Eric Idle Movies and Career Information

Eric Idle (born 29 March 1943) is an English comedian, actor, author, singer, writer, and comedic composer who wrote and performed as a member of the popular British comedy group Monty Python. Idle was born in South Shields, County Durham (now Tyne and Wear) in Harton Village, the son of Nora Barron (née Sanderson), a health visitor, and Ernest Idle. His father served in the Royal Air Force and survived World War II, only to be killed in a hitch-hiking accident on Christmas Eve 1945. His mother had difficulty coping with a full-time job and raising a child, so when Eric was seven, she enrolled him into the Royal Wolverhampton School as a boarder. The school began as a Victorian orphanage, and during Idle's time it was a charitable foundation dedicated to the welfare of children who had lost one or both parents. Its pupils, mainly the children of dead English soldiers, still referred to it as the 'Ophney'. Idle is quoted as saying: "It was a physically abusive, bullying, harsh environment for a kid to grow up in. I got used to dealing with groups of boys and getting on with life in unpleasant circumstances and being smart and funny and subversive at the expense of authority. Perfect