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Eric Idle Biography
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| Name : | Eric Idle |
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Profession :
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Writer/Director
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Birth Details :
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born March 29, 1943
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Height :
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5' 11" (1.80 m)
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Personal quotes :
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John (Cleese) once told me he'd do anything for money. So I offered him a pound to shut up, and he took it.
(On gay marriages) "It's about time
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Spouse :
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Tania Kosevich (1981 - present) 1 daughter Lyn Ashley (7 July 1969 - 1978) (divorced) 1 child
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Eric Idle Trivia
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- Daughter, Lily (b. 1990), with Kosevich,
- Son, Carey (b. 1973), with Ashley,
- Member of the comedy group "Monty Python"
- Studied English at Cambridge University. While at university, he was a member of the prestigious Cambridge Footlights Club, and later, President of the Footlights Club.
- Eric's father, who served in the Royal Air Force, died in a car crash on Christmas eve when he was two years old.
- The only member of the Monty Python group to write alone. Therefore, it was difficult at times for him to get his material accepted and used by the others.
- In 1963, as a collegiate, he was admitted into the Cambridge Footlights comedy club. He became president of the club the following year and one of his first acts was to open the membership up to include women. Feminist/writer Germaine Greer was one of the first to join.
- Supporter of Sunderland Football Club of the English Premiership
- Proudly calls himself "the third tallest member of Monty Python."
- Is an accomplished guitar player.
- Biography in: "Who's Who in Comedy" by Ronald L. Smith, pg. 225-226. New York: Facts on File, 1992. ISBN 0816023387
- Defeated Charles Barkley and Martha Stewart on a celebrity episode of "Jeopardy" in 2002.
- Got permission from the other members of Monty Python (except, naturally, Graham Chapman) to go ahead with his play/musical "Spamalot" (set to hit Broadway in early 2005), a twist on their classic film "Monty Python & the Holy Grail," because they all found the script hilarious.
- Was once tasked by his fellow Pythons with composing a response to an angry piece of fan mail. Monty Python member Graham Chapman was openly gay, and a letter had been written citing Bible verses, stating that homosexuals should be stoned to death. He jokingly replied that they had stoned Chapman to death.
- Friend of Robin Williams.
- Describes himself as having "creative dyslexia", meaning he can look at any word and automatically see the anagrams that can be made from it.
- Admired by the other Pythons for his circle of friends, it was he who procured part of the production money for "Life of Brian" from former Beatle George Harrison.
- Appears as the M.C. in the 3-D film "Honey I Shrunk the Audience" at Disneyland.
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Eric Idle Detailed Biography
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Eric Idle (born March 29, 1943) is an English comedian, actor and film director, as well as an author and guitarist/songwriter. He wrote and performed as part of the Monty Python team.
Idle was born in South Shields, County Durham, England. His father had been in the Royal Air Force and survived the Second World War, only to be killed in a car crash shortly afterwards. His mother had difficulty coping with a full-time job and raising a child, so at the age of seven she enrolled him into the Royal Wolverhampton School as a boarder.
The school had begun life as a Victorian orphanage and during Idle's time it was a charitable foundation solely dedicated to the welfare of orphans and semi-orphans. Its pupils, who were mainly the children of dead English soldiers, still referred to it as the 'Ophney'.
"It was a physically abusive, bullying, harsh environment for a kid to grow up in," Idle is quoted as saying, "I got used to dealing with groups of boys and getting on with life in unpleasant circumstances and being smart and funny and subversive at the expense of authority. Perfect training for Python."
Idle stated that the two things that made his life bearable were listening to Radio Luxembourg under the bedclothes and watching the local football team, Wolverhampton Wanderers. Despite this he disliked other sports and would sneak out of school every Thursday afternoon to the local cinema. He was eventually caught watching the X-rated BUtterfield 8 and was stripped of his prefectship, even though by that time he was headboy. Idle had already refused to be the senior boy in the school cadet force as he was a keen supporter for the campaign for nuclear disarmament and had participated in the yearly Aldermaston march.
Idle maintains that there was little to do at school and boredom drove him to work hard. He consequentially won a place at Cambridge.
Eric Idle attended Pembroke College at the University of Cambridge, where he studied English. At Pembroke College he was invited to join the prestigious Cambridge University Footlights Club by fellow Pembroke College students, the then 1963 President of the Footlights Club, Tim Brooke-Taylor and Footlights Club member Bill Oddie.
"I'd never heard of the Footlights when I got there, but we had a tradition of college smoking-concerts, and I sent in some sketches parodying a play that had just been done. Tim Brooke-Taylor and Bill Oddie auditioned me for the Footlights smoker, and that led to me discovering about and getting into the Footlights, which was great".
Eric Idle became Footlights President in 1965. Other Monty Python members of the Cambridge University Footlights Club were John Cleese and Graham Chapman.
With regard to the other Monty Python members, both Terry Jones and Michael Palin attended the University of Oxford, while Terry Gilliam attended Occidental College in the United States. Before Monty Python's Flying Circus, Eric Idle appeared in the comedy program Do Not Adjust Your Set with Terry Jones, Michael Palin and David Jason.
During the 1960's period, the combined comedy students of both the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge became known as the Oxbridge Mafia.
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