Charles McKeown

Background

Charles McKeown was born in 1946 Dudley, United Kingdom.

Career

Actor and screenwriter Charles McKeown has appeared in several films made by members of the Monty Python’s Flying Circus comedy troupe, including Life of Brian and Erik the Viking. He also appeared on numerous television series, such as Yes Minister, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Pinkerton's Progress and The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. McKeown has collaborated with Python animator Terry Gilliam to coauthor three live-action films which Gilliam directed—Brazil, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.

Brazil was popular in Europe, but in the United States, studio executives at Universal demanded extra cuts which Gilliam refused to perform. The film languished, unreleased in the United States until Gilliam took out a full-page ad in Variety. The film was released in the United States in 1986 and was well received by the art-house segment of the public.

The second collaboration of Gilliam and McKeown was The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, a fifty- million-dollar special-effects extravaganza that was considered quite an expensive production at the time of its release in 1989. The film was extrapolated by McKeown and Gilliam from the life and stories of Baron Munchausen (1720-1797), a German cavalry officer who became legendary for his tall tales. The movie, set during Munchausen’s lifetime in a revolution-scarred European town under Turkish siege, opens with a theatrical production of one of the Baron’s tales. Then the Baron himself shows up in the theater outraged by the mangling of his work, and his personality, at the hands of the acting troupe. The film develops, at that point, into a long series of special-effects scenes involving such things as a voyage to the moon and Munchausen’s recapture of four men with superpowers.

Almost twenty years later, Charles and Terry Gilliam collaborated on the screenplay for The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.

Achievements

• McKeown with Gilliam and Tom Stoppard were collectively nominated for an Academy Award for Brazil.

Works

More photos

• movie

  • The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus

    (McKeown co-wrote the screenplay for The Imaginarium Of Do...)

    2009
  • The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen

    (McKeown co-wrote the screenplay for The Adventures Of Bar...)

    1988
  • Brazil

    (McKeown co-wrote the screenplay for Brazil with Gilliam a...)

    1985

Connections

colleague:

Terry Gilliam

Terry Gilliam is an American-born British animator, film director, actor, illustrator, and writer.