American writer, producer, animator, director and set-designer, the only American member of Britain’s comedy troupe, “Monty Python.” Gilliam is considered one of the most visually capricious writer-directors in the film industry. He has developed his craft in blending magnificent fantasy with naked reality delivering wondrous visual designs. After choosing to remain outside the Hollywood film industry for a few years, Gilliam achieved main-stream commercial success with his film “The Fisher King” in 1991. He directed Mercedes Ruehl into a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award and Robin Williams into a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for the film.
Gilliam was the eldest of three kids born to a Minneapolis carpenter and a housekeeper. He showed his creativity at a young age. At ten, he was winning many art contests. He cheated in his first contest by copying the image with the book on his lap. When Terry turned 11 his family moved to Los Angeles. He drew cartoons in his college days. In 1962, he graduated from Occidental College with a political science degree because the major had the least number of required courses. He worked as an art director for an advertising agency in Los Angeles after college. As the agency’s token hippie, he participated in anti-war demonstrations that got him in trouble with the police. He met British actor John Cleese in New York. Disillusioned with the U.S., he moved to England as an alternate choice to becoming a revolutionary. He found work as an animator for the British Broadcasting Corporation.
In 1969, Gilliam met the BBC performers with whom he formed the Monty Python Flying Circus group. On 10/05/1969, their television show appeared on the BBC. While Gilliam acted occasionally in the skits, he was best known for his eccentric animation, mixing old photos with drawings and coming out with bizarre, humorous parodies of sex and violence. The show ended in November 1974 after which Gilliam gained writing, directing, performing and set-designing credits in “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” 1975, “Jabberwocky,” 1977 and “Monty Python’s Life of Brian,” 1979 and “Meaning of Life” in 1983.
Apart from the troupe, Gilliam co-wrote and directed the sci-fi smash, “Time Bandits,” 1981, “Brazil,” 1985, and “12 Monkeys” in 1995. He fought with Universal Studios chief Sidney Sheinberg over the film “Brazil.” Without Universal’s knowledge, Gilliam showed the shelved film to Los Angeles film critics who then voted the picture the Best Picture of the Year in 1985. Universal was shamed into releasing the picture to the general public. Rather than starting his own independent film company, he enjoys tormenting studio executives into giving him the money to make his visionary original projects.
Gilliam married makeup artist Maggie Weston in 1974 after they met on the Python set. The couple live in a 17th-century, 24-room mansion in suburban London with their two daughters Amy Rainbow, born in 1975, and Holly Dubois, born in 1981. Gilliam spends most of his days creating and working on his films spending very little time with his family. Marriage was a surprise to Gilliam himself because he always had seen himself as a “free spirit.”
Link to Wikipedia biography