John Cleese

“And now for something completely different…” Please welcome a legendary actor, comedian, screenwriter, producer, and someone we never dreamed of ever announcing to the Washington State Summer Con lineup — we are honored to host Mr. John Cleese in Puyallup from June 21st through the 23rd.

Cleese co-founded Monty Python, the comedy troupe responsible for the sketch television show Monty Python’s Flying Circus in the 1960s. Along with his Python costars Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, and Graham Chapman, Cleese starred in Monty Python films, which include Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Life of Brian, and The Meaning of Life.

In the mid-1970s, Cleese and first wife Connie Booth cowrote the sitcom Fawlty Towers, in which he starred as hotel owner Basil Fawlty, for which he won the 1980 British Academy Television Award for Best Entertainment Performance. In 2000, the show topped the British Film Institute’s list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programs, and in a 2001 Channel 4 poll, Basil was ranked second on its list of the 100 Greatest TV Characters.

Cleese co-starred with Kevin Kline and Jamie Lee Curtis in A Fish Called Wanda (1988) and Fierce Creatures (1997), both of which he also wrote. For A Fish Called Wanda, he received Academy Award, BAFTA Award, and Golden Globe Award nominations. He has also starred in Time Bandits, Clockwise, and Rat Race and acted in Silverado, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, two James Bond films (as R and Q), two Harry Potter films (as Nearly Headless Nick), and the last three Shrek films. He received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for Cheers and was nominated for 3rd Rock from the Sun and Will & Grace.