A man who continues to make us laugh, rock the boat, inspire, and shake things up.
John was born on October 27, 1939, in Weston-Super-Mare, England, into a family of modest means, who considered it important that John had a good education. Here he was often tormented for his height, having reached a height of six feet by the age of twelve, and eventually discovered that being humorous could deflect aggressive behaviour. He grew to love humour and has made an incredible career from his writing and comedy.
Some of John’s life highlights are…… attending Cambridge University to read (study) Law; being a member of the university's legendary Footlights group, where he wrote and performed in comedy reviews such as “Cambridge Circus,” which toured internationally and went on to spawn so many other comedy classics, such as “I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again,” Monty Pythons’s Flying Circus and the Monty Python films….with Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones and Michael Palin.
And let’s not forget one of the funniest series ever, that John and then-wife Connie Booth collaborated in, the legendary television series Fawlty Towers (1975).
More recently John has appeared in the Harry Potter series and the James Bond series as Q, in which he began as R before graduating to Q.
John’s two daughters are what he considers to be real highlights of his life alongside promoting education and learning which he does as professor-at-large of Cornell University in New York. John lives in Santa Barbara, California.
