In addition to starring in Fierce Creatures as Rollo Lee, JOHN CLEESE
also produced the film with Michael Shambcrg and wrote the screenplay with
Iain Johnstone.
Cleese first shot to fame in The Frosi Report in 1966, and in 1969 co-created
Monty Python 's Flying Circus. The team went on to conquer the world with
three cult TV scries and four hugely successful films, And Now For Something
Completely Different (1971), Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1974), The
Life of Brian (1979), and The Meaning of Life (1983), as well as various
international stage shows before Cleese movcd on to create the irrepressible
Basil, the hotel manager from hell, in one of the most successful TV series
ever made-Fawlty Towers (1974 and 1979), all 12 episodes of which have been
repeated by popular demand on the BBC many times.
As well as his work with Monty Python, Cleese's film credits as an actor
include The Great Muppet Caper (1980), Time Bandits (1980), Privates on
Parade (1982), Silverado (1984), Clockwise (1986), Terry Jones' Erik the
Viking, Eric Idle's Splitting Heirs (1992), Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
(1994), The Jungle Book (1995) and The Wind In The Willows (1996).
In 1988 he, of course, starred in and co-wrote (with director Charles Crichton)
one of the most successful British films of all time-A Fish Called Wanda.
Cleese's writing, directing and acting credits for stage and television
also include: The Secret Policeman's Ball (1979), which he directed for
Amnesty International, and The Secret Policenian 's Other Ball (1981), which
he co-directed for both stage and film, the BBC's production of Shakespeare's
The Taming Of The Shrew (1980) in which he played Petruchio and Whoops Apocalypse
(1981) for LWT.
In 1983 he published his first book, Families & How To Survive Them
(co-written with Dr. Robin Skynner), which was produced as a series for
BBC Radio 4 in 1990. The book remains a huge best seller and its sequel
Life & How To Survive It also written with Dr. Robin Skynner was published
in 1993.
JAMIE LEE CURTIS (Willa Weston) has demonstrated her versatility
as a film actress with starring roles in such acclaimed films as the blockbuster
True Lies for which she earned a Golden Globe Award, Trading Places with
Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd, for which she earned a British Film Academy
Award® for Best Supporting Actress; and memorable leading role performances
in A Fish Called Wanda, Dominick and Eugene, Blue Steel, My Girl, Love Letters,
Forever Young and Mother 's Boys.
Curtis was most recently seen in the comedy House Arrest. Last year, viewers
saw her in The Heidi Chronicles on Turner Network Television for which she
was nominated for a Golden Globe Award.
In television, Curtis co-starred opposite Richard Lewis in the acclaimed
sitcom Anything But Love, which earned her a Golden Globe Award and a People's
Choice Award.
Curtis began her Hollywood career in 1977 when she signed on as a contract
player with Universal Studios. She was a regular on the television series
Operation Petticoat when she was cast in the film role that brought her
to the attention of audiences worldwide, the 1978 release of Halloween.
The critically acclaimed John Carpenter film led to starring roles in such
films as Prom Night, Terror Train, The Fog and Halloween II.
Curtis has completed her second children's book, entitled Tell Me Again
Ahout the Night I Was Born. Her first book, called When J Was Little: A
Four-Year-Old's Memoir ofHer Youth, was published in 1993. Both books are
published by Harper Collins.
Curtis has just been signed to star in Universal Pictures' science fiction
technothriller Virus, to be produced by Gale Anne Hurd and directed by John
Bruno, which is scheduled to start production in late January.
Academy Award® winner KEVIN KLINE (Vince/Rod McCain) was born
in St. Louis, Missouri, where his father owned a record store. Brought up
in a house where there was always music, he inevitably became a music major
at Indiana University. But midway through college he joined an acting class
and the die was cast. Afier graduation he was accepted at the Julliard School
of Drama and became a founding member of John Houseman's The Acting Company.
For four years he toured the States playing lead roles in Sheridan, Ibsen,
Chekhov, Congreve and Shakespeare plays before making his Broadway debut
in 1978 in the Hal Prince musical On the Twentieth Century. As Madeline
Kahn's beau, the outrageously vain movie idol Bruce Granit, his bravura
comic performance and pleasant singing voice won him a Drama Desk Award
and the first of two Tony Awards.
Two years later he starred as the Pirate King in Joseph Papp's re-working
of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance. The show transferred
to Broadway and brought further acclaim for Kline who again picked up the
Tony and Drama Desk Awards as best actor in a musical comedy.
The screen version marked the beginning of his career as a movie actor and
simultaneously Alan J. Pakula met with Kline and cast him opposite Meryl
Streep in Sophie 's Choice. His performance was nominated for both BAFTA
and Hollywood Foreign Press Association (Golden Globe) awards.
His long relationship with director Lawrence Kasdan began in 1983 with The
Big (:hill, a serio-comedic look at a group of ex-college friends who get
together afier many years and take stock of their lives. The partnership
was renewed with the sprawling ensemble Western Silverado and continued
with J Love You to Death and most recently French Kiss.
Following Jack Fisk's film Violets Are Blue, in which Kline portrayed a
small town newspaper journalist seeking to rekindle an old love affair with
high school sweetheart Sissy Spacek, Kline returned to the Circle in the
Square on Broadway, where he won rave reviews for his Captain Bluntschli
in Shaw's Arms and the Man, directed by fellow actor John Malkovich.
In keeping with a lifestyle which refuses to stand still, Violets Are Blue
was released at the same time as he was on stage playing Hamlet-a performance
which won him an Obie Award for Sustained Achievement in the theatre. A
few months later he was on his way to Zimbabwe to portray the crusading
South African newspaper editor Donald Woods in Richard Attenborough's anti-apartheid
plea Cry Freedom.
And straight from this somber subject he joined JoIm Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis
and Michael Palin in A Fish Called Wanda. The film became the highest grossing
British film ever (only toppled from its perch by Working Title's Four Weddings
and a Funeral seven years later). For his Manic Otto West, Kline won the
1988 Academy Award® as Best Supporting Actor.
He continued to commute between stage and screen, receiving the Shakespeare
Award for Classical Theatre. His production of Hamlet at New York's Public
Theatre in 1992 received no less than five Drama Desk nominations, including
two for Kline as director and lead actor.
Kline, who served as Associate Producer for the New York Shakespeare Festival,
went on to co-direct a highly acclaimed version of the production for the
PBS Great Performances series.
He picked up yet another Golden Globe nomination for his work in Ivan Reitman's
with Sigourney Weaver Dave and before joining Meg Ryan in the comedy French
Kiss, he was back in Britain making Princess Caraboo with his actress wife
Phoebe Cates, Stephen Rea, Jim Broadbent and John Lithgow. Kline was recently
heard as the debonair Phoebus in Disney's animated feature The Hunchback
ofNotre Dame.
Next up for Kline is a starring role in Ang Lee's Ice Storm opposite stars
Bruce Davison, Joan Allen, Elijah Wood and Christina Ricci, scheduled for
release in the fall.
Kline is presently in production on the comedy Jn & Out, a story about
a teacher whose sexuality is put into question.
MICHAEL PALIN (Adrian "Bugsy" Malone) gained a degree in
history from Oxford University before going into television and becoming
a founding member of the Monty Python team.
He has written and performed in numerous successful films and television
series, including The Missionary, A Private Function, an award-winning performance
as the hapless Ken in A Fish Called Wanda, and more recently American Friends
and GBH.
Michael's globe-trotting exploits include traveling from London to the Kyle
of Lochalsh and from Derry to Kerry for the two BBC Great Railway Journeys
of the World series, following in the footsteps of Phileas Fogg for Around
the World in 80 Days and, most recently, tackling the trip from North Pole
to South Pole.
In addition to the best-selling Around the World in 80 Days and Pole to
Pole, he has written many books, notably Ripping Yarns and Dr Feggs Encyclopedia
(sic) of All World Knowledge with Terry Jones and a number of children's
books, including The Mirrorstone, Limericks, the Cyril stories and Small
Harry and the Toothache Pills.
Michael's first stage play, The Weekend, opened in Guildford on March 14,
1994 and, after a six week regional tour, moved to the West End at the beginning
of May. His first novel, Hemingway 's Chair was published by Methuen in
April 1995.
His love of travel continues. A few days after completing the initial principal
photography on Fierce Creatures, Palin set off for a nine-month trip around
the Pacific Rim for a future book project as well as a further series of
his popular BBC Television travel programs.
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