Monty Python star Terry Jones dies aged 77

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Monty Python star Terry Jones dies aged 77

By Paul Sandle

FILE PHOTO: British comedian Terry Jones smiles as he leaves The Rolls Building in central London November 30, 2012. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett//File Photo

 

LONDON (Reuters) - Terry Jones, one of the British Monty Python comedy team and director of religious satire "Life of Brian", has died at the age of 77 after a long battle with dementia, his family said on Wednesday.

 

Born in Wales in 1942, Jones was also an author, historian and poet. He had been diagnosed in 2015 with a rare form of dementia, FTD.

 

Jones was one of the creators of Monty Python's Flying Circus, the British TV show that rewrote the rules of comedy with surreal sketches, characters and catchphrases, in 1969.

 

He co-directed the team's first film "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" with fellow Python Terry Gilliam, and directed the subsequent Life of Brian and "The Meaning of Life."

 

Python Michael Palin, who met Jones at Oxford University, said he was "kind, generous, supportive and passionate about living life to the full".

 

"He was far more than one of the funniest writer-performers of his generation, he was the complete Renaissance comedian - writer, director, presenter, historian, brilliant children's author, and the warmest, most wonderful company you could wish to have."

 

FILE PHOTO: Members of British comedy troupe Monty Python (L-R) Eric Idle, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Michael Palin and Terry Jones pose for a photograph during a media event in central London, June 30, 2014. REUTERS/Paul Hackett/File Photo

 

Jones' family said his work with Monty Python, books, films, television programmes, poems and other work "will live on forever, a fitting legacy to a true polymath".

 

Jones wrote comedy sketches with Palin in the 1960s for shows including "The Frost Report" and "Do Not Adjust Your Set" before the pair teamed up with Cambridge graduates Eric Idle, John Cleese, Graham Chapman - who died in 1989 - and U.S. film-maker Terry Gilliam to create Monty Python.

 

One of Jones' best-known roles was that of Brian's mother in Life of Brian released in 1979, who screeches at worshippers from an open window: "He's not the Messiah, he's a very naughty boy".

 

Another was the hugely obese Mr Creosote who explodes in a restaurant at the end of an enormous meal after eating a "wafer-thin mint".

 

Cleese said: "It feels strange that a man of so many talents and such endless enthusiasm, should have faded so gently away ..," adding, in a reference to Chapman "Two down, four to go."

 

As well as his comedy work, Jones wrote about medieval and ancient history, including a critique of Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Knight's Tale".

 

He made an emotional public appearance in 2016 when, just weeks after revealing his diagnosis with dementia, he received a Bafta Cymru award for his outstanding contribution to film and television, which was presented by Palin.

 

(Additional reporting by Elizabeth Howcroft and Kate Holton; editing by Stephen Addison)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-01-23

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[Samui Bodoh]

"He's not the Messiah, he's a very naughty boy"

 

This has to be one of the most memorable lines ever written or said in a movie.

 

Thank you for all the many many many laughs!

 

R.I.P.

 

 

[mokwit]

Saw Holy Grail as a kid - laughed so much I was seriously fearful that I would die of laughter.

[blazes]

This sketch (with Eric Idle) always made me laugh out loud):
 

 

 

RIP...you will long be in our memories....

[Wiggy]

Terry Jones is an ex Python, he has ceased to be.

 

So very, very sad ☹️ Thanks for all the laughs. RIP. 

[AhFarangJa]

:We use only the finest baby frogs, dew picked and flown from Iraq, cleansed in finest quality spring water, lightly killed, and then sealed in a succulent Swiss quintuple smooth treble cream milk chocolate envelope and lovingly frosted with glucose."

 

Thanks for the everlasting memories of laughter. A true genius who will always be around us in some form. R.I.P. Terry....

[Teddy3943]

1 hour ago, Samui Bodoh said:

"He's not the Messiah, he's a very naughty boy"

 

This has to be one of the most memorable lines ever written or said in a movie.

 

Thank you for all the many many many laughs!

 

R.I.P.

 

 

"Life of Brian" One of the most humorous movies I ever watched.

Edited January 23, 2020 by Teddy3943

[Samui Bodoh]

Below is a link to a documentary on making the Life of Brian.

 

I highly recommend it as it really brings out the true genius of the Pythons and how far ahead of their time they were. It might sound funny today, but making a movie that mocked the birth and life of Christ was a hugely controversial thing to do at that time; it had the potential to destroy their careers.

 

Thank BRIAN it didn't.

 

If you can't watch it now, be sure to look at it later; it is definitely worth your time.

 

A Massive Python fan. 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 23, 2020 by Samui Bodoh

[Dmaxdan]

And then there were four.  R.I.P Terry, the man who made Spam cool. 

[Paradise Pete]

FTD is frontotemporal lobar degeneration, the most common form of dementia for people under age 60. It represents a group of brain disorders caused by degeneration of the frontal and/or temporal lobes of the brain. FTD is also frequently referred to as frontotemporal dementia, frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD), or Pick's disease.

 

I had to look it up, now you don't have to.

[Snow Leopard]

This part of the L.O.B still makes me laugh to this day. 

 

 

[ballpoint]

Very sad news.  Let's hope the surviving Pythons give him a good send off.

 

[Somtamnication]

May you rest in peace and have fun with that NAUGHTY BOY! Thanks for years of laughter.

[Traubert]

Naughtius Maximus was his name. Promised me the known world he did. I was to be taken to Rome, House by the Forum. Slaves. Asses' milk. As much gold as I could eat. Then, he, having his way with me had... voom! Like a rat out of an aquaduct. 

 

I'm not a Roman mum, I'm a Kike! A Yid! A Hebe! A Hook-nose! I'm Kosher, Mum! I'm a Red Sea Pedestrian, and proud of it!

 

Nobody ever wrote stuff like that before or since. . RIP Terry. Very sad.

[mokwit]

5 minutes ago, Traubert said:

Nobody ever wrote stuff like that before or since. . RIP Terry. Very sad.

I don't think humour is allowed now- very un PC

[VocalNeal]

3 minutes ago, mokwit said:

I don't think humour is allowed now- very un PC

and people are becoming very literal. No nuances.

[BadBouy]

 

[bannork]

9 hours ago, blazes said:

This sketch (with Eric Idle) always made me laugh out loud):
 

 

 

RIP...you will long be in our memories....

Eric Idle: 'She's been around a bit, eh? Been around.'

Terry Jones: ' Yes, she's travelled. She's from Purley.'

Love it!

 

[ballpoint]

Arguably the best line ever uttered in a movie:

 

[Jingthing]

Song by Eric Idle,  I think this is now the most popular funereal song in the UK: