On this date in 1942, comedian, writer and director Terence Graham Parry Jones was born in Colwyn Bay, Wales. He graduated with a degree in modern history from St. Edmund Hall, Oxford. His first successful TV show, in which he paired up with Michael Palin, was “The Love Show” (1965). Jones became part of the classic comedy TV show “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” (1969-74) with Palin, Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam and Eric Idle.
Jones’ irreverent credits include writing and directing the films “Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail” (1975), “Life of Brian” (1979) and “The Meaning of Life” (1983). He has written several books and screenplays, including comic works and more serious writing on medieval history. His first book was Chaucer’s Knight: The Portrait of a Medieval Mercenary (1980), an alternative take on Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Knight’s Tale.” Jones asserted that instead of a paragon of Christian virture, the knight can be interpreted as a typical mercenary and potentially cold-blooded killer.
He married Alison Telfer in 1970. They had two children before divorcing in 2012. They had long had an open marriage. Jones had a daughter, Siri, in 2009 with Anna Söderström, 41 years his junior. They married in 2012.
In 2015 he was diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia, a form of dementia that impairs the ability to speak and communicate. By September 2016 he was no longer able to give interviews. In 2017 Palin revealed that Jones was no longer able to speak. He died 11 days short of his 78th birthday at his London home. (D. 2020)
