John Cleese as a species until 11 November 2005. John Cleese John Marwood Cleese (; born 27 October 1939) is an English actor, voice actor, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. He achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and performer on "The Frost Report". In the late 1960s, he co-founded 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", "Monty Python and the Holy Grail", "Life of Brian" and "The Meaning of Life". In the mid-1970s, Cleese and his first wife, Connie
John Cleese by company TomTom. In a 2005 poll of comedians and comedy insiders, "The Comedians' 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 eminent footballers including Pelé, Mia Hamm, and