Remembering Terry Jones

I was very sorry to read about the passing yesterday of Terry Jones at the age of 77, one of the members of Monty Python.  He'd been very ill for a while with a form of dementia that, among other things, took away his ability to speak the last few years of his life.

I had the opportunity to spend some time with him once in 1983.  I don't have any specific memories of conversations, but strong general ones.  And they're very positive I was working at Universal Pictures at the time, and we released the movie, Monty Python's The Meaning of Life.  As party of my job, I set up a screening of the film and held a Q&A with the Pythons who participated.  Only four of the Python were there -- though, of course, four Pythons is still high cotton.  But the two who weren't involved were my two favorites, Michael Palin and John Cleese.  But I certainly liked the other four -- Terry Jones, Eric Idle, Graham Chapman and Terry Gilliam -- who were involved, although Jones was probably my least favorite actor of the group, and I of course didn't know Gilliam much since he was mostly the cartoon animator.

Needless to say, as happy as I was by the occasion, I was still a bit disappointed.  I spent a little time with the four fellow earlier in the day when they came to the studio offices, and then on the stage after the screening.  They were all reasonably pleasant, a little distant but fine.  But Terry Jones was an absolute, utter joy.  Warm and friendly as could be, a real gentleman, gracious and kind.  During the Q&A, he was in the seat next to me, and continued being as nice as before, and thoughtful, funny and supportive in his answers.  He had directed to movie, as he did all the Python movies (the movies that Terry Gilliam directed were separate from the group, though he directed a short film about accountancy pirates that preceded The Meaning of Life), so he had more to talk about from the production end, but he didn't hog the stage and was just a gem.  I wish I remembered specifics, but I'm glad how clearly I recall the generality.  I adored him ever since.

Small side note.  The Pythons tended to work in two-man teams, and Terry Jones generally worked with Michael Palin.  A few years before my Q&A experience, my friend Rob Hedden had made a documentary on the making of the film Brazil, that Michael Palin was in,  And as I wrote about in more detail here, Rob said that his experiences with Palin, and from the outtakes he showed me, Palin was just an absolutely wonderful guy.  And I've subsequently read and heard Pythons say how nice he was.  So, it didn't come as a shock when it turned out that Michael Palin and Terry Jones were partners.  What a nice team they must have been.

In addition to his Python acting and directing, Terry Jones also wrote a lot of books, including several non-fiction historical work book, and hosted TV programs on history.  I've only read one of his books, I believe it was his first and highly recommend it, a short children's book of a collection of short Fairy Tales.  The stories are a joy, very funny and generally sardonic.  The only about a rain drop may be the shortest and my favorite.  If you do get a copy, his admonition in the introduction is worth following.  He says that these began life as stories he told his children at night and are best read aloud.  I tried that on a few, even just to myself alone in a room, and he was right.  As good as they were when written, they sparkled when spoken.  You can find it here.  This is a link to the Alibris website, since the copies sold by third-party vendors on Amazon are around $60.
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Rather than show clips of some of his appearances in movies, I've decided instead to show Terry Jones being Terry Jones.  So you can see.