Actors - Eric Idle

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	Actors - Eric Idle

Eric Idle (born March 29, 1943) is an English comedian, actor and film director, as well as an author and guitarist/songwriter. He wrote and performed as part of the Monty Python team.

Early life

Idle was born in South Shields, County Durham, England. His father had been in the Royal Air Force and survived the Second World War, only to be killed in a car crash shortly afterwards. His mother had difficulty coping with a full-time job and raising a child, so at the age of seven she enrolled him into the Royal Wolverhampton School as a boarder.

The school had begun life as a Victorian orphanage and during Idle's time it was a charitable foundation solely dedicated to the welfare of orphans and semi-orphans. Its pupils, who were mainly the children of dead English soldiers, still referred to it as the .

"It was a physically abusive, bullying, harsh environment for a kid to grow up in," Idle is quoted as saying, "I got used to dealing with groups of boys and getting on with life in unpleasant circumstances and being smart and funny and subversive at the expense of authority. Perfect training for Python."

Idle stated that the two things that made his life bearable were listening to Radio Luxembourg under the bedclothes and watching the local football team, Wolverhampton Wanderers. Despite this he disliked other sports and would sneak out of school every Thursday afternoon to the local cinema. He was eventually caught watching the X-rated BUtterfield 8 and was stripped of his prefectship, even though by that time he was headboy. Idle had already refused to be the senior boy in the school cadet force as he was a keen supporter for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and had participated in the yearly Aldermaston march.

Idle maintains that there was little to do at school and boredom drove him to work hard. He consequentially won a place at Cambridge.

University Life and comedy

Eric Idle attended Pembroke College at the University of Cambridge, where he studied English. At Pembroke College he was invited to join the prestigious Cambridge University Footlights Club by fellow Pembroke College students, the then 1963 President of the Footlights Club, Tim Brooke-Taylor and Footlights Club member Bill Oddie.

"I'd never heard of the Footlights when I got there, but we had a tradition of college smoking-concerts, and I sent in some sketches parodying a play that had just been done. Tim Brooke-Taylor and Bill Oddie auditioned me for the Footlights smoker, and that led to me discovering about and getting into the Footlights, which was great".

Eric Idle became Footlights President in 1965. Other Monty Python members of the Cambridge University Footlights Club were John Cleese and Graham Chapman.

With regard to the other Monty Python members, both Terry Jones and Michael Palin attended the University of Oxford, while Terry Gilliam attended Occidental College in the United States. Before Monty Python's Flying Circus, Eric Idle appeared in the comedy program Do Not Adjust Your Set with Terry Jones, Michael Palin and David Jason.

During the 1960's period, the combined comedy students of both the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge became known as the Oxbridge Mafia.

Monty Python

Unlike the other Pythons, who wrote in pairs (Cleese/Chapman and Palin/Jones), Idle wrote alone. His work was often closely associated with long, complex speeches or catchy one-liners. Amongst the many Python sketches written by Idle is the "Nudge Nudge Wink Wink" sketch, the title of which has become a catchphrase.

His abilities as a singer and songwriter were also put to use in his work with Monty Python, and he wrote several of the songs featured in their television series', films and records. These include "Eric the Half-a-Bee", "The Philosophers' Song" and probably his most recognised hit "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life", which was written for the closing scene of the film Life of Brian, sung from the crosses during the mass crucifixion, as something of an antidote to Death. When a clip of this song was used as part of a jingle by Simon Mayo on the BBC Radio 1 breakfast show in 1991, it was re-released to much acclaim, and reached number 3 in the UK Singles Chart. It later became a staple football chant.

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