Eric Idle (born 29 March 1943) is an English comedian, actor, author, singer, writer and composer of comic songs. He wrote and performed as a member of the 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) and Ernest Idle. His father had served in the Royal Air Force and survived World War II, only to be killed in a hitch-hiking accident o...
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Eric Idle (born 29 March 1943) is an English comedian, actor, author, singer, writer and composer of comic songs. He wrote and performed as a member of the 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) and Ernest Idle. His father had 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 he was seven, she enrolled him into the Royal Wolverhampton School as a boarder.
The school had begun life as a Victorian orphanage, and during Idle's time was a charitable foundation dedicated to the welfare of children who had lost one or both parents. Its pupils, who were 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...
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