Terry Gilliam's Biography

Terry Vance Gilliam was born in Medicine Lake, Minnesota on 22 November 1940. His parents are James Hall and Beatrice Gilliam. He has two siblings, a brother two years younger, and a sister ten years younger. They had to move to California because of his sister’s asthma. There he went to Birmingham High School where he was voted “Most Likely to Succeed.” After graduating from High School, he became a student of Occidental College where Gilliam first studied physics. He did not finish the programme and changed to fine arts which he did not finish either. Finally, he majored in political science. After graduating, Gilliam spent a short time working for an advertising agency. After that Kurtzman offered him a job as associate editor of his magazine Help!

In 1965, Help! Folded, and to avoid being drafted, Gilliam enrolled in the National Guard, doing basic training in New Jersey. With his release, Gilliam went traveling in Europe, returning homeless and penniless to New York. After that, he moved to Los Angeles without success, so he had to move again, this time to London.

In London, Gilliam started working for the Sunday Times Magazine, as well as freelancing for a few American comics. Later he worked as an artistic director for The Londoner, but it also folded and Terry became unemployed again.

Looking for a job, he called John Cleese, the only person he knew who worked on television. He was hired in the direction of producer Humphrey Barclay. After writing sketches for “Do Not Adjust Your Set”, he met Eric Idle who helped him get a job on the show “We Have Ways of Making You Laugh.” Later, Gilliam started working with five more men in a new show called “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” with great success.

In 1973, Gilliam married to the British make-up and costume designer Maggie Weston who worked on Flying Circus, some Python movies, and Gilliam’s movies. They have three children, Amy, Holly, and Harry who have acted in some of Gilliam’s movies.

Monty Python was successful with its comedy sketches on the TV and later with its movies. The last movie of the Pythons was “The Meaning of Life” which succeeded in UK and USA.

Being retired of Monty Python, he became a successful director of some masterpieces in terms of movies, such as “Brazil” and “12 Monkeys.”

Nowadays, Terry Gilliam is a big-director famous for his science fiction and comedies movies and he enjoys his hobby of "sitting extremely still for indeterminate amounts of time". We can say that his classmates in High School foretold the future when they called him “Most Likely to Succeed.”

Filmography:

- Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) (co-directed with Terry Jones)
- Jabberwocky (1977)
- Time Bandits (1981)
- The Crimson Permanent Assurance (1983) (a short supporting feature that accompanied Monty Python's The Meaning of Life)
- Brazil (1985)
- The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988)
- The Fisher King (1991)
- Twelve Monkeys (1995) (inspired by Chris Marker's La Jetée).
- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)
- The Brothers Grimm (2005)
- Tideland (2005)

Awards & Nominations

-The Fisher King (1991)
Venice Film Festival: Silver Lion Winner
Toronto Film Festival: People's Choice Award Winner

- Twelve Monkeys (1995)
Berlin Film Festival: Reader Jury of the "Berliner Morgenpost" - 3rd Place
- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)
Cannes Film Festival: Official Selection
- The Brothers Grimm (2005)
Venice Film Festival: Official Selection
- Tideland (2005)
San Sebastian Festival: Winner of the FIPRESCI Prize
- An asteroid, 9619 Terrygilliam, is named in his honor.

(Info. taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Gilliam )