanical constructs.

 

Lacey played a mad scientist in the feature film 'Smashing Time', but his most famous appearance on film remains George Harriaon's flute playing gardender in the Beatles feature film 'Help!'.















5 things that I know now which I didn't know before are that:
1 - Bruce Lacey exsists
2 - Spike Milligan exsists
3 - Spike Milligan had 3 wifes
4 - Milligan had 6 children
5 - Bruce Lacey makes robots

Spike Milligan




Spike Milligan

Sir Terence Alan Milligan was born in British India, April 16th, 1918 and died in East Sussex, England, February 27th, 2002 age 83.

He was a comedian, writer, musician, poet, playwright, soldier and actor. He was born in India but spent majority of his working life in the United Kingdom. He disliked his first name and began to call himself "Spike" after hearing a band on Radio Luxembourg called "Spike Jones and the City Slickers".

 

Health

Spike Milligan suffered from severe bipolar disorder for most of his life, having at least ten serious mental breakdowns, several lasting over a year.

Peter Sellers(top), Spike Milligan(Left)
and Harry Secombe(right)

Career
Milligan was the co-creator, main writer and a principal cast member of The Goon Show, performing a range of roles including the popular Eccles and Minnie Bannister characters. Milligan wrote and edited many books, including Puckoon, a comic novel.

Family

Comic novel by Spike Milliagn

Milligan had 3 Wifes throughout his life. He married his first wife, June Marlow, in 1952. They had three children - Laura, Sean and Sile and then divorced in 1960. He had one daughter with his second wife, Patricia Ridgeway. They were married in 1962 and the marriage then ended with her death from breast cancer in 1978. In 1975, Milligan had a son , James, born in 1976, in an affair with Margaret Maughan. Another child, a daughter Romany, is suspected to have been born at the same time to a Canadian journalist named Roberta Watt. His last wife who he remained married to until he passed was Shelagh Sinclair, married in 1983 and divorced in 2002.



Death

Milligan died from Kidney failure, at the age of 83, at his home in Rye, Sussex. On the day of his funeral, March 8th, 2002, his coffin was carried to St Thomas's Church in Winchelsea and was draped in the flag of Ireland. He had once quipped that he wanted his headstone to say the words "I told you I was ill." He was buried at St Thomas's churchyard but the Chichester diocese refused to allow this epitaph. A compromise was reached with the Irish translation, "Duirt me leat go raibh me breoite" and in English, "Love, light, peace".

Laurel and Hardy

Stan Laurel was born Arthur Stanley Jefferson on June 16th, 1890 in Ulverston, England and died on February 23th, 1965.

 

Oliver Hardy was born Norvell Hardy on January 18th, 1892 in Harlem, Georgia and died on August 7th, 1957.

Laurel and Hardy were a comedy double act during the early Classical Hollywood era of American cinema. They became well known during the late 1920s through the mid-1940s for their slapstick comedy with Laurel playing the clumsy and childlike friend of pompous Hardy.

Harold lloyd

Harold Clayton Lloyd was born in Burchard, Nebraska, United States in April 20th, 1893.

 He was an American actor, comedian, film director, film producer, screenwriter and stunt performer who is most famous for his silent comedy films.