Terry Gilliam

Born: November 22 1940
Where: Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

The maverick ex-Monty Python star has charted the lows (Baron Von Munchausen) and the highs (Brazil) in a career characterised by heroic success and noble failure.

He moved to LA with his family when he was 11 and left college to work in New York on Help! magazine, where he first met John Cleese.

He then briefly returned to LA to work in advertising and finally found his home as an illustrator and animator in London.

Gilliam began to contribute animated sequences to British TV shows such as Marty (with Marty Feldman) and Do Not Adjust Your Set.

Hooking up with Eric Idle and becoming reacquainted with Cleese, they eventually joined together as the performing troupe Monty Python's Flying Circus, where Gilliam served as animator.

He also performed with the troupe and wrote several sketches, making his big screen debut with And Now For Something Completely Different in 1971.

After co-directing Monty Python and the Holy Grail in 1975, Gilliam made his solo directing debut with the well-received Jabberwocky.

For Monty Python's Life of Brian, he served as production designer, animator co-writer, and appeared on-screen in a variety of roles.

After branching out into filmmaking, together with Michael Palin eh collaborated on the script for Time Bandits, which marked his first producer credit.

In 1985, he made what is generally regarded as his finest film - Brazil - which starred Jonathan Pryce and Robert De Niro in a horrific dystopian world of the future.

However, he also encountered problems with the Hollywood studio system and publicly clashed with Universal over the release of the film, which resulted in two versions made, a longer European cut, and a US version running at two hours.

The film was eventually restored and a director's cut was released in 1998.

However, Gilliam next experienced a box-office disappointment with over-elaborate Adventures of Baron Munchausen, starring Robin Williams and Eric Idle.

After a three year break, he returned to features to direct The Fisher King, featuring Jeff Bridges and Robin Williams and an Oscar-winning performance from Mercedes Ruehl.

The futuristic 12 Monkeys came next with Gilliam directing Hollywood stars Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt.

In 1998, he hooked up with Johnny Depp to bring to the screen what many considered Hunter S Thompson's unfilmable book, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Directors Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe captured the disaster what was Gilliam's attempt to adapt The Man Who Killed Don Quixote in 2002's Lost in La Mancha.

Recent work includes the big screen adaptation of The Brothers Grimm, starring Matt Damon and Heath Ledger.