Biography for
Terry Jones (I) More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

1 February 1942, Colwyn Bay, Wales, UK

Birth Name

Terence Graham Perry Jones

Nickname

Jonesy

Height

5' 8" (1.73 m)

Mini Biography

Terry Jones was born in Colwyn Bay, North Wales. His father was a bank clerk, mother - mistress of the house. He has an older brother Nigel Jones (1940-). He studied at St. Edmund Hall College, Oxford University. In 1965, with his friend Michael Palin, he made 'The Love Show' for television, which was his first success. Also, he wrote for many other TV shows, such as: 'The Kathy Kirby Show', 'Late Night Line-Up' (with Palin), "Complete and Utter History of Britain" (1969) (with Palin). But Jones' greatest success was zany "Monty Python's Flying Circus" (1969) (1969-74) (with Palin, Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Giliiam and Eric Idle).

IMDb Mini Biography By: Sidney Robert Loomis

Spouse

Alison Telfer

(1970 - present) 2 children

Trivia

He is the shortest member of the comedy group "Monty Python".

Children, with Telfer, Sally (b. 1974) and Bill (b. 1976)

Was the shortest member of the Monty Python comedy troupe, having been about an inch shorter than Terry Gilliam.

Has a mild speech impediment - he has trouble pronouncing the letter "r".

Has a degree in Modern History from Oxford University.

Supported a motion to impeach British Prime Minister Tony Blair after the war "Operation Iraqi Freedom".

Father was Welsh and his mother was English (Anglo-Saxon ancestry).

Has directed 3 of the 4 films that have been banned in Ireland (Most notably, "Life of Brian", and "The Meaning of Life.").

Attended Royal Grammar School in Guilford (was head boy) & graduated from St. Edmond Hall at Oxford.

Was diagnosed with bowel cancer in the early stages. [October 2006].

Member of Monty Python along with John Cleese, Michael Palin, Graham Chapman, Eric Idle and Terry Gilliam.

Born in the same town as actor Timothy Dalton.

Personal Quotes

[On the death of Graham Chapman, who died on the eve of the 20th aniversary of the Monty Python comedy troupe]: "I thought it was in terribly bad taste for him to die when he did."

The problem with the media is [news organizations] are primarily owned by corporations, and corporations are pro-establishment... Newspapers and television start using the vocabulary of politicians, and that's the way bias creeps in.

Comedy is a dangerous business. If people find something funny you're okay. But the moment you do something that's meant to be funny and someone doesn't find it funny, they become angry. It's almost as if they resent the fact that you tried to make them laugh and failed. Nobody comes out of a mediocre performance of Hamlet seething with rage because it didn't make them cry. But just listen to people coming out of a comedy that didn't make them laugh.

(On being recognised as a "famous face"): "In a way it makes the world smaller, it makes it like a village. It's really how I felt the world always ought to be, where you feel you know people and people are interested in you. So, it's like a retreat into childhood really, where when you're a baby everybody's interested in you and it's rather the same thing."

One of the things we tried to do with the show was to try and do something that was so unpredictable that it had no shape and you could never say what the kind of humor was. And I think that the fact that "Pythonesque" is now a word in the Oxford English Dictionary shows the extent to which we failed.

Where Are They Now

(January 2008) Co-wrote an opera with Luis Tinoco that premiered in Lisbon, Portugal, January 12, 2008. Jones turned his collection of short stories into a libretto for the production which he is also directing. It is about machines trying to take over the world and involves cars, motorbikes, washers, dryers, parking meters and gigantic vacuum cleaners, all singing opera on stage.

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