The date was March 29th, 1943. A baby boy was born in Harton Hospital in South Shields, Country Durham, England, and was named Eric Idle.The babe grew up with his mother, a nurse, for his father was off fighting the Nazis in World War II as a gunner for the Royal Air Force. However, in December of '45, Eric came down sick. In a desperate attempt to get her husband to come home, Eric's mother wrote to his father and told him to come home, that Eric was very ill. However, in the trek back home, travesty occurred. Eric's father had been hitch-hiking home and caught a ride in the back of a truck. But when the truck suddenly swerved and got hit by a car, Eric's father got crushed in the rear and was seriously injured. He died later that same day - Christmas Eve. Eric has mentioned that his mother weeping that day was his first childhood memory. He was a little over two years old at the time.When Eric turned three, his mother moved the family from his home in Oldham to a new home in Wallasey (a town near Liverpool). There he attended school at St. George's Wallasey until he was nine years of age.In '52, without saying so much as a good-bye, Eric's mother literally dumped him off at a new boarding school called Royal School, Wolverhampton (Midlands). Eric soon find himself surrounded by many other boys who had also lost their fathers during the war, and bullies. It was there that he obtained his basics of comedy - if they are laughing at you, they can't hit you. He used his years there as a training ground for life, and he picked up the guitar to help him while away the time.He was a bright student in the school, and many of his professors told him repeatedly how intelligent and clever he was. He maintained a high academic level throughout, and eventually became a prefect, and then later, head boy. However, despite his high-ranking academics, Eric loathed the school and wanted nothing better than to get out of there and move.And eventually, move on he did. In 1961, due to his hard work and endeavors in school, Eric found himself enrolled at Pembroke College, Cambridge, a college for comedy. It was there that his life as an actor, writer, and comedian truly began. Eric joined the college's local comedy company, The Footlights, in '63, in which he performed and penned skits and sketches for concerts, shows, and plays. In 1965 he was promoted and became the president of the club, and immediately, with shock by all of his fellow Footlight members, changed the rules to allow women to come into the group. A few select females gladly signed up, including Germaine Greer.Time passed. Eric had performed and/or written material for many shows, such as (to name a few) "Stuff What Dreams Are Made Of" (1963), "My Girl Herbert" (1965), "Oh! What A Lovely War!" (1966), and the Edinburgh Festival (also known as the The Footlights Review) many different years.However, Eric's trail of thought soon led him to thinking that he enjoyed creating the script, rather than being the one reading it. A series of writing efforts were soon to follow. He began writing sketches for "I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again". Flat partner (at the time) Graeme Garden eventually enlisted him into "Twice A Fortnight", along with Terry Jones and Michael Palin. He continued by joining up with David Frost and supplying material for "The Frost Report", in which he truly met and worked with John Cleese. To top it off, he also scripted for Ronnie Corbett's sitcom "No, That's Me Over There" at the same time.In 1968, Humphrey Barclay, producer of "I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again", asked Eric to join him, Jones, Palin, and the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band in a new comedy show meant for children. The show was set to be titled as "Do Not AdJust Your Set", and became Eric's main background television series pre-Python. The show did very well and gathered a large adult following (rather than kids) and claimed two seasons. Eric also met American cartoonist Terry Gilliam at this time, and eargerly pulled him into season two of the show, despite the other cast-mates mixed feelings about this. They all eventually loved him and season two flourished and was shown on Thames TV. At the same time, also with Barclay, Eric got involved in a much less popular show called "We Have Ways Of Making You Laugh", though it seemed they really didn't.Thames TV was highly impressed and pleased with the success of "Do Not Adjust Your Set", and began making plans on creating a more adult version of the show. However, at the same time, Barry Took of the BBC was formulating a similar plan with his own partners in crime, John Cleese and Graham Chapman. While Thames was having trouble finding a decent spot for the new show, Cleese rung up Palin and asked Michael to come over and do the BBC show. Palin agreed, and brought along Eric and the two Terrys for the ride. On May 13th, 1969, all the six young comedians met together for the very first time, totally unaware that they would soon become the legendary comedy group known as Monty Python. The new television series (to be filmed in brand-new color) titled Monty Python's Flying Circus was set to film in July. However, Eric held things up by running off with Australian actress and model Lyn Ashley to get married. They honeymooned in the south of France, along with Marty Feldman and his wife. Finally Eric returned, a married man, and in August, the first season commensed filming. On October 5th, at exactly 10:45 PM on the BBC1, the very first episode of Flying Circus was publically broadcasted. Most audiences were aghast and had no clue what to make of this new wacky, corny, slapstick, silly yet intelligent comedy.Eventually, Python began to grew on people, and slowly accumulated into a cult. The series progressed and eventually ended with three and a half seasons. The short-lived fourth season did not include John Cleese, who was disgruntled with the sketches and who had left. Eric, who wrote alone and always felt as the odd one out, was sorely tempted to follow in suit, but decided to stick around a little longer. However, soon the five remaining Pythons agreed that it was time to call it quits to Flying Circus halfway into the fourth season, consequently, making it the final season.Other than Flying Circus, the Pythons enjoyed success on the stage. In '73 the group toured parts of Canada and England with "Monty Python's First Farewell Tour", and then later did a show in '74 called "Live On Drury Lane", a smashing hit which featured skits and songs.Nineteen-seventy-three was an eventful year for Eric. Other than Python, something else new had entered his life. His then wife Lyn bore him a single son (the birthing supposedly filmed) whom they named Carey.Back in 1974, the Pythons, who were far from completely throwing in the towel, filmed and created their very first full-feature film (or second, if you count And Now For Something Completely Different, a film that was composed of their favorite sketches from the first two seasons), which also happens to be their most popular piece of work to this day and the one most widely-recognized across the globe. I am speaking of none other than, of couirse, Monty Python And The Holy Grail. The film was shot in Scotland over a matter of just a couple of weeks on a very small budget and consisted of funny material, bad moods caused by wet, rained-on wool costumes, and slight bickerings over the time crunch, having two directors, and lack of funds and hot water in the hotels.The year of '75 was one of ups and downs, a real roller coaster ride. The Holy Grail was released in Great Britain as well as the United States in April. Eric travelled to New York to help promote the film in the big US of A and met Paul Simon who would soon become his link to Saturday Night Live. Simon introduced Eric to the rest of the SNL crew and they all got on smashingly. Later, he would appear on SNL numerous times as both a starring guest, writer, and host. When trekking to the opposite coast for Holy Grail advertisement purposes in August, Eric became friends with a man who eventually became Eric's best friend: George Harrison. That same year, Eric directed two music videos for George, including "Crackerbox Palace" and "True Love".Eric's first novel, "Hello Sailor", also finally got published. He had originally written it in 1970, but it was never really picked up. While the book never sold well in hardcover, it sold quite a few paperbacks. Despite it having fairly good success, it is still a very unknown piece of work of his. But that's not all! Eric also wrote and starred in his own mini radio series called "Radio 5 On Radio 1" in which he did all of the voicework, scripting, and recording - but it too never became very popular.When Flying Circus ended, Eric wasn't ready to quit television yet. The BBC, who liked Eric's talent, gave Eric his own show which he titled as "The Rutland Weekend Television Show". It was very much like Flying Circus, but was extremely low-budget and was filmed on a set Eric described as 'no bigger than a cupboard'. Eric scripted and directed the whole show (as well as starred in it) while partner back from his Do Not Adjust Your Set days, Neil Innes, did the music for the show. One of the most notable things from the series was that it laid claim to the only Idle-Harrison song, "The Pirate Song", which was composed by both friends and performed on the telly by George.But the good times came to a very quick halt when Eric's marriage with Lyn went off the deep end. Things had not been going well for a while, and they finally divorced. Lyn moved back to Australia, taking Eric's son Carey with her. Eric, alone and hurt, moved to Provence, France and lived in a shack in the hills with no electricity or running water. He floundered into a severe depression, only coming out of his shell for doings with George Harrison and Saturday Night Live.While writing one day, Eric came up with a very funny joke concerning a cameraman and his camera moving away from him. Idle got a hold of Neil Innes and told him of his ingenius idea of a mockumentary group of The Beatles called 'The Rutles'. Innes was fond of the idea and wrote a parody song. Once the Rutles idea was developed further, the group made an 'appearance' on SNL with their song "I Must Be In Love". Fans went nuts over the pre-fab four, and sent in fanmail by the dozens, begging for more Rutles. Eric was convinced that he had quite possibly hit a gold mine. The Rutles had actually made a first appearance on Rutland Weekend Television, where they were also well-received. Eric picked up the pen and began writing a script for an actual Rutles film. On the same tangent as The Rutles and for his television series, Eric released "The Rutland Weekend Songbook" and "The Rutland Dirty Weekend Book". Eric went on a publicity tour to promote the book, but it failed, and Eric vowed never to tour for publicity ever again.In 1976, while vacationing in Barbados with SNL producer Lorne Michaels, two events occurred. First, he became a vegetarian and has since never touched meat (though seafood is an exception). Secondly, Lorne told Eric to do his Rutles film through the NBC rather than the BBC, that he'd get more money that way. Eric agreed to this, thus increasing his budget by a long shot.Preparation for The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash, was coming along smoothly in '77, but Eric hit a bump in the road in June when his appendix ruptured and he had to be rushed to the Arab Hospital in St. John's Wood to have it removed. After being released and deemed healthy, he went off to celebrate with George Harrison - but all too soon. He fell into a sickly relapse and was raced back to the hospital and remained there for ten days. He left the hospital optimistic, however, seeing as he'd lost fifteen pounds, making him slimmer for his upcoming Rutles role as Dirk McQuigley.In August, the Rutles finally commensed filming. Eric has described it as the most fun film he's ever worked on. It consisted of only three weeks of filming in mop-top wigs and Beatles-like costumes, with lots of silliness thrown in-between. In '78, the film aired over NBC, but it received poor ratings. However, when shown a second time later, the ratings soared, and was viewed as an 'artistic masterpiece'.The year 1979 rolled around, and Eric was hard at work on two major projects: the second Monty Python film The Life Of Brian, and Eric's first play, Pass The Butler. Pass The Butler eventually came to the Globe Theatre and was a huge success, and soon began playing globally. Life of Brian was also a smashing hit, the Pythons still calling it the best time they've ever worked with one another. Though the film received backlashings from critics and religiously-offended viewers, it is another of their popular pieces, and is very famous for its ending cross scene where Eric first sung his most widely-known tune, "Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life".The 80's were a time of renewal for Eric. In the late 70's Eric had met model Tania Kosevich at a Saturday Night Live party. It had been lust (and later, love) at first sight. In '81, he married Tania (whom he'd even put in for some cameos in his Rutles film) whom he has happily been with ever since. He claims that he is still crazy about her.In '82 Shelley Duvall asked Eric to write and direct a version of "The Frog Prince" for her Faerie Tale Theatre series. He accepted, and the show starred Teri Garr and Eric's good pal Robin Williams. The successful show won an Ace Award. In '85 Eric returned to Faerie Tale Theatre and took David Bowie's place as the Pied Piper in "The Pied Piper Of Hamelin". Eric has mentioned that he felt that this majestic role was his personal Richard The Fourth.Back in '82, the Pythons got together for their final stage performance, Monty Python Live At The Hollywood Bowl, a hilarious evening composed of many of the Python's favorite songs and skits, along with a couple of new pieces. The audience was having such a good time that Eric has mused that they would have loved it even if they were simply reading the phone book. A year later, the Pythons filmed and created their final film, "The Meaning Of Life". The film was never much of a success, and Universal Studios kept all of the money. While "The Meaning Of Life" lays claim to some of their most memorable material, such as Mr. Creosote, the Pythons were too busy with their own lives and projects to care much about the film. It won a jury prize, and that was about it. However, the Pythons have worked with fellow Pythons in other films as well. Eric was with Palin, Jonesy, and John in "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride" (1996), with John and Graham in "Yellowbeard" (1983), and with Gilliam in "The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen" (1988).But Python is far from Eric's only film works. In '85, Eric landed a cameo in the Chevy Chase film "The National Lampoon's European Vacation". Eric and Chevy were good pals throughout filming, and even began to write a script for "The National Lampoon's Vacation Down Under", but it never saw the light of day. Eric's final speaking scene in European Vacation never saw the light of day either, as he had been singing and partying the night before with Keith Richards and had lost his voice because of it.All through the 80's, Eric had been trying to create a live-action version of Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Pirates Of Penzance". However, it was not to be. Discouraged, Eric finally gave up, and was instead approached by longtime friend Johnathan Miller in 1987 to star as Ko-Ko in his version of the opera "The Mikado". An eager Eric accepted the role, and though he could not quite sing on the same scale the other actors (and actresses) could, he still received very good reviews. The experience also gave him a much finer taste for musicals, a love that would eventually, one day, bring him into the limelight with Spamalot.One of Eric's most successful and highlighting years was 1989. Starring alongside Pierce Brosnan, Eric played as Jean Passepartout in a television miniseries version of "Around The World In 80 Days". Eric's sweet, cute Passepartout caught the attention of NBC, who offered him the main role in a new sitcom called "Nearly Departed", a story about a man and his wife who had been killed in a car wreck but were now ghosts living in their house with another family that had moved in. Despite popular response and high ratings to the show, NBC cancelled the series after just six episodes, deciding to give the funding to a new, bigger show. So Eric moved on, and soon found himself filming one of his fans' favorite films, "Nuns On The Run". Nuns On The Run gave Eric tremendous success and a big name in both the States and in England. He was promptly offered a role as the next Doctor Who with Pamela Anderson as his faithful companion, but that entirely fell through.In 1990, Tania and Eric had a child, Eric's first daughter. They named her Lily. Eric was happy to become a father once more.The 90's were still a successful time for Eric. With a new family member to support, Eric made many films, including "Missing Pieces" (1991), "Too Much Sun" (1991), and "Mom And Dad Save The World" (1992). He also wrote, starred in, and produced another fan favorite, "Splitting Heirs", in 1993. Another of his popular works was in 1995 with the production of "Casper", in which he played the clumsy yet greedy Dibs. That same year, he also did something completely new: a 3D feature attraction for Disneyland called "Honey, I Shrunk The Audience". People can still trek to the popular theme park and become audience members of a virtual awards show, in which Eric plays the emcee Nigel Channing. A couple years later, he did a second attraction for Disneyworld, again as Nigel Channing, for "Journey Into Your Imagination".The 90's were also a time of a beginning of extensive voicework. Eric voiced the sarcastic, witty wizard Rincewind of Terry's Prachett's Discworld series for two different Playstation games, "Discworld" (1995) and "Discworld 2: Mortality Bytes!" (1996). He did the voices for both of Pinky's parents in an episode of "Pinky And The Brain", an evil mouse named Martin in "The Secret Of NIMH 2: Timmy To The Rescue", a hilarious blue dragon named Devon in "The Quest For Camelot", the experimental Dr. Vosknocker in "South Park: Bigger, Longer, And Uncut", and a cunning white fox named Slyly in "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Movie".In 1996, Eric published yet another book, this time for children. "The Owl And The Pussycat" was based off of Edward Leer poems, and was a story that he had written for Lily. The cute book (which Eric also did an audio recording of, along with music and cheery songs) landed Eric with a Grammy nomination in 1998 - but he lost to Winnie The Pooh. Not to be discouraged from writing, however, in 1999 he released his naughty comedy science fiction novel "The Road To Mars", the story about two comics and an android that is desperately searching for a gene and equation to comedy. The voice acting continued into the new millenium, though the film acting slowed down some. Some of Eric's more notable VA works were in "102 Dalmations" (2000) as Waddlesworth, the red parrot who thought he was a dog, as Drosselmeier in "The Nutcracker And The Mouseking" (2004), as Declan Desmond, the seedy reporter for "The Simpsons" (2003, 2004, 2006), and as the slighty corky, famous magician Merlin in "Shrek The Third" (2007). Eric also currently has another VA spot slated, as the snippety, fairly daft imp Spig in "Delgo" (2008?) that is yet to be released into theatres, but is being noted as in post-production. He can also be heard as the voice-over on Aquafina commercials.One of Eric's most notable film acting appearances was as the rude yet highly amusing new boss of The Gate magazine on the 4th season television series "Suddenly Susan" (1999-2000). The character of Ian allowed Eric to be funny, and yet crude and it took a lot of the humor out of the role. He was originally set to work on the series for six years, but the show was cancelled.Not to be idle, and to prove a subtle point to the other Pythons, Eric set off on his first solo tour: Eric Idle Exploits Monty Python (2000). The show consisted of many Python favorite songs and sketches, lacking little new material. Eric brought along with him back-up singers and musicians, friend Peter Crabbe, and musical partner John Du Prez. While the tickets sold well and the audiences seemed to enjoy themselves, the critics never truly praised the tour. Eric ended up making very little money due to the expenses of touring and paying for all his fellow castmates.He returned to film work, though there was little to do. He has not had a starring role since "Burn Hollywood Burn", but was able to sneak in a cameo in "Hollywood Homicide" (2003), played a wacky ghost named Coffin Ed on the Disney Cannel movie "Scream Team" (2002), and was the narrator of the fairy tale film "Ella Enchanted" (2004). Expanding into other fields, in 2003 Eric created his first solo comedy album, "The Rutland Isles", a very naughty, dirty CD that contained some very suggestive songs (and song titles), but was great for kicks and laughs. Eric did practically all of the voicework for the entire album, and composed all of the music with John Du Prez, recording it in his own studio in his garage basement. Eric was disappointed that he did not receive any Grammy nominations for the CD, however, and the CD became a fairly hard to find item, Eric being quoted as saying that 'weapons of mass destruction are easier to find'. However, he did receive a second Grammy nomination for doing an audio book recording for "Charlie And The Chocolate Factory" (2002) and "Charlie And The Great Glass Elevator" (2004). However, he loses a second time - this time to Bill Clinton!In 2003, when Eric turned 60, he decided that it was time to hit the road once more and took off on his second solo tour across the states in, "The Greedy Bastard Tour". This show differed from the first in the fact that it had less people and more new material, though it still included many of his more well-known songs and sketches. It was also the first time Eric had ever done stand-up, and he easily fell into place talking with and joking about the audience. The show was extremely well received, and critics and viewers both highly praised Eric, calling him a comedy god and a genius. He even wrote a blog online nightly after each show, and in 2005 turned the journal into a novel-length book titled as "The Greedy Bastard Diary: A Comic Tour Across America". However, Eric's greatest success of the decade (thus far) has not come from books, or movies, or from the television. It came from Broadway.Back in 1996, Eric had an idea to create a musical versoin of "Monty Python And The Holy Grail", but he didn't actually start working on the script for it until about 2001. Along with John Du Prez, he and John composed a CD of possible songs for the musical show, hammering out lyrics and tunes at an amazing rate. When the CD was finished, he shipped it off to the other Pythons, who all loved the CD and OKed Eric to go ahead with the show. Eric didn't think twice and shot off like a bullet, grabbing friend Mike Nichols to direct and Tim Curry, David Hyde Pierce, and Hank Azaria to star. The show took off in December of 2004 in Chicago with a gypsy run, and then filtered over to Broadway in January of 2004. "Spamalot", the musical lovingly ripped off of Holy Grail, was a tremendous hit, and has been ever since it hit the Shubert Theatre. In 2005, it received dozens of nominations in different award shows, and brought home many trophies. In the most notable awards show, The Tonys, it won for Best Musical, Best Director, and Best Actress (and had been nominated in every category). Eric, too, had been nominated, but sadly he lost. However, in 2006 he was again nominated for a Grammy award, this time for the Spamalot soundtrack - and finally won! Spamalot continues to play on Broadway, has a very successful a United States / Canada tour, and opened with a bang in London in fall of 2006. The show is also now playing in Las Vegas, Nevada in its very own Grail Theatre that Eric helped to design. Later this fall / early winter Spamalot will premiere in Melbourne, Australia at Her Majesty's Theatre.With the booming success of "Spamalot", Eric has 'made it big', landing him on Forbes most powerful and influencial celebrities list (as of 2006). However, he has not remaining idle. He has recently performed a few successful rounds of "Not The Messiah - He's A Very Naughty Boy", a new oratorio based off of, of course, Life Of Brian. The festivity premiere in Toronto, Canada during the first week of June of 2007 at the Luminato Festival. It played again a month later for a single showing in New York City. Eric himself performed as the narrator, and as a soloist. Not The Messiah is now coming to Australia at four different venues during December.As for future projects, there is a rumor that he plans to create a film based off of Spamalot, but not much has been said on that subject, only that it would be completely different from Holy Grail. However, probably the next big thing that will come from Idle is a Monty Python themed ballet. Again, not much has been said on its behalf, but John Du Prez is again Idle's musical partner. There has also been much small talk of the creation of an album specifically for Sara Ramirez (the original Lady of the Lake of Spamalot).In-betwen his busy lifestyle, Eric enjoys spending time with his family and two pets Bagel the beagle and Shadow the German shepherd while living in his Hollywood home in southern California. He swims, takes walks, and sometimes weight trains. Rising early with the sun, he likes to sit and write whatever comes to his mind. He enjoys a laptop and a fine cup of tea, and likes to eat fine Thai meals prepared by his cook Wee. Eric often picks up one of his dozens of guitars to strum random tunes, and also often picks up good books to read late at night before he goes to bed.Eric has always led a very prolific life, and continues to do so. Whether it comes to acting, voice-acting, directing, producing, writing, composing, or singing, Eric's works have been very enjoyable, and will be cherished for years to come by fans of all ages across the globe.For more information on all of Eric's works, check out the Idleography, Books, Television, CDs, Plays And Stage, Games, Awards And Nominations, and Other pages in the Information section on the site. Thanks!
