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Terrence Vance Gilliam (b. November 22, 1940, Minneapolis, Minnesota) is an Academy Award-nominated American filmmaker and the only American-born member of the acclaimed Monty Python. Gilliam moved with his family to Los Angeles at eleven where his attraction to film began. He also developed his drawing and cartooning skills. He attended Occidental college where studied physics and later, politics. Following his college graduation, he went to work for comic producer Harvey Kurtzman. He worked on the magazine Help! writing, drawing and designing. While there, he met John Cleese who convinced him to participate in a spoof photo-story about a man involved in an affair with a small doll.
His work with Help! ended when he joined the National Guard. At the end of his service he journeyed to Europe, hitchhiking and biking his way. He worked as a cartoonist in Paris and eventually returned home to work in a Los Angeles ad agency. After being confronted by police brutality in the States, Gilliam left America for Europe. He moved to London with British journalist Glenys Roberts and became an art editor of the magazine Londoner.
Frustrated with his lack of progress in publishing, and interested in breaking into television, he called on John Cleese who referred him to Humphrey Barclay. Interested in Gilliam's work as a cartoonist, Barclay added some of his animation to the series "Do Not Adjust Your Television Set". The show featured Michael Palin, Terry Jones and Eric Idle.
At Idle's request, Gilliam was included in a comedy project that became Monty Python's Flying Circus. Gilliam served as the series cartoonist and influenced the show's visual style. The TV shows led to the films Monty Python and the Holy Grail , Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl, Life of Brian and The Meaning of Life in which Gilliam appeared as an actor and contributed as a writer, and director.
His experience on the first Monty film gave him the necessary experience for his first solo directorial project, Jaberwocky, a medieval comedic fantasy featuring Michael Palin and Harry H. Corbett. Of all his films, his most personal are Time Bandits, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, and Brazil. Brazil told the tale of a clerk's battle against a totalitarian bureaucracy burdened by excessive paperwork. Gilliam fought with Universal Pictures head Sid Sheinberg to maintain the integrity of his film and succeeded but gained a reputation as being difficult. Though not largely successful, the film is something of a cult classic, lauded for its visual styling.
In 1988's The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Gilliam wrote and directed a story about an older man who, with the help of a young girl gathers his superhuman friends to save a town from its leader and an enemy. The film proved an expensive project and despite not being a box office hit was nominated for four Oscars and four Saturn Awards all for it's visual presentation.
Other noteworthy films include The Crimson Permanent Assurance, Spies Like Us starring Chevy Chase and Dan Akroyd, as a director The Fisher King, the critical acclaimed Twelve Monkeys, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas starring Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro, The Brothers Grimm featuring Matt Damon and Heath Ledger, and Tideland.
Gilliam's upcoming projects include an as yet untitled animation project about Gorillaz band and The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus
External Links
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