John Cleese

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John Cleese
Other names:	Kim Bread, John Cheese
Birth date:	27 October 1939
Work in the DWU
Main roles:	Male art lover
Main jobs:	Actor
Stories:	City of Death
Main time period active:	1979
Twitter
IMDb profile
Official site

John Cleese (born 27 October 1939) played an art gallery visitor in the Doctor Who television story City of Death, under the pseudonym of Kim Bread.

During filming for City of Death, Cleese and Tom Baker filmed a short spoof on the story's Louvre set for BBC's in-house Christmas tape. The sketch, in which Cleese asks Baker to autograph a Doctor Who photograph for his blind godson (it turns out Cleese hasn't got a pen, but he tells Baker "Oh, never mind — I'll tell him you signed it"), is available as an Easter egg on the story's DVD.

The pseudonym was used (as was one for Eleanor Bron) on the production at the suggestion of John himself. Having suggested it to Graham Williams in the hopes of keeping the appearance devoid of publicity, Williams agreed and formally requested the pseudonymous credit on 17 May 1979.

Career

Best known for his work on Monty Python's Flying Circus with Michael Palin (a series to which Douglas Adams also contributed), Cleese moved on from Python to star as Basil Fawlty in the classic sitcom Fawlty Towers (production of which had been affected by BBC industrial action around the time of his Doctor Who appearance) along with Andrew Sachs and Brian Hall, and in the 1980s established himself as an acclaimed character actor, with roles ranging from the dramatic, as in the western Silverado, to the comic, such as his Emmy Award-winning turn on Cheers. His writing has also been acclaimed, most notably when he got an Oscar nod for his A Fish Called Wanda script.

From 1999-2003 he was part of the James Bond film franchise as Q, appearing in 1999's The World Is Not Enough and 2002's Die Another Day. He also had a recurring role in the Harry Potter films as Nearly Headless Nick.

Although most of his fellow Monty Python team members (or Pythons) have been rumoured to be considered for the role of the Doctor, and fellow Python, Michael Palin, narrated the Big Finish Torchwood series audio story Tropical Beach Sounds and Other Relaxing Seascapes 4, Cleese remains the only Python to have appeared in a TV story as of 2020.

In the DWU

John Cleese was referenced by name in the novel Timeless in connection to one of his Monty Python sketches set in a chemist's shop. In the novel Spiral Scratch, the Sixth Doctor said that "John and Connie" (Booth) were good friends of his, justifying his immediate recognition of a Fawlty Towers quote. In the comic story TV Action!, Beep the Meep visited another universe and hypnotised a number of 1970s light-entertainment stars, including Cleese and his Fawlty Towers co-star Prunella Scales.

External links

• John Cleese at the Internet Movie Database
• Official website
• Official Twitter account
• John Cleese at TriviaTribute.com