Michael Palin Bio, Age, Family, Career And Monty Python.
Michael Palin Biography
Michael Palin born Michael Edward Palin, is an English comedian, actor, writer and television presenter. He was a member of the comedy group Monty Python. Since 1980 he has made a number of travel Documentaries.
Michael Palin Age
Michael Edward Palin was born in Ranmoor, Sheffield, West Riding of Yorkshire, England on 5th May 1943. He is 75 years as of 2018.
Michael Palin Family
He was born in Ranmoor, Sheffield, to Edward Moreton Palin (1900–1977) and Mary Rachel Lockhart (née Ovey; 1903–1990). His father was a Shrewsbury School and Cambridge University-educated engineer working for a steel firm. He attended the Birkdale and Shrewsbury School. He had a sister Angela who was nine years older than he was. Despite the age gap, the two had a close relationship until her suicide in 1987.
In 1962 he went to Brasenose College, Oxford, to read modern history. He and his fellow student Robert Hewison performed and wrote, for the first time, comedy material at a university Christmas party. Terry Jones, also a student in Oxford, saw that performance and began writing together with Hewison and Palin.
In the same year he joined the Brightside and Carbrook Co-operative Society Players. He first gained fame when he won an acting award at a Co-op drama festival. He also performed and wrote in the Oxford Revue (called the Et ceteras) with Jones.
Michael Palin Married
He is married to Helen Gibbins in 1966. They first met in 1959 on holiday in Southwold in Suffolk. This meeting was later fictionalised in Palin’s play East of Ipswich.
They have three children: Thomas (b. 1969), William (b. 1971) Director of Conservation at the Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich, London and oversaw the 2018-19 restoration of the Painted Halland Rachel (b. 1975) a BBC TV director, whose work includes MasterChef: The Professionals, shown on BBC Two throughout October and November 2010 and four grandchildren.
The theatre designer Jeremy Herbert is his nephew.
Michael Palin Career
After finishing university in 1965 he became a presenter on a comedy pop show called Now! for the television contractor Television Wales and the West. During this time, Palin was contacted by Jones, who had left university a year earlier, for assistance in writing a theatrical documentary about sex through the ages. Although this project was eventually abandoned, it brought him and Jones together as a writing duo and led them to write comedy for various BBC programmes, such as The Ken Dodd Show, The Billy Cotton Bandshow, and The Illustrated Weekly Hudd.
Together they wrote lyrics for an album by Barry Booth called Diversions. They were also in the team of writers working for The Frost Report, whose other members included Frank Muir, Barry Cryer, Marty Feldman, Ronnie Barker, Ronnie Corbett, Dick Vosburgh and future Monty Python members Graham Chapman, John Cleese and Eric Idle.
He and his team (The Palin/Jones team)worked both as actors and writers on the show Twice a Fortnight with Graeme Garden, Bill Oddie and Jonathan Lynn, and the successful children’s comedy show Do Not Adjust Your Set with Idle and David Jason. The show also featured musical numbers by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, including future Monty Python musical collaborator Neil Innes.
Terry Gilliam made the animations for Do Not Adjust Your Set. Cleese later asked him to perform in How to Irritate People together with Chapman and Tim Brooke-Taylor. The Palin/Jones team were reunited for The Complete and Utter History of Britain.
Monty Python
The success of Do Not Adjust Your Sethad led Palin, Jones, Idle and Gilliam to be offered their own series. While it was still in production, Palin agreed to Cleese’s proposal and brought along Idle, Terry Jones and Gilliam. Thus the formation of the Monty Python troupe has been referred to as a result of Cleese’s desire to work with Palin and the chance circumstances that brought the other four members into the fold.
In Monty Python, he played various roles, which ranged from manic enthusiasm (such as the lumberjack of the Lumberjack Song, or Herbert Anchovy, host of the game show “Blackmail”) to unflappable calmness (such as the Dead parrotvendor or Cheese Shop proprietor).
He also played timid, socially inept characters such as Arthur Putey, the man who sits quietly as a marriage counsellor (Eric Idle) makes love to his wife (Carol Cleveland), and Mr. Anchovy, a chartered accountant who wants to become a lion tamer. He also appeared as the “It’s” man at the beginning of most episodes.
He frequently co-wrote sketches with Terry Jones and also initiated the “Spanish Inquisition sketch”, which included the catchphrase “Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!” He also composed songs with Jones including “The Lumberjack Song”, “Every Sperm is Sacred” and “Spam”. His solo musical compositions included “Decomposing Composers” and “Finland”.
Michael Palin Awards
BAFTA Awards
- 1984 Nominated – BAFTA Award for “Best Original Song” (the award was discontinued after the 1985 ceremonies) for Every Sperm is Sacred from The Meaning of Life (shared with André Jacquemin, Dave Howman and Terry Jones)
- 1989 Won – BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for A Fish Called Wanda (as Ken Pile)
- 1992 Nominated – British Academy Television Award for Best Actor for GBH
- 2005 Won – BAFTA Special Award
- 2009 Won – BAFTA Special Award as part of the Monty Python team for outstanding contribution to film and television
- 2013 Won – BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award
Other awards
- 2011 Was awarded the Aardman SlapstickVisual Comedy Legend award for “significant contributions made to the world of comedy”.
