John Cleese (born 27 October 1939) is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter, producer, and presenter. Emerging from the Cambridge Footlights in the 1960s, he first achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and performer on The Frost Report. In the late 1960s, he cofounded Monty Python, the comedy troupe responsible for the sketch show Monty Python’s Flying Circus. Along with his Python costars Graham Chapman, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin, Cleese starred in Monty Python films, which include Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), Life of Brian (1979), and The Meaning of Life (1983). Cleese starred in and wrote the comedy film A Fish Called Wanda (1988), for which he received Academy Award, BAFTA Award, and Golden Globe Award nominations, and its quasi-sequel Fierce Creatures (1997). Prominent franchise film roles of his included R and Q in the James Bond films The World Is Not Enough (1999) and Die Another Day (2002), Nearly Headless Nick in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (2001) and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), and the last three Shrek films (2004–2010). He received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for Cheers (1987) and was nominated for 3rd Rock from the Sun (1998) and Will & Grace (2004). We celebrate his birthday with a Ford Cortina he ridiculed in a Monty Python sketch …