Idle, Eric 1943–

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Idle, Eric 1943–

PERSONAL: Born March 29, 1943, in South Shields, Durham, England; son of Ernest (a Royal Air Force sergeant) and Norah (a health visitor; maiden name, Sanderson) Idle; married Lyn Ashley (an actress), July 7, 1969 (divorced, 1978); married Tania Kosevich (a model), 1981; children: (first marriage) Carey (son); (second marriage) Lily. Education: Pembroke College, Cambridge, degree (with honors), 1965.

ADDRESSES: Agent—William Morris Agency, 1325 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10019.

CAREER: Actor, writer, composer, and director. British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) television programs, writer, 1960s; writer and performer with Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin as Monty Python comedy troupe, beginning 1969; cofounder and president of Prominent Features (production company). Cambridge Footlights, president, 1964–65.

Actor in television series, including Do Not Adjust Your Set, BBC, 1968–69; Monty Python's Flying Circus, BBC, 1969–74, Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), 1974–82; Rutland Weekend Television, BBC, 1975–76; Nearly Departed, National Broadcasting Company (NBC), 1989; Hercules (animated; also known as Disney's Hercules), 1998; Suddenly Susan, NBC, 1999–2000. Actor in television miniseries, including Around the World in Eighty Days, NBC, 1989. Actor in television movies, including Ken Russell's Isadora the Biggest Dancer in the World, BBC, 1966; Jonathan Miller's Alice in Wonderland, BBC, 1966; No, That's Me over Here, London Weekend Television, 1967; We Have Ways of Making You Laugh, London Weekend Television, 1968; Pythons in Deutschland, Bavaria Atelier, 1971; Monty Python's Fliegende Zircus, Bavaria TV, 1971, 1972; (and director) The Rutles (also known as All You Need Is Cash), NBC, 1978; The Mikado, Thames TV, 1987; Parrot Sketch Not Included, 1989; Thirty Years of Python: A Revelation, 1999; and The Scream Team, Disney, 2002.

Actor in films, including Albert Carter Q.O.S.O., Dormer, 1968; And Now for Something Completely Different, Columbia, 1971; Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Cinema V, 1975; Side by Side, 1976; Life of Brian (also known as Monty Python's The Life of Brian), Warner Bros., 1979; Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl, Paramount, 1982; Group Madness, 1983; Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, Universal, 1983; Yellowbeard, Orion, 1983; The Secret Policeman's Private Parts, 1984; European Vacation (also known as National Lampoon's European Vacation), Warner Bros., 1985; The Transformers: The Movie, DEG, 1986; The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Columbia/TriStar, 1988; Nuns on the Run, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1990; Missing Pieces, HBO Home Video, 1991; Too Much Sun, RCA/Columbia Home Video, 1991; Mom and Dad Save the World, Warner Bros., 1992; Splitting Heirs, Universal, 1993; Honey, I Shrunk the Audience, 1995; Casper, Universal, 1995; The Wind in the Willows (also known as Mr. Toad's Wild Ride), Columbia, 1996; An Alan Smithee Film: Burn, Hollywood, Burn, Buena Vista, 1997; Quest for Camelot, Warner Bros., 1998; Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer: The Movie, Legacy Releasing, 1998; The Secret of NIMH 2: Timmy to the Rescue, MGM/UA Home Video, 1998; Journey into Your Imagination, 1999; South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut, Paramount, 1999; Dudley Do-Right, Universal, 1999; 102 Dalmations, 2000; Pinocchio, Miramax, 2002; Hollywood Homicide, 2003; and Ella Enchanted, Miramax, 2003.

Actor in theatre, including Footlights '63, Edinburgh Festival, 1963; My Girl Herbert, Lyric Hammersmith Theatre, London, 1963; I'm Just Wild about Harry, Henry Miller Theatre, Edinburgh Festival, 1963; The Tempest, Edinburgh Festival, 1964; Footlights '64, Edinburgh Festival, 1964; One for the Pot, Leicester Phoenix Theatre, 1965; Oh What a Lovely War, Leicester Phoenix Theatre, 1965; Coventry Festival, 1972; Monty Python's First Farewell Tour, Canada, then United Kingdom, 1973; Monty Python Live at Drury Lane, 1974; Monty Python Live at City Centre, 1976; and Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl, 1980. Also performed in opera, including The Mikado, English National Opera, 1987, then Houston Grand Opera, 1989.

Performed voice-over work for video games and computer games, including Monty Python's Complete Waste of Time, 1994; Discworld, 1995; Discworld II: Mortality Bytes, 1996; Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail, 1996; and Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, 1997.

AWARDS, HONORS: Silver Rose, Montreux Television Festival, 1971, for Monty Python's Flying Circus; ACE Cable Award for Best Cable Show of the Year, 1982, for "The Frog Prince"; Grand Prix Special du Jury award, Cannes Film Festival, 1983, for Monty Python's The Meaning of Life; Michael Balcon Award for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema (with Monty Python), British Academy of Film and Television Arts, 1987; Tony Award for best musical, Outer Critics Circle best Broadway musical award, and Drama Desk best musical award, all 2005, all for Monty Python's Spamalot.

WRITINGS:

Hello, Sailor (novel), Weidenfeld & Nicolson (London, England), 1974.

The Rutland Dirty Weekend Book, Methuen (London, England), 1976.

Pass the Butler (play; produced at Globe Theatre, London, 1982), Methuen (London, England), 1982.

The Quite Remarkable Adventures of the Owl and the Pussycat (children's fiction; based on the works of Edward Lear), illustrated by Edward Lear and Wesla Weller, Dove Kids (Los Angeles, CA), 1996.

The Road to Mars: A Post Modem Novel, Pantheon Books (New York, NY), 1999.

Eric Idle Live at the Getty (stage show), 1999.

Eric Idle Exploits Monty Python (touring stage show), 2000.

The Greedy Bastard Diary: A Comic Tour of America, HarperEntertainment (New York, NY), 2005.

Also author, with Neil Innes, of recording Rutland Dirty Weekend Songbook, 1975.

SCREENPLAYS

Albert Carter Q.O.S.O., Dormer, 1968.

Splitting Heirs, Universal, 1992.

Welcome to the Family, Savoy, 1994.

The Remains of the Piano, Miramax, 1995.

TELEPLAYS

(With Graham Chapman and Cryer) No, That's Me over Here, London Weekend Television, 1967.

The Frost Report, British Broadcasting Company (BBC-TV), 1967.

Twice a Fortnight, BBC-TV, 1967.

Frost on Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, etc. (series), London Weekend Television, 1967–1968.

Marty Feldman, BBC-TV, 1968–1969.

Rutland Weekend Television (series), BBC-TV, 1975–1976.

All You Need Is Cash (movie), National Broadcasting Company (NBC), 1978, televised in Britain as The Rutles, BBC-TV, 1978.

(And director) "The Frog Prince," Faerie Tale Theatre, Showtime, 1982.

Nearly Departed, NBC, 1989.

RADIO PLAYS

I'm Sorry I'll Read that Again, British Broadcasting Company (BBC), 1966, 1968.

(With John Du Prez) Behind the Crease, BBC, 1990.

Also author of Radio Five (two series), c. 1970s.

SCREENPLAYS WITH MONTY PYTHON

And Now for Something Completely Different (adapted from Monty Python's Flying Circus), Columbia, 1972.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (also see below), Cinema V, 1975.

Monty Python's Life of Brian (also see below), Warner Bros., 1979.

Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl, Columbia, 1982.

Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (also see below), Universal, 1983.

BOOKS WITH MONTY PYTHON

(And editor) Monty Python's Big Red Book, Methuen (London, England), 1972, Warner Books (New York, NY), 1975.

(And editor) The Brand New Monty Python Bok, illustrations by Terry Gilliam (under pseudonym Jerry Gillian) and Peter Brookes, Methuen (London, England), 1973, published as The Brand New Monty Python Papperbok, 1974.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (also published as Monty Python's Second Film: A First Draft), Methuen (London, England), 1977.

(And editor) Monty Python's Life of Brian [and] Montypythonscrapbook, Grosset (New York, NY), 1979.

The Complete Works of Shakespeare and Monty Python: Volume One—Monty Python (contains Monty Python's Big Red Book and The Brand New Monty Python Papperbok), Methuen (London, England), 1981.

Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, Grove Press (New York, NY), 1983.

The Complete Monty Python's Flying Circus: All the Words, two volumes, Pantheon (New York, NY), 1989.

Monty Python Speaks!: John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin Recount an Amazing, and Silly, Thirty-Year Spree in Television and Film—in Their Own Words, Squire!, interviewed by David Morgan, Spike (New York, NY), 1999.

TELEPLAYS WITH MONTY PYTHON

Do Not Adjust Your Set, British Broadcasting Company (BBC-TV), 1968–1969.

Pythons in Deutschland (movie), Bavaria Atelier, 1971.

Monty Python's Flying Circus (series), BBC-TV/Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), 1974–82.

RECORDINGS WITH MONTY PYTHON; AND PERFORMER

Monty Python's Flying Circus, British Broadcasting Company (BBC), 1970.

Another Monty Python Record, Charisma, 1970.

Monty Python's Previous Record, Charisma, 1972.

Monty Python Matching Tie and Handkerchief, Charisma, 1973.

Monty Python Live at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, Charisma, 1974.

The Album of the Soundtrack of the Trailer of the Film of Monty Python and the Holy Grail (film soundtrack; includes additional material), Charisma, 1975.

Monty Python Live at City Center, 1976.

The Worst of Monty Python, 1976.

The Monty Python Instant Record Collection, Charisma, 1977.

(And coproducer) Monty Python's Life of Brian (film soundtrack), WEA, 1979.

(And producer) Monty Python's Contractual Obligation Album, Charisma, 1980.

Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (film soundtrack), CBS, 1983.

Monty Python's the Final Ripoff (compilation), Virgin, 1987.

(And producer) Monty Python Sings, Virgin, 1989.

Always Look on the Bright Side of Life (single), Virgin, 1991.

OTHER

The Rutland Isles (recording), Artist Direct, 2003.

Monty Python's Spamalot (musical adaptation of the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail), produced in Chicago, IL, at Shubert Theatre, 2005, produced on Broadway, 2005.

Also conceived the idea for the musical Seussical, based on the works of Theodore Seuss Geisel, first produced on Broadway at the Richard Rogers Theater, November 30, 2000.

SIDELIGHTS: Eric Idle is one of six members of Monty Python, a group of British comedians whose absurd humor earned them a large following in Europe and North America. The group first appeared together in 1969 in the television series Monty Python's Flying Circus, which regularly featured such offbeat skits as "Hell's Grannies," in which Idle and cohorts play obscene and rowdy old women, and "The Upper Class Twit of the Year," in which aristocratic morons compete on an obstacle course. Among Idle's most memorable roles on the show are leering rogues, obsequious television hosts, and fussy old women. Idle has also undertaken a number of successful solo projects in writing and acting.

Many of the Python troupe's most renowned skits from the Flying Circus's first two seasons, including "Hell's Grannies" and the twit contest, have been collected in the film And Now for Something Completely Different. This work contains such celebrated Python material as the "Dead Parrot" sketch, in which a pet store proprietor and a customer debate the state of a recently purchased parrot, and "The Lumberjack Song," which begins with a lumberjack boastfully singing the virtues of manly work but ends with him confessing he is a transvestite. Blaine Allen, reviewing the film in Take One, called it "one of the most hilarious and original movies to come along in a while."

As Monty Python's Flying Circus became increasingly popular, the Pythons began recording and publishing some of their material. Idle edited many of the Python books, including Monty Python's Big Red Book (which has a blue cover) and The Brand New Monty Python Bok, incorporating new and old material with graphics and stills from the series and films. The results provided Python fans with hard copy of their favorite sketches while giving the Pythons themselves enough additional revenue to work independently.

Their first independent venture was the 1975 movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which follows the legendary King Arthur and his knights on their quest to find the sacred cup of Christ. Idle is particularly memorable as Sir Robin the Not-So-Brave, who wets his armor at the first sign of danger and is accompanied by a troupe of minstrels who sing odes to his cowardice. While "there are the usual sillies—phrases repeated endlessly, nonsense syllables, and sight gags plentiful enough to warm the cockles of a hitter's heart," Richard Goldstein commented in the Village Voice, there is also "a great deal of gratuitous cruelty, much of it occasioned by the presence of poverty and plague. The film's anger at these occurrences adds dimension to its anarchy, and makes it matter more than the TV show."

After the last season of Flying Circus was broadcast in 1974, Idle persuaded the BBC to air his program Rutland Weekend Television, a parody of a small independent television station. The show only ran for two seasons, but provided the idea for the "Rutles," a takeoff of the Beatles. With the assistance of Neil Innes, a regular contributor of music to Python projects, Idle constructed a thorough "re-creation" of a pop music group's trials and triumphs. After the group appeared with Idle on an episode of Saturday Night Live in 1977, NBC offered Idle the chance to make a Rutles television movie. All You Need Is Cash features cameos by such recording stars as Mick Jagger, Paul Simon, and even former Beatle George Harrison. "The growth of the ersatz quartet's career and ultimate breakup is followed in a take-off of that you-are-actually-making-history-this-very-moment approach to documentary reporting," Village Voice writers Howard Smith and Leslie Harlib noted. The reviewers also found that the program has a "sneaky power" to its satire and praise in particular its "fifteen slyly brilliant parody songs of well-known Beatles tunes."

Idle rejoined the Pythons to film Monty Python's Life of Brian, a satire along biblical lines. The title character is a poor fellow who is mistaken for the messiah and spends his life frantically trying to evade his "followers." Notable among the Monty Python members—each of whom portrays numerous characters in the film—is Idle as a nonchalant crucifixion victim who jokes with his executioners and leads his fellow convicts in a sing-along of "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" (a song written by Idle) while dangling from a cross. The film, with its irreverent portrayal of religion and its followers, drew protesters in many places. But "Jesus isn't singled out for ridicule," Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune observed, explaining that Life of Brian "is simply the Python response to such pompous pictures as King of Kings." The critic added that "the protests of religious groups against the film, however well-intentioned, are simply missing the point of the picture." Many people clearly agreed, since the film proved a success at the box office.

After appearing in fellow Python member Graham Chapman's film Yellowbeard, in 1983 Idle and the rest of the Pythons completed another celebrated film, Monty Python's The Meaning of Life. There were problems getting the script together, for the group had grown unaccustomed to writing in collaboration. Nevertheless, the difficulties helped to produce a stronger film. As Idle pointed out to George Perry in The Life of Python, the group's self-criticism was essential: "I think it's the important thing—we do all keep a strong critical eye on what everyone else is doing. It's healthy, and if you're reading scripts out to everyone and something doesn't work, it's better to get that sort of criticism while you're still making the film than when it is out—at least you have a chance to make it better."

Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, which was honored at the Cannes Film Festival, is comprised of sketches on topics such as birth, sex, and death. As in the previous films, members of the troupe play several characters, with Idle most striking as he emerges, clad in a pink long-tailed tuxedo, from a refrigerator to disrupt a "live" organ transplant by serenading the unwilling donor with facts about the universe. Siskel described the film as "fresh and original and delightfully offensive," while Newsweek reviewer Katrine Ames called it "the best movie to date from England's satirical sextet." The critic further praised the group's humor as "never … more incisive—they've become savagely hilarious observers of the human condition." Time writer Richard Schickel believed that The Meaning of Life overcomes any minor flaws: "In their assaults on conventional morality, [the Pythons] generate a ferocious and near Swiftian moral gravity of their own," the critic concluded. "It is this quality that distinguishes their humor from the competition, rescues it from its own excesses and makes braving it an exhilarating experience."

Idle ha undertaken solo writing projects, as well, since the 1970s. Hello Sailor, published in 1974, is his first novel. Frank Pike, writing in the Times Literary Supplement, described the novel "as 'rude' and 'silly' as the [Monty Python] detractors would expect." In 1976, Idle released The Rutland Dirty Weekend Book. Listener contributor D.A.N. Jones felt that the book was not as funny as it intends to be: "The Rutland Dirty Weekend Book is based on the television show and has many panto-dame jokes about sex—that is, 'sexy' sexlessness." More recently, in 1996 Idle published the children's work The Quite Remarkable Adventures of the Owl and the Pussycat. The book is a mixture of the familiar and the novel; Idle's Monty Python antics infiltrate the classic story in a much more subdued form appropriate for children.

In another medium, an Amusement Business article by Tim O'Brien regarding Idle's "3-D Pirates Stranded at Sea World" revealed what Sea World and Renaissance Entertainment and Creative Services Production stated about the fifteen-minute film written by and featuring Idle and Leslie Nielsen. Eric Miles, corporate manager of production for Busch Entertainment Company and executive producer of the film, said in the article, "This film is instant magic. The energy between Eric Idle and Leslie Nielsen is amazing." The article reports that Jim Timon of Renaissance Entertainment and Creative Services Production and the executive heading the production of this film concurs with Miles: "Unlike many 3-D films, this one has a progressive plot and is not used strictly to 'wow' viewers with effects."

Pursuing his solo work again, Idle published The Road to Mars: A Post-Modem Novel in 1999. Gary Kamiya, reviewing the title for the New York Times, commented that Idle's adept physical comedy makes an inadequate comic novel, but recognized the more favorable aspects in the book: "Idle handles plot competently, even displaying some genuine narrative quirkiness." For Kamiya, the basic problem of The Road to Mars is the fact that an actor wrote the book, rather than a writer: "His terse prose lacks the robust, cunning, luxurious stupidity that comedy needs." A reviewer for Publishers Weekly felt the writing was lacking as well: "The narrative meanders for long stretches with scene after scene whose only point is to set up a weak joke—the sort of thing that works so well as TV farce but when passed off as a novel, is tedious." Devon Thomas, writing in the Library Journal, however, had a different view: "Idle … has written an engaging and amusing work of speculative fiction with fully developed characters, a taut plot, and a thoughtful and entertaining analysis of humor's part in human development. A joy to read; highly recommended."

Idle had one of the bigger hits of his solo career with the creation of Monty Python's Spamalot, a Broadway musical adaptation of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The award-winning musical expands the territory of the original film, spoofing not only the King Arthur legends but also the film itself, other Python sketches, and Broadway musicals in general. After Sir Robin (played on Broadway by David Hyde Pierce rather than Idle) insists that "You Won't Succeed on Broadway (If You Haven't Any Jews)," the cast takes a detour through Fiddler on the Roof; another song, "The Song that Goes Like This," pokes fun at the formulaic power-ballads of famed Broadway composer Andrew Lloyd Webber. Monty Python's Spamalot also retains many of the most popular bits from the original film, including the Knights Who Say Ni, the hacked-to-bits but still fighting Black Knight, the French Taunter, and the killer rabbit. The result, Don Shewey commented in the Advocate, "is a frothy frappe of popcultural references that's tastier but no more substantial than the canned slab of processed pork from which it takes its title." "It gives off such irrepressible energy, it's contagious," Cathleen McGuigan commented in Newsweek, adding: "Whether it's actually nutritious—well, who cares?" At the same time that Monty Python's Spamalot debuted, Idle published The Greedy Bastard Diary: A Comic Tour of America, which recounts a backstage view of one of Idle's comedy tours and also discusses some of the creation of Monty Python's Spamalot. Idle's "take on Hollywood is refreshingly unjaded" in the book, noted a Variety reviewer.

Despite his solo success, Idle looks back fondly at his days as a Python. Expressing amazement at the enduring popularity of the group, he told People interviewer Susan Schindehette: "It's astounding. Here we are … years on, and people are still watching the same silly stuff. They're fascinated by the program."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Contemporary Literary Criticism, Volume 21, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1982.

Hewison, Robert, Monty Python: The Case Against, Methuen (London, England), 1981.

Hewison, Robert, Footlights!, Methuen (London, England), 1983.

Johnson, Kim Howard, The First 200 Years of Monty Python, St. Martin's (New York, NY), 1989.

Perry, George, The Life of Python, Pavilion, 1983.

Thompson, John O., editor, Monty Python: Complete and Utter Theory of the Grotesque, University of Illinois Press (Champaign, IL), 1982.

Wilmut, Roger, From Fringe to Flying Circus, Methuen (London, England), 1980.

PERIODICALS

Advocate, May 10, 2005, Don Shewey, review of Monty Python's Spamalot, p. 67.

Amusement Business, March 17, 1997, Tim O'Brien, "Eric Idle's 3-D Pirates Stranded at Sea World," p. 26.

Chicago Tribune, September 21, 1979, Gene Siskel, review of Monty Python's Life of Brian; April 1, 1983, Gene Siskel, review of Monty Python's The Meaning of Life.

Entertainment Weekly, September 6, 1996, Erin Richter, review of Missing Pieces, p. 84.

Library Bookwatch, June, 2005, review of The Greedy Bastard Diary: A Comic Tour of America.

Library Journal, August, 1999, Devon Thomas, review of The Road to Mars, p. 139.

Listener, December 23, 1976, D.A.N. Jones, review of The Rutland Dirty Weekend Book.

Nation, March 27, 1989, Stuart Klawans, review of The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, p. 427.

New Criterion, May, 2005, Mark Steyn, review of Monty Python's Spamalot, p. 38.

New Republic, April 16, 1990, Stanley Kauffmann, review of Nuns on the Run, p. 27; June 7, 1993, Stanley Kauffmann, review of Splitting Heirs, p. 27.

Newsweek, April 4, 1983, Katrine Ames, review of The Meaning of Life; January 24, 2005, Cathleen McGuigan, review of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, p. 64.

New York Times, September 19, 1999, Gary Kamiya, review of The Road to Mars: A Post-Modem Novel, p. 21.

People, July 11, 1983, review of Yellowbeard, p. 10; April 17, 1989, John Stark, review of Around the World in Eighty Days, p. 13; April 24, 1989, Susan Schindehette, "Puzzling out His Post-Python Life Leaves Eric Idle with Hands Full," p. 59; February 11, 1991, Ralph Novak, review of Too Much Sun, p.12; August 10, 1992, Ralph Novak, review of Mom and Dad Save the World, p. 20; July 1, 1996, Stanley Young, "Older and Wiseacre," p. 35.

Publishers Weekly, July 19, 1999, review of The Road to Mars, p. 188.

Take One, May-June, 1971, Blaine Allen, review of And Now for Something Completely Different.

Time, March 28, 1983, Richard Schickel, review of The Meaning of Life; June 12, 1995, Richard Corliss, review of Casper, p. 68.

Times Literary Supplement, March 21, 1975, Frank Pike, review of Hello, Sailor.

Variety, October 6, 1997, Deborah Young, review of An Alan Smithee Film—Burn, Hollywood, Burn, p. 54; November 3, 1997, Todd McCarthy, review of The Wind in the Willows, p. 99; May 11, 1998, Joe Leydon, review of Quest for Camelot, p. 58; March 7, 2005, review of The Greedy Bastard Diary, p. 53.

Village Voice, May 5, 1975, Richard Goldstein, review of Monty Python and the Holy Grail; March 20, 1978, Howard Smith and Leslie Harlib, review of All You Need Is Cash.