Eric Idle

Eric Idle (March 29, 1943) is a British actor, screenwriter, writer, comedian and musician, member of the comedy troupe Monty Python, member of The Rutles and author of the Broadway musical Spamalot. He was the group's main songwriter, with singles like "Galaxy Song"; or "The Meaning of Life", which enjoyed great popularity. After Monty Python's triumph, he turned to radio and television, appearing on shows like Saturday Night Live. He also appeared in numerous films working as a voice actor or narrator, in roles such as Merlin in Shrek the Third or Waddlesworth in 102 Dalmatians .

Biography

Early Years

Eric Idle was born in Harton, near South Shields in County Durham, to which his mother had been evacuated from the North West of England during the war. His mother, Norah Barron (Sanderson), was a nurse and his father, Ernest Idle, served in the Royal Air Force during World War II, but was killed in a hitchhiking accident shortly after the war. His mother had difficulties coping with a full-time job and raising a child, so when Idle was seven, she enrolled him at the Royal Wolverhampton School as a boarding school. At this time, the school was a charitable foundation dedicated to the education and maintenance of children who had lost one or both parents. Idle cited this stage as: "a physically abusive, intimidating and harsh environment for a child grew up I got used to dealing with groups of kids and getting on with life under unpleasant circumstances and being smart and funny and subversive of authority. A perfect training for Python".

Idle stated that the two things that made his life bearable were listening to Radio Luxembourg under the covers and watching the local football team, Wolverhampton Wanderers. Despite this, he did not like other sports and he would sneak out of school every Thursday afternoon to the local movie theater. Idle was eventually caught watching the adult film BUtterfield 8 (suitable for audiences 16+ by contemporary film standards) and stripped of prefecture from him, though by that time he was head student.. Idle had already refused to be a senior student in the school cadet corps, as he supported the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and had participated in the annual Aldermaston march. Idle maintains that there was little to do at school, and the Boredom led him to study hard and consequently earn a place at Cambridge University.

Career

Pre-Python (1965-1969)

After a few trips, such as one to Berlin in 1963, where he saw President John F. Kennedy and which would inspire him to compose Rainy day in Berlin, Idle attended Pembroke College, Cambridge, where studied English philology. At Pembroke, he was invited to join the prestigious Cambridge University Footlights Club by Footlights President Tim Brooke-Taylor and Footlights Club member Bill Oddie.

Idle started at Cambridge just a year after his future teammates Graham Chapman and John Cleese. He became president of the Footlights in 1965 and was the first to allow women to join the club.Idle starred in the children's television comedy series Do Not Adjust Your Set co-starring his future companions Terry Jones and Michael Palin. Terry Gilliam was providing animations for the show at the time. The cast also included comedic actors David Jason and Denise Coffey. Idle also appeared as a guest in a few episodes of the television series At Last the 1948 Show, co-hosted by Cleese and Chapman.

Monty Python (1969-1983, 2014)

Idle representing along with Terry Jones the sketch "Nudge, Nudge" in Monty Python Live (Mostly).

Idle wrote for Monty Python mostly by himself, at his own pace, although he sometimes found it difficult having to present material to others and make it sound funny without the backing of a partner. The other Pythons generally worked in teams, and Cleese admitted that was a bit unfair—when the Pythons voted on which gags should appear on the show, "he (Idle) only got a vote"-. However, she also pointed out that Idle was an independent person and worked best on his behalf. Idle himself admitted that it was sometimes difficult: "You had to convince five others. And they weren't the least selfish of all writers, either.

Idle's work on Monty Python is often characterized by an obsession with language and communication: many of his characters have verbal quirks, such as the man who speaks in anagrams, the man who says words in the wrong order, and the butcher who alternates between rude and courteous every time he speaks. Some of his gags include lengthy monologues (for example, the customer in the travel agency gag, who won't stop talking about his unpleasant vacation experiences), and he frequently mocks the language and speech patterns of television presenters. Unlike Palin, Idle is said to be the master of insincere characters, from David Frost archetypal Timmy Williams to petite helmsman Stig O'Tracy, who tries to deny the fact that organized crime kingpin Dinsdale Piranha has pinned his head to the ground.

As the second youngest member of the Pythons, Idle was the closest in spirit to the students and teenagers that made up the Python base. Monty Python gags dealing with most contemporary obsessions like pop music, sexual permissiveness, and recreational drugs are often Idle's work, often characterized by double entendres, sexual references, and other "mischievous" themes. 34;, the most prominent example being the sketch "Nudge, Nudge". Idle originally wrote "Nudge, Nudge" for Ronnie Barker, but was rejected because there was "no grace in words".

A competent guitarist, Idle composed many of the group's most famous musical numbers, including "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life," the final number of Life of Brian, which grew into a Python tune. He was responsible for the song & # 34; Galaxy Song & # 34; by The Meaning of Life and Eric the Half-a-Bee, a tune that first appeared on the album Previous Record.

Post-Python (1973-present)

Idle signing autographs in 2003.

After the success of Monty Python in the 1970s, the six members pursued solo projects. Idle's first solo work was on his own BBC Radio One show, Radio Five. It ran for two seasons from 1973 to 1974 and featured Idle performing skits and re-enactments of songs, with him performing almost every set.

On television, Idle created Rutland Weekend Television (RWT), a gag show on BBC2, written by himself, with music by Neil Innes. RWT was "the smallest television network in Britain". The name was a parody of London Weekend Television, the independent television franchise contractor that provided Londoners with their ITV services on weekends; Rutland had been the smallest county in England, having recently been "abolished" in an administrative decision. To complete the joke, the show appeared on a weekday. Other recurring artists included David Battley, Henry Woolf, Gwen Taylor, and Terence Bayler. George Harrison made an appearance in one episode.

A legacy of RWT was the creation, with Innes, of The Rutles, an affectionate parody of the Beatles. The band became a popular phenomenon, especially in the United States, where Idle appeared on Saturday Night Live. Fans even changed the covers of Beatles LPs with covers altered to show the Rutles. In 1978, The Rutles' documentary film All You Need Is Cash, a collaboration between members of Monty Python and Saturday Night Live, was broadcast on NBC television, written by Idle, with music by Innes.. Idle appeared in the film as "Dirk McQuickly" (a Paul McCartney-esque character) as well as the main commentator, while Innes appeared as "Ron Nasty" (the John Lennon of the band). Some actors that appeared in the film included members of Saturday Night Live such as John Belushi, Bill Murray or Gilda Radner, as well as his partner Michael Palin, but also real musicians from the 60s, such as the former -Beatle George Harrison, or Mick Jagger and Paul Simon. Idle wrote and conducted the return of The Rutles in 2008 for a live show, Rutlemania!, to celebrate their 30th anniversary. Performances took place in Los Angeles and New York with a tribute band to the Beatles.

In 1986, Idle voiced Wreck-Gar, the leader of the "junkions" (a race of robots built from garbage that can only speak in movie quotes and advertising slogans) in Transformers: The Movie. In 1987, he took part in the English National Opera's production of Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera, The Mikado, in which he appeared in the role of Lord High Executioner, Ko-Ko. In 1989, he appeared in the American television series Nearly Departed, about a ghost that haunted the family that lived in his old house. The series ran for six episodes as a summer replacement series.

Idle received good reviews in projects written and directed by others, such as Terry Gilliam's The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1989), opposite Robbie Coltrane in Nuns on the Run (1990) and Casper (1995). He also played Ratty in Terry Jones' version of The Wind in the Willows (1996). However, his own creative endeavors, such as the film Splitting Heirs (1993), a comedy he wrote, starred in, and executive produced, were mostly unsuccessful with critics and audiences.

Idle with his guitar in 2012.

In 1994, he appeared as Dr. Nigel Channing, president of the Imagination Institute and host of an "Inventor of the Year" in the four-dimensional film Honey, I Shrunk the Audience, which was an attraction at Walt Disney World Resort Epcot from 1994 to 2010 and at Disneyland from 1998 to 2010. The film also stars Rick Moranis and others Cast members from the 1989 film Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. In 1999, he reprized the role in the second version of the journey & # 34; Journey to the Imagination & # 34; at Epcot, replacing Figment and Dreamfinder as host. Due to complaints from Disney fans, Figment was returned to the role. Idle was also the writer and star of the three-dimensional feature film Pirates - 4D for Busch Entertainment Corporation.

In 1995, he dubbed Rincewind the "Maggo" in an adventure video game based on the Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett. In 1996, he reprized his role as Rincewind for the game's sequel, and composed and sang his theme song, That's Death. In 1998, Idle appeared in the lead role in the movie Burn Hollywood Burn, to low reviews. That same year, he also voiced Devon, a dragon, in the Warner Bros. animated film, Quest for Camelot and as Slyly the albino arctic fox in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.: The Movie.

For the past several years, Idle has worked with people who consider him a great inspiration, such as Trey Parker and Matt Stone on South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, in which he voiced Dr. Vosknocker. He has also made three appearances on The Simpsons as famed documentarian Declan Desmond, so far the only appearance on the show by a Python. From 1999 to 2000, he played Ian Maxtone-Graham on the NBC sitcom Suddenly Susan. He also served as the narrator for the audio-novela version of Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Waddlesworth the Parrot in 102 Dalmatians and the video game of the same name.

In late 2003, Idle began a multi-city US and Canadian tour titled The Greedy Bastard Tour. Stage performances consisted largely of music from Monty Python episodes and movies, along with some original post-Python material. In 2005, Idle released The Greedy Bastard Diary, a book detailing the things the cast encountered during the three-month tour. In 2004, Idle created Spamalot, a musical comedy based on the 1975 film The Knights of the Square Table and Their Crazy Followers. The production is based on the Middle Ages and tells the story of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table as they travel in search of the Holy Grail. Both the book and the lyrics of Spamalot are by Eric Idle, the music by Idle and John Du Prez, the direction by Mike Nichols and the choreography by Casey Nicholaw. It won the Tony for Best Musical.

Most recently, Idle voiced Merlin the Wizard in the DreamWorks animated film Shrek the Third (2007) with his former Monty Python sidekick John Cleese voicing King Harold. The play Idle What About Dick? was staged in two public performances in Hollywood on November 10 and 11, 2007. The cast included Idle, Billy Connolly, Tim Curry, Eddie Izzard, Jane Leeves, Emily Mortimer, Jim Piddock and Tracey Ullman. The play returned on April 26 and 29, 2012 at the Oprheum Theater with most of the previous cast with the exception of Emily Mortimer who was replaced by Sophie Winkleman. Russell Brand also joined the cast. The work was made available for digital download on November 13, 2012.

Eric Idle appeared as a guest at the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games at the London Olympic Stadium on August 12, performing Always Look on the Bright Side of Life. Idle was also the creator and director of the live show 'Monty Python Live (Mostly) - One down, Five to go', which took place at London's O2 Arena between July 1-20, 2014. In December 2016 Idle was the writer and co-host of The Entire Universe, a "comedy and musical extravaganza" with the help of Warwick Davis, Noel Fielding, Hannah Waddingham and Robin Ince, along with a choir of singers and dancers, broadcast on BBC Two.

Filmography

Cinema

Television

Video Games

Theater