1. Eric Idle was born on 29 March 1943 and is an English actor, comedian, songwriter, musician, screenwriter and playwright.
55 Facts About Eric Idle
1. 2.
Eric Idle was a member of the British comedy group Monty Python and the parody rock band the Rutles.
3.
Eric Idle has received a Grammy Award as well as nominations for two Tony Awards.
4.
Eric Idle reached stardom in the 1970s when he co-created and acted in the Python sketch comedy series Flying Circus and the films Holy Grail, Life of Brian, and The Meaning of Life with Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin.
5.
Eric Idle worked in films The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Nuns on the Run, Splitting Heirs, Casper, An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn, Ella Enchanted, and Shrek the Third.
6.
Eric Idle made his Broadway debut with his adaptation of Holy Grail into the musical, Spamalot, which was a critical and commercial success earning the Tony Award for Best Musical, and Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album.
7.
Eric Idle wrote Not the Messiah and performed at the London 2012 Olympic Games closing ceremony.
8.
Eric Idle was born on 29 March 1943 in Harton Hospital, in South Shields.
9.
Eric Idle's mother, Norah Barron Sanderson, was a nurse, and his father, Ernest Idle, served in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, only to be killed in a road accident while hitchhiking home for Christmas in December 1945.
10.
Eric Idle said his mother "disappeared for a while into depression" and consequently he was brought up by his grandmother in Swinton, Lancashire.
11.
Eric Idle spent part of his childhood in Wallasey in Cheshire, and attended St George's Primary School.
12.
Eric Idle's mother had difficulty coping with a full-time job and bringing up a child, so when Idle was seven, she enrolled him in the Royal Wolverhampton School as a boarder.
13.
Eric Idle has stated that the two things that made his life at school bearable were listening to Radio Luxembourg under the bedclothes and watching the local football team, Wolverhampton Wanderers.
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Eric Idle disliked other sports, and would sneak out of school every Thursday afternoon to the local cinema.
15.
Eric Idle was eventually caught watching the film BUtterfield 8 and stripped of his prefecture, though by that time he was head boy.
16.
Eric Idle says there was little to do at the school, and boredom drove him to study hard and consequently win a place at Cambridge University.
17.
Eric Idle started at Cambridge only a year after future fellow-Pythons Graham Chapman and John Cleese.
18.
Eric Idle became Footlights President in 1965 and was the first to allow women to join the club.
19.
Eric Idle starred in the television comedy series Do Not Adjust Your Set co-starring his future Python castmates Terry Jones and Michael Palin.
20.
Eric Idle appeared as guest in some episodes of the television series At Last the 1948 Show, which featured Cleese and Chapman in its principal cast.
21.
Eric Idle wrote for Python mostly by himself, at his own pace, although he sometimes found it difficult to present material to the others and make it seem funny without the back-up support of a partner.
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However, he says that Eric Idle was an independent person and worked best on his own.
23.
The second-youngest member of the Pythons, Eric Idle was closest in spirit to the teenagers who made up much of Python's fanbase.
24.
Eric Idle originally wrote "Nudge, Nudge" for Ronnie Barker, but it was rejected because there was 'no joke in the words'.
25.
Eric Idle was responsible for the "Galaxy Song" from The Meaning of Life and "Eric the Half-a-Bee", a whimsical tune that first appeared on the Previous Record album.
26.
On television, Eric Idle created and wrote Rutland Weekend Television, a sketch show on BBC2 with music by Neil Innes.
27.
Eric Idle appeared in the film as "Dirk McQuickly", as well as the main commentator, while Innes appeared as "Ron Nasty".
28.
In 1986, Eric Idle provided the voice of Wreck-Gar, the leader of the Junkions in The Transformers: The Movie.
29.
Eric Idle went on the road with the Eric Idle Exploits Monty Python Tour, then with the Greedy Bastard Tour, which was documented extensively on the Python website he launched in 1996.
30.
Eric Idle played Ratty in Terry Jones' version of The Wind in the Willows.
31.
In 1995, Eric Idle appeared in Casper opposite Cathy Moriarty and voiced Rincewind the "Wizzard" in a computer adventure game based on Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels.
32.
In 1998, Eric Idle appeared in the lead role in the poorly received film Burn Hollywood Burn.
33.
Eric Idle has made four appearances on The Simpsons as documentarian Declan Desmond.
34.
Eric Idle provided the voice of Merlin the magician in the DreamWorks animated film Shrek the Third with his former Python co-star John Cleese, who voiced King Harold.
35.
Eric Idle has narrated the audiobook version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl.
36.
In late 2003, Idle began a performing tour of several American and Canadian cities entitled The Greedy Bastard Tour.
37.
In 2005, Eric Idle released The Greedy Bastard Diary, a book detailing the things the cast and crew encountered during the three-month tour.
38.
In 2004, Eric Idle created Spamalot, a musical comedy based on the 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
39.
Eric Idle performed at the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony at the Olympic Stadium in London on 12 August, singing "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life".
40.
In December 2016, Eric Idle was the writer and co-presenter of The Entire Universe, a "comedy and musical extravaganza with the help of Warwick Davis, Noel Fielding, Hannah Waddingham and Robin Ince, alongside a chorus of singers and dancers", broadcast by BBC Two.
41.
In 2020, it was announced that Eric Idle would adapt his script for Spamalot into a feature film for Paramount Pictures, with Nicholaw directing and Dan Jinks producing.
42.
In 2022, Eric Idle competed in season eight of The Masked Singer as "Hedgehog".
43.
In February 2024, Eric Idle made headlines in the UK after revealing that he was still working at the age of 80 for financial reasons.
44.
Eric Idle's novels are Hello Sailor and The Road to Mars.
45.
Eric Idle wrote the book and co-wrote the music and lyrics for the musical Monty Python's Spamalot, based on the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
46.
Eric Idle is a songwriter with about 150 songs to his credit.
47.
Eric Idle performed the song at the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games on 12 August 2012 and as the farewell song of the last show of the Python's reunion at the O2 arena, 20 July 2014.
48.
In 1989, Eric Idle co-wrote and sang the theme tune to the popular British sitcom One Foot in the Grave and although the series became immensely popular, the song did poorly in the charts.
49.
Eric Idle wrote the lyrics and book for Spamalot, collaborating with John Du Prez on much of the music.
50.
Eric Idle performed live during this 50-minute oratorio, along with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and members of the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir.
51.
Eric Idle contributed a cover of Buddy Holly's "Raining in My Heart" for the tribute album Listen to Me: Buddy Holly, released 6 September 2011.
52.
Eric Idle wrote and sang a variant of the "Galaxy Song" for Professor Brian Cox's show Wonders of Life, as well as the new theme for Cox's radio show The Infinite Monkey Cage.
53.
Eric Idle met Tania Kosevich, a former model, in 1977, and they married in 1981.
54.
Eric Idle is a first cousin of Canadian conductor Peter Oundjian and Nigel Wray, former chairman of Saracens Rugby Club.
55.
Eric Idle was diagnosed early and underwent successful surgery to remove the tumour, needing no further treatment after this procedure.