Line #42 Creator/TerryJones


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4	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/terryjones1.png]]
5	[[caption-width-right:350: ''He has gone to meet [[Creator/GrahamChapman Dr. Chapman]]!'']]
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7	->''"I've been very lucky to have been able to act, write and direct and not have to choose just the one thing."''
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9	Terence Graham Parry Jones (1 February 1942 – 21 January 2020) was a British comedian, actor, film director and author. He is best remembered for being a member of Creator/MontyPython and was the only Welshman in the team. Jones played the Nude Organist in many opening sketches of ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'' and was most talented in convincingly portraying older women, most famously Brian's mother Mandy in ''Film/MontyPythonsLifeOfBrian''. When the team made their foray into films it was Jones who sat in the director's seat and kept control over the spirit of the series.
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11	Apart from his Python endeavours, he also directed the movies ''Film/ErikTheViking'' (1989), ''Film/{{The Wind in the Willows\|1996}}'' (1996) and ''Film/AbsolutelyAnything'' (2015). Together with Creator/MichaelPalin, he co-wrote and acted in the comedy series ''Series/RippingYarns''. He was also a prolific author, writing children's medieval fantasy novels, as well as serious books on medieval history (notably ''Chaucer's Knight: Portrait of a Medieval Mercenary'', which sets out to cast new light on a major character in ''Literature/TheCanterburyTales'') and a Saturday Morning cartoon and video game called ''WesternAnimation/BlazingDragons''. While earning his degree in English through Oxford University, Jones had become very interested in medieval history, and as such, he participated in quite a few serious documentaries about both mediaeval and ancient history, including ''Terry Jones' The Crusades'', ''Terry Jones' Medieval Lives'' and ''Terry Jones' Barbarians''.
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13	He largely retired from public life in 2016 due to primary progressive aphasia, a severe form of dementia that robbed him of the ability to communicate both through speech and written words. He sadly passed away due to frontotemporal dementia on January 21, 2020.
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15	He should definitely ''not'' be confused with the American Islamophobic preacher of the same name.
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17	!!TV series
18	* ''Series/TheFrostReport'' (1966): Actor and co-writer
19	* ''Series/DoNotAdjustYourSet'' (1967-1969)
20	* ''Complete And Utter History of Britain'' (1969)
21	* ''Series/{{Marty}}'' (1969): Actor and co-writer
22	* ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'' (1969) (1970) (1971-1972) (1974)
23	* ''Series/TheTwoRonnies'': Wrote the scripts of 13 episodes between 1971, 1972, 1973 and 1976.
24	* ''Series/RippingYarns'' (1976): Actor, writer and co-director: Mr Ellis, Bear, Mr Moodie,...
25	* ''Series/TheYoungOnes'': Appeared in the 1984 episode "Nasty" as a drunk vicar.
26	* ''Series/TheYoungIndianaJonesChronicles'': Appeared in the Barcelona, May 1917 episode (1992) as Marcello.
27	* ''Crusades (1996)'': Host, writer and small comedic roles.
28	* ''Terry Jones' Medieval Lives (2004)'': Host, writer and small comedic roles.
29	* ''Terry Jones' Barbarians'' (2006): Host, writer and small comedic roles.
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31	!!Films
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33	* ''Film/AndNowForSomethingCompletelyDifferent'' (1971): Acted.
34	* ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail'' (1975): co-directed with Creator/TerryGilliam. Acted the roles of Sir Bedivere, Dennis' mother, left head of the three-headed giant and Prince Herbert.
35	* ''Film/{{Jabberwocky}}'' (1975): Cameo as a poacher.
36	* ''Film/MontyPythonsLifeOfBrian'' (1979): Director. Plays Brian's mother, Simon the hermit and various minor roles.
37	* ''Film/MontyPythonLiveAtTheHollywoodBowl'' (1982) (acted)
38	* ''Film/MontyPythonsTheMeaningOfLife'' (1983): Directed and played Mr Creosote, the man with bendy arms looking for a fish and various women.
39	* ''Film/{{Labyrinth}}'' (1986): Wrote the screenplay, but ExecutiveMeddling changed it into something that barely resembles his original draft.
40	* ''Film/ErikTheViking'' (1989): Directed and played King Arnulf. (Also based on a novel he wrote).
41	* ''Film/{{The Wind in the Willows\|1996}}'' (1996): Directed and played the role of Toad.
42	* ''Film/AbsolutelyAnything'' (2015): Directed, co-wrote the screenplay with Gavin Scott and voiced an extra-terrestrial.
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44	!!Albums
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46	* ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' (1970)
47	* ''AudioPlay/AnotherMontyPythonRecord'' (1971)
48	* ''Monty Python's Previous Record'' (1972)
49	* ''AudioPlay/TheMontyPythonMatchingTieAndHandkerchief'' (1973)
50	* ''AudioPlay/MontyPythonLiveAtDruryLane'' (1974)
51	* ''The Album of the Soundtrack of the Trailer of the Film of Monty Python and the Holy Grail'' (1975)
52	* ''Monty Python Live at City Centre'' (1976)
53	* ''The Monty Python Instant Record Collection'' (1977)
54	* ''Monty Python's Life of Brian'' (1979)
55	* ''AudioPlay/MontyPythonsContractualObligationAlbum'' (1980)
56	* ''Monty Python's The Meaning of Life'' (1983)
57	* ''The Final Rip Off'' (1988)
58	* ''Monty Python Sings'' (1989)
59	* ''The Monty Python Instant Record Collection, Volume 2'' (1991)
60	* ''The Ultimate Monty Python Rip Off'' (1994)
61	* ''The Instant Monty Python CD Collection'' (1994)
62	* ''Spamalot'' (2005)
63	* ''The Hastily Cobbled Together for a Fast Buck Album'' (unreleased)
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66	!! Terry Jones' work provides examples of...
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68	* CarefulWithThatAxe: Jones could shriek quite high when he impersonated a woman. In one sketch he played a burglary victim who had to describe the crime in a shrieking voice to a policeman who could not understand him otherwise.
69	* CrosscastRole: Despite the fact that all Python members have at one point dressed up as women, it's Jones who is remembered best for it. He could play elderly women very convincingly, and at a certain point he was more or less shoehorned into such roles because none of the others could do it as well.
70	* {{Deconstruction}}: Quite fond of deconstructing this trope and YeGoodeOldeDays (on Knights, Monks, Minstrels, Outlaws, and Kings) and TheDungAges (on Peasants, Philosophers, Damsels, and Kings) on ''Medieval Life'' as a historian on that subject.
71	* EverythingIsAnInstrument: One Python sketch has him portray Arthur Ewing, who claims to have musical mice, reputedly trained to squeak at specific pitches. He announces they will play "The Bells of St. Mary's", but simply hits them with mallets while humming the tune himself.
72	* FatBastard: He played the morbidly obese Mr Creosote in ''Film/MontyPythonsTheMeaningOfLife''.
73	* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: Jones was quite a history buff and claimed that he was always suspicious about so-called "heroes" in historical texts. It's one of the reasons he agreed to do the series ''The Crusades''. One of the historical people whom Jones claimed got this treatment was UsefulNotes/RichardTheLionheart. He even claims that after he died records were calling him grasping and portraying him in a negative light, but John becoming the bad King means Richard changed back to being a good King.
74	* NakedPeopleAreFunny: Terry Jones performed a striptease act twice in ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'' and was also the Nude Organist who announced the show from the second season on. According to Creator/DouglasAdams, he only agreed to write the novelization of ''VideoGame/StarshipTitanic'' if he could do it in the nude, and supposedly did so.
75	* SceneryPorn: Many of the sketches in ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'' written by Terry Jones[=/=]Creator/MichaelPalin were set on location in beautiful countryside locations. (It got to the point where as soon as they began reading a sketch, John Cleese would go 'here we go, pan over beautiful countryside'). Lampshaded in a sketch at the end of one episode which starts with an image of the ocean roaring onto a beach, at which point John Cleese comes on and apologises for the fact that there's no actual jokes at all, but at least the scenery is lovely.
76	* SignatureStyle: Jones was very much into history and a lot of the intellectual references in Monty Python were partly contributed by him. His later series ''The Crusades'' also provided a funny but insightful look at this time period. Together with Creator/MichaelPalin, he also had a knack for visually impressive background locations which, as in the case of ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail'' and ''Film/MontyPythonsLifeOfBrian'', made the comedy work much better.
77	* ShownTheirWork: Since he was a medieval scholar and a history buff, many Python films actually got a lot of historical details right.
78	* StraightMan: Jones played the straight man a few times in Monty Python sketches, like "Nudge Nudge", "Buying A Bed" and "Bruces".
79	* TheUnintelligible: Jones had fallen into this trope as he got older, often mumbling under his breath in interviews. It was later revealed that he was suffering from aphasia in an early stage of dementia.
80	* WholesomeCrossDresser: Out of all Python actors, he was perhaps the best imitator of older women, with Creator/EricIdle as a good second.
81	* WrongfullyAttributed: Because there are two Terrys in Creator/MontyPython, he was sometimes confused by the general public with Creator/TerryGilliam.
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Context Creator / TerryJones