Biography of Terry Jones by John Cleese
The creative energy behind 'Life of Brian' belongs to vital, teeming, Welsh expatriate TERRY JONES III. Jones, a rookie brewery owner, has risen quickly to the top of the motion picture- directing tree. Brilliantly gifted at school, he was a child by the time he was five and won a place at Britain's Oxford University while still in his late teens, where he holds a Master's in Applied Paranoia. Volatile, dominant, highly energized, svelte, acerbic and coruscating are all words that he uses with uncertainty. Nevertheless, his dedication, boundless energy and passionate commitment make it a waste of time to try and change his mind on anything. Terry Jones III is the kind of man who knows what he wants and woe betide the man who tries to understand what he's talking about. Invited to direct 'Life of Brian,' Jones III was forcibly attracted by the script. 'Wow" he says. "It was just so neatly typed out in great big pretty orange covers with punctuation, and the pages numbered in the right order and everything. I just flipped." Jones, who threw up a promising academic career only on the advice of his teachers, now devotes his life to motion pictures. He eats, sleeps and talks film. "I prefer it to life," he confides, his anthracite-coloured eyes flashing. "The editing facilities are better." So much so that he has been shooting a film of his own life for the last seven years. "When I have time to edit it," he claims, "it should make an interesting cigarette commercial." Jones III is married and has two children that he knows about.
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