Eric Idle

At 81 years old, Eric Idle has this physical status:

Career

Idle studied English at Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he concentrated on English. He was invited to join the prestigious Cambridge University Footlights Club by Footlights Club President Tim Brooke-Taylor and Footlights Club member Bill Oddie at Pembroke.

Idle was only a year after Graham Chapman and John Cleese, two of his classmates, were born in Cambridge. He became Footlights President in 1965 and was the first to welcome women into the club. Idle appeared in the children's television comedy series Do Not Adjust Your Set co-starring Terry Jones and Michael Palin. Terry Gilliam created animated scenes for the film. David Jason and Denise Coffey, two comedians, appeared on the show. Idle appeared in several episodes of the television series At Last the 1948 Show, which starred Cleese and Chapman in its main cast.

Idle wrote for Python mainly by himself, at his own pace, but he did find it difficult to give information to the others and make it come off as funny without having to have the back-up of a partner. The other Pythons used to work in teams, and Cleese acknowledged that this was marginally unfair – "he (Idle) only got one vote" when the Pythons decided which sketches should be included in a show. However, he also believes that Idle was a genius and performed best on his own. "You had to convince five others," Idle himself acknowledged that it was often difficult. They were not the most unashamed of writers, either." He wrote with Cleese once or twice.

Idle's Python work is often characterized by a fascination with language and communication: several of his characters have verbal peculiarities, including the man who speaks in anagrams, the man who says words in the wrong order, and the butcher who alternates between rudeness and politeness every time he speaks; A number of his sketches feature extended monologues (for example the customer in the "Travel Agency" sketch who won't stop talking about his holiday experiences) and television presenters will often mock the television presenters' bizarre speech and speech patterns. Idle is said to be the master of insincere characters, from David Frost-esque Timmy Williams to small-time crook Stig O'Tracy, who refuses to acknowledge that organised crime master Dinsdale Piranha nailed his head to the floor.

Idle, the Pythons' second-youngest member, was the closest in spirit to the teenagers who made up a large number of Python's followers. Python sketches depicting the majority of contemporary obsessions such as pop music, sexual tolerance, and recreational heroin use are typically Idle's work, which is often characterized by double entendre, sexual stereotypes, and other "naughty" subject matter, as shown in "Nudge Nudge." Ronnie Barker had written "nudge, nudge," but it was rejected because there was "no joke in the terms."

Idle, a gifted guitarist, wrote some of the group's most popular musical numbers, including "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life," the group's closing number of Life of Brian, which has since evolved to become a Python signature tune. He was behind on "Galaxy Song" from The Meaning of Life and "Eric the Half-Bee," a whimsical tune that appeared on the Previous Record album for the first time.

All six members embarked on solo projects following Python's success in the early 1970s. Idle's first solo project was his own BBC Radio One show, Radio Five (pre-dating the original Radio Five station by 18 years). Idle performed sketches and links to music from 1973 to 1974, appearing in almost every one of the multi-tracked scenes himself.

Idle created and wrote Rutland Weekend Television (RWT), a sketch show on BBC2 with music by Neil Innes, on television. RWT was the "Britist television network." The name was a parody of London Weekend Television, the independent television franchise company that offered Londoners with their ITV services at weekends; Rutland had been England's smallest county, but it had recently been 'abolished' in an administrative shake-up. The show came to an end on a weekday to make it complete. David Battley, Henry Woolf, Gwen Taylor, and Terence Bayler were among the regular performers. On one episode, George Harrison appeared as a guest.

The Rutles' creation, with Innes, was an affectionate parody of the Beatles. The band became a hit on Saturday Night Live in the United States, where Idle was on TV in the United States – fans would mail in Beatles LPs with their sleeves changed to reveal the Rutles. All You Need Is Cash, a Python project starring Python members and Saturday Night Live, was broadcast on NBC television in 1978, written by Innes. Idle appeared in the film as "Dirk McQuickly" (the Paul McCartney-styled character of the group), as well as the main commentator, while Innes appeared as "Ron Nasty" (the band's stand-in for John Lennon). The film featured actors John Belushi, Bill Murray, and Gilda Radner, as well as fellow Python Michael Palin, but also 1960s comedians such as former Beatle George Harrison, Mick Jagger, and Paul Simon. In 2008, Idle wrote and produced the Rutles' return to Rutlemania, a live show. The 30th anniversary of the event was being commemorated. A Beatles tribute band played in Los Angeles and New York City.

In 1986, Idle introduced Wreck-Gar, the founder of the Junkions (a race of robots made of junk that can only talk in film catchers and advertising slogans). He appeared in the role of the Lord High Executioner, Ko-Ko, in 1987, during the English National Opera production The Mikado, a Gilbert and Sullivan comedic opera, in which he appeared in the role of the Lord High Executioner, Ko-Ko. He appeared in the comedy television series Nearly Departed, about a ghost who haunts the family who lives in his former home in 1989; the series ran for six episodes as a summer replacement series.

Idle received positive feedback in books written and directed by others, including Terry Gilliam's The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1989), alongside Robbie Coltrane in Nuns on the Run (1990) and Casper (1995). In Terry Jones' version of The Wind in the Willows (1996), he appeared as Ratty. However, his own creative ventures, such as the film Splitting Heirs (1993), a comedic biography that he wrote, starred in, and executive produced, were mostly unpopular with critics and audiences.

Idle appeared in the three-dimensional film Honey, I Shrunk the Audience!, which was an attraction at Walt Disney World's Epcot from 1994 to 2010, as Dr. Nigel Channing, chairman of the Imagination Institute and host of an 'Inventor of the Year' awards show in 1994. Rick Moranis and other cast members of the 1989 feature film Honey, I Shrunk the Children appear in the film. In 1999, he reprised his role in Epcot's short-lived second iteration of the Journey into Imagination, replacing Figment and Dreamfinder as the host. The attraction was reworked in 2001, bringing Figment into the ride while still maintaining Idle's role as Nigel Channing, owing to a popular demand from Disney fans. Idle is also a writer and actor of the 3-D film Pirates – 4D for Busch Entertainment Corporation.

In 1995, Idle voiced Rincewind the "Wizzard" in a computer adventure game based on Terry Pratchett's Discworld books. In 1996, he reprised his role as Rincewind for the game's sequel, as well as composed and performed the game's theme song, "That's Death." Idle appeared in the lead role in the ill-deserved film Burning in 1998. Devon, One of the two heads of a Two-headed dragon with Don Rickles as the other head Cornwall in the Warner Bros. animated film Quest for Camelot and Slyly, the albino Arctic fox in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Movie was released in the United States in the same year.

Idle has produced voiceover animations, including in South Park: Longer & Uncut, in which he portrayed Dr. Vosknocker. Declan Desmond, a documentarian who has appeared on The Simpsons for four times, has been a writer on The Simpsons. Idle appeared in the DreamWorks animated film Shrek the Third (2007) with his former Python co-star John Cleese, who portrayed King Harold. He has also narrated Roald Dahl's audiobook version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

The Greedy Bastard Tour, which began in late 2003, was introduced to many American and Canadian cities. The stage performances featured a mixture of music from Monty Python episodes and films as well as some original post-Python material. Idle published The Greedy Bastard Diary, a book that outlined the activities of the cast and crew on their three-month tour in 2005.

Spamalot, a musical comedy based on Monty Python and the Holy Grail, was created in 2004 by Idle. The medieval reconstruction tells the tale of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table as they travel for the Holy Grail. Spamalot has a book and lyrics by Idle, Idle and John Du Prez's music, direction by Mike Nichols, and choreography by Casey Nichols.

Idle's play What About Dick?

On August 12, Idle performed "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" at the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony at the Olympic Stadium in London. Monty Python Live (mostly) he was the creator and producer of Monty Python Live, a live show in London from 1 January to July 2014.

"Enter the Entire Universe" was written and co-presenter Idle, a "comedy and musical extravaganza with the help of Warwick Davis, Noel Fielding, Hannah Waddingham, and Robin Ince, as well as a chorus of singers and dancers," BBC Two's "comedy and musical extravaganza.

Idle will turn his script for Spamalot into a Paramount Pictures feature film, with Nicholaw directing and Dan Jinks producing.

Idle appeared in season eight of The Masked Singer as "Hedgehog" in 2022. With support from the USC Trojan Marching Band, he produced a recreation of The Beatles' "Love Me Do" song. Idle said to Nick Cannon that he had to get permission from Paul McCartney to do "Love Me Do" for a competition in exchange that McCartney knows what the competition is so that he does not like it. In addition, Idle appeared on "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" from Life of Brian, which was an unveiled performance.

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