Terry Jones.

Terence Graham Parry Jones

Terry Jones — Actor

Born 1 Feb 1942 Colwyn Bay, United Kingdom

Died 21 Jan 2020 London, United Kingdom

Citizenship United Kingdom

Would Be 84 yr If Living

18 min read

Reading time

3,568

Words

Jun 16, 2026

Published

125

Film credits

36

Books

4

Awards

TL;DR

Terry Jones was a founding member of Monty Python, co-directed Monty Python and the Holy Grail 1975, and directed Monty Python’s Life of Brian 1979. He also wrote children’s books and presented historical documentaries like Medieval Lives 2004. He passed away on January 21, 2020 at age 77 from dementia.

Identity & family.

KIN · 5

Names, aliases, and relatives of Terry Jones — birth name, kin, and personal ties.

Birth Name Terence Graham Parry Jones

Nicknames Jonesy

Aliases Montypython Flyingcircus, Spam Terry Jones, Terry C. Jonesberg, Terence Jonesprod, Monty Python, Monty Pythons, The Usual Lot, Alan Whicker

PARENTS: Alick George Parry Jones
SPOUSES: Anna Söderström Alison Telfer
CHILDREN: Bill Jones Sally Louise Parry Jones

At a glance.

STATS

Terry Jones by the numbers — life, work, and family.

77 Years lived

125 Film credits

36 Books

4 Awards

2 Marriages

2 Children

Who was Terry Jones?

BIOGRAPHY

Terry Jones — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.

Early life

In Colwyn Bay, Wales, Terry Jones was born on February 1, 1942 to Dilys Louisa Newnes and Alick George Parry Jones, a bank clerk. His older brother Nigel became a production designer. His grandparents managed the local Amateur Operatic Society and staged Gilbert and Sullivan concerts, giving him early exposure to performance.

Jones attended Royal Grammar School in Guildford, where he was head boy, and then studied history at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford. At Oxford, he captained the boxing, rugby, and school teams and befriended Michael Palin. Together they performed in the Oxford Revue, setting the stage for their later collaboration.

Career

Jones found his greatest fame as a founding member of Monty Python’s Flying Circus 1969, alongside Palin, Eric Idle, Graham Chapman, John Cleese, and Terry Gilliam. He wrote and acted in many classic sketches, portraying characters like the obese Mr. Creosote in Monty Python’s the Meaning of Life 1983 and the inept Detective Superintendent Harry Snapper Organs.

He co-directed Monty Python and the Holy Grail 1975 with Gilliam and solo-directed Monty Python’s Life of Brian 1979 and The Meaning of Life. Post-Python, he co-wrote episodes of Ripping Yarns 1976 with Palin and scripted Labyrinth 1986 from a story by Jim Henson. He wrote and directed Erik the Viking 1989 and Absolutely Anything 2015.

Beyond comedy, Jones presented historical documentaries including Medieval Lives 2004 and Barbarians 2006 and authored controversial books on Chaucer and medieval mysteries. He was also an outspoken critic of the Iraq War.

Personal life

Jones married Alison Telfer on June 20, 1970; they had two children, Sally born 1974 and Bill born 1976. They divorced in 2012. Later, he married Anna Söderström, with whom he had a daughter, Siri, born 2009. The couple remained together until his death.

In 2016, Jones was diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia, a form of dementia that eventually left him unable to speak. He died at home in Highgate, London on January 21, 2020 at age 77.

Legacy

Jones was a central creative force in Monty Python, a group that reshaped British humour with its surreal and satirical skits. His co-direction of Monty Python and the Holy Grail and direction of Life of Brian remain cult classics. He also contributed to medieval scholarship through documentaries such as Medieval Lives 2004 and books on Chaucer.

Posthumously, he was remembered with tributes from fellow Pythons and fans worldwide. He received the European Film Academy Lifetime Achievement Award earlier in his career. Jones is remembered for directing Life of Brian and for his historical documentaries.

Filmography.

FILMS · 125

Browse the complete filmography of Terry Jones — every film, TV show, and documentary credit, ranked by popularity.

TV

Saturday Night Live

1975
TV

Wogan

1982
TV

Late Night with Conan O'Brien

1993
Movie

The Mask

1994
TV

The Young Ones

1982
TV

Skavlan

2009
TV

Going Live!

1987
TV

Space Ghost Coast to Coast

1994
TV

Les Rendez-vous Du Dimanche

1975
Movie

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

1975
TV

The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles

1992
TV

Monty Python's Flying Circus

1969
TV

The Paul O'Grady Show

2004
Movie

Life of Brian

1979

Could not load more credits.

Awards & honors.

AWARDS · 4

Every award, honor, and recognition received by Terry Jones — Grammys, hall-of-fame inductions, civic honors, lifetime achievements.

European Film Academy Lifetime Achievement Award
Time Machine Award
Children's Book Award UK
Annual award ACFK

Bibliography.

BOOKS · 36

Terry Jones's bibliography — every authored, edited, and co-written book, ranked by edition count.

Amazon

Pythons' Autobiography by the Pythons

by Monty Python et al.
Amazon

The Saga of Erik the Viking

by Terry Jones et al.
Amazon

Douglas Adams's Starship Titanic

by Terry Jones
Amazon

Lady Cottington's Pocket Pressed Fairy Book

by Terry Jones
Amazon

WHO MURDERED CHAUCER?: a MEDIEVAL MYSTERY

by Terry Jones et al.
Amazon

The Complete Ripping Yarns

by Michael Palin et al.
Amazon

Erik the Viking

by Terry Jones
Amazon

Nicobobinus

by Terry Jones et al.
Amazon

Terry Jones' Barbarians

by Terry Jones et al.
Amazon

Terry Jones' Medieval Lives

by Terry Jones et al.
Amazon

Dr. Fegg's Encyclopeadia of All World Knowledge

by Terry Jones et al.
Amazon

The Curse of the Vampire's Socks and Other Doggerel

by Terry Jones et al.
Amazon

The Knight and the Squire

by Terry Jones
Amazon

Terry Jones's War on the War on Terror

by Terry Jones et al.

Could not load more books.

Notable quotes.

QUOTES · 15

A wall of memorable lines from Terry Jones — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.

Comedy Is a Dangerous Business. If People Find Something Funny You’re Okay. but the Moment You Do Something That’s Meant to Be Funny and Someone Doesn’t Find It Funny, They Become Angry. It’s Almost as If They Resent the Fact That You Tried to Make Them Laugh and Failed. Nobody Comes Out of a Mediocre Performance of Hamlet Seething with Rage Because It Didn’t Make Them Cry. but Just Listen to People Coming Out of a Comedy That Didn’t Make Them Laugh.
One of the Things We Tried to Do with the Show Was to Try and Do Something That Was so Unpredictable That It Had No Shape and You Could Never Say What the Kind of Humor Was. and I Think That the Fact That Pythonesque Is Now a Word in the Oxford English Dictionary Shows the Extent to Which We Failed.
Saying ‘We Will Destroy Terrorism’ Is About as Meaningful as Saying ‘We Shall Annihilate Mockery.’
Why Do I Feel so Exercised About What We Think of the People of the Middle Ages? I Guess It’s Because so Many of Their Voices Are Ringing Vibrantly in My Ears Chaucer’s, Boccaccio’s, Henry Knighton’s, Thomas Walsingham’s, Froissart’s, Jean Creton’s… Writers and Contemporary Historians of the Period Who Seem to Me Just as Individual, Just as Alive as We Are Today. We Need to Get to Know These Folk Better in Order to Know Who We Are Ourselves.
Ludicrous Concepts…like the Whole Idea of a ‘War on Terrorism.’ You Can Wage War Against Another Country, or on a National Group Within Your Own Country, but You Can’t Wage War on an Abstract Noun. How Do You Know When You’ve Won? When You’ve Got It Removed from the Oxford English Dictionary?
My First School Was Esher Church of England Primary School. the Headmistress Was to My Slight Concern a ‘Miss Terry’, but I Quickly Realised There Was Nothing Significant About This.
My Elder Brother, Nigel, Was My Guru in All Things Cultural. He Formed My Tastes. Told Me What I Could Listen to and What I Should Avoid. Taught Me About the Wonders of Traditional Jazz and the Evil Snares of Modern Big Band Music, Which Lacked Any Sort of Improvisation. Popular Songs He Scorned with a Deep and Sincere Disrespect. I Didn’t Dare Let Him Catch Me Humming ‘Pyramids Along the Nile’ or ‘How Much Is That Doggy in the Window’. the Only Time He Cracked Was When He Took a Liking to Kay Starr, and Then Suddenly I Was Allowed a Certain Limited Repertoire of Pop Music. Otherwise I Was to Stick to Bessie Smith, Ottilie Patterson and Muddy Waters. One Day He Announced, to My Consternation, That I Was Going to Have to Listen to a Radio Drama That Was Going on That Very Night and Would Last for an Hour and a Half. I Was Slightly Won Over by the Fact That It Was Written by a Welshman and It Was About Life in Wales. and so That Evening We Sat in the Dining Room Well I Crawled Under the Dining Room Table to Listen to the First Performance of Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood, Narrated by Richard Burton. I Don’t Think I Realised at the Time What a Tremendous Influence Dylan Thomas Was Going to Have on Me and on My Whole Attitude to Poetry. I Think I Gave up in the End Because How Could I Ever Write Stuff as Magical as He Had.
I Went up to Oxford Ready to Be Intimidated by Everything and Everybody. I Expected Everyone to Be Incredibly Clever and Incredibly High Faluting. in a Way It Was a Lesson in How Things Aren’t What You Expect Them to Be. I Don’t Remember Being Very Happy There Either. I Wasn’t Really Used to People Being *That* Competitive. the First Two Years Were Like That but by the Third Year You’re Top of the Pile Anyway and I’d Done This Revue at the Phoenix Theatre in London. so When I Came Back, I and Others Had Been on the West End Stage, and Suddenly I Was in Demand.
I Guess Life Changed When My Dad Arrived Home. a Certain Amount of Tension Entered the Family Life and I Started to Hear Stern Words for the First Time in My Life. I Realise Now That It Must Have Been Terrible for Him; He’d Been Shipped off to India and Missed His Family Growing up at the Most Important Stage. He’d Left Behind a Two Year Old and a One Week Old Baby and Arrived Back to Find a Four and a Half Year Old and a Six Year Old. and His Youngest Son Doesn’t Really Want Much to Do with This Stranger Doesn’t Like Him Kissing Him Even! Must Have Been Hard. and I Suppose the Truth Is That Subconsciously I Regarded Him as a Bit of an Intruder … or an Outsider. I Suppose I Also Knew Deep Down That He Couldn’t Reach Me at All, Except That I Felt Sorry for Him. I Had Bonded with My Mum so Strongly That No Relationship Could Ever Be as Real as That for Me. Poor Dad. I Learned Later in Life That He Was a Caring, Gentle, Humorous Man, Just Like He Appeared in Those Photos, but Something Was Wrong When He Came Home. Maybe He and Mum Couldn’t Re Find Whatever It Was They Had in the First Place. Maybe Mum Resented His Return. I Don’t Really Know. but Whatever It Was, It Turned Him into a Small Home Tyrant, Who Could Only Communicate with Us Boys by Telling Us off or Yelling at Us.
My Dad, Alick, Was Welsh Although He Was Born in Streatham. He Was Living in Ruthin and Working as a Bank Clerk in Denbigh. I’m Not Sure How He Met My Mum It Was the Kind of Thing That Wasn’t Really Talked About in Those Days but She Was Living with Her Parents in Colwyn Bay.
I Seemed to Take the 11 Plus Exam in My Stride, Although I Thought I’d Really Failed Because I Didn’t Get into My First Choice: King’s College, Wimbledon. That Was a Public School and They’d Been Hoping I’d Win a Scholarship There but I Didn’t. so I Found Myself Going to the Royal Grammar School, Guildford.
Huw Weldon, Who Was in Control of BBC1, and David Attenborough, Who Was in Control of BBC2 in the Late 1960S, Were Both Very Enlightened Men. I Remember Them Saying That the BBC Was Very Much an Anarchic Organisation in a Way, in That There Was Very Little Bureaucracy, Very Little Personnel Management. This Tiny Office Was the Personnel Management, Which I Now Think Is a Whole Building! in Those Days, the Producers Decided What Was Going to Go on the Air and They Took Responsibility for It. If Somebody Objected to Something That Had Gone Out, Then the Producer Would Be Asked to Account for Himself. but It Was All After the Fact; There Was No Censorship at All. Things Changed. We Started Seeing It Changing in Python. with the First and Second Series, Nobody Ever Looked at the Shows or Anything Until They Went Out. in the Last Episode, We Had the ‘Undertaker Sketch’, Which Was a Gross Breach of Good Taste! and Then with the Next Series, They Wanted to Look at the Shows Before They Went Out. That Was When We Got the List of Things We Had to Take Out. One of Them Was the ‘Summarised Marcel Proust Competition’, Somebody Saying His Hobbies Were ‘Strangling Animals, Golf, and Masturbating’. and We Had to Cut Out ‘Masturbating’! Very Bizarre. I Remember Going to Duncan Wood He Was Then Head of Comedy and I Said, ‘Duncan, What’s Wrong with Masturbating? I Masturbate, You Masturbate, Don’t You, Duncan?’ Anyways, It Had to Come Out.
A Few Months After My Dad Turned up on the Scene There Was Another Major Disruption in My Life: We Moved from North Wales Down to the Home Counties to a Place Called Claygate Right in the Heart of Stockbroker Surrey, on the Very Fringe of the London Suburbs. It Was for Me a Small Disaster. the Home in Old Colwyn Was the Only One I’d Known, and Now Where Was I? Where Had the Seaside Gone? the Pier? the Prom? Where Was Fairy Glen? Where Was the Donkey Path or the Golf Links? the Only Bright Spot in This New Place Seemed to Be a Brass Coal Scuttle That Had Eighteenth Century Coaching Scenes Stamped on the Lid. I Spent the Next Twenty Years Insisting That I Was Welsh and That I Didn’t Fit in Where I Now Found Myself. I Never Felt I Belonged There. the Whole Period of Living in Claygate, from Five to Nineteen, Was Like an Interruption to Real Life.
I Really Wanted to Write, but in Those Days That Wasn’t at All the Sort of Thing a Grammar School Could Encourage. Primary School Had Been Quite Different, and They’d Really Taken an Interest in My Poetry, but the Grammar School Took the Attitude That You Can’t Ever Make a Living Out of Writing so Stop Thinking About It. the Best You Can Hope for Is to Become a Teacher. There Was One Master, Mr Martin, Who Encouraged Me; He Used to Read My Essays Out to the Class, and That Really Helped Me Get Through Feeling Somebody Appreciated the Kind of Things I Wrote. but Otherwise I Had a Feeling That Grammar School Was Like Being Fitted Out with a Straightjacket. It Certainly Fitted and Was Very Practical but You Couldn’t Expect to Do Anything in It.
The One Thing We All Agreed On, Our Chief Aim, Was to Be Totally Unpredictable and Never to Repeat Ourselves. We Wanted to Be Unquantifiable. That ‘Pythonesque’ Is Now an Adjective in the O.E.D. Means We Failed Utterly.

Did you know?

FACTS · 21

Little-known facts about Terry Jones — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.

He directed three films banned in Ireland: Monty Python’s Life of Brian 1979, Monty Python’s the Meaning of Life 1983, and Personal Services 1987.
He earned a degree in Modern History from Oxford University.
He co-wrote an opera with Luis Tinoco that premiered in Lisbon on January 12, 2008, based on his short stories about machines taking over the world.
He had a mild speech impediment, having trouble pronouncing the letter r.
He was diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia, a type of dementia that erodes language ability.
He knew Eric Idle and Michael Palin from university.
He was a member of the Monty Python team along with Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, and Michael Palin.
He was born in the same town as actor Timothy Dalton.
He attended Royal Grammar School in Guildford, where he was head boy, and graduated from St. Edmund Hall at Oxford.
He was diagnosed with bowel cancer in the early stages in October 2006.
He authored books on medieval history and tales for children.
He supported a motion to impeach British Prime Minister Tony Blair after the Iraq War.
His father was Welsh and his mother was of English Anglo-Saxon ancestry.
He was the former brother-in-law of Kate Hepburn.
He was the shortest member of the Monty Python comedy troupe, about an inch shorter than Terry Gilliam.
He fathered daughter Siri Jones with Anna Söderström, born 2009.
He wrote and acted for Oxford’s equivalent of the Cambridge Footlights.
He fathered Sally Jones b. 1974 and Bill Jones b. 1976 with Alison Telfer.
He was the younger brother of Nigel Jones.
He was the second member of the Monty Python troupe to pass away, the first in over 30 years since Graham Chapman in 1989.
His wife Anna Söderström was a granddaughter of Alice Timander.

You wanted to know.

FAQ · 47

Quick answers to the questions readers ask most about Terry Jones.

When was Terry Jones born?

Terry Jones was born on February 1, 1942. He was born in Colwyn Bay, Wales, UK.
Where was Terry Jones born?

He was born in Colwyn Bay, Wales, UK. This is also the birthplace of actor Timothy Dalton.
When did Terry Jones die?

He died on January 21, 2020. He was 77 years old at the time of his death.
How old was Terry Jones when he died?

Terry Jones was 77 years old when he passed away on January 21, 2020. He was born on February 1, 1942.
Where did Terry Jones die?

He died at his home in Highgate, London, England, UK. The cause was complications of dementia.
How did Terry Jones die?

He died from complications of primary progressive aphasia, a form of dementia. The disease eroded his ability to speak over time.
What was Terry Jones's real name?

His full birth name was Terence Graham Parry Jones. He was known professionally as Terry Jones.
What did Terry Jones do for a living?

He was a writer, actor, and producer. He is best known as a founding member of Monty Python.
What nationality was Terry Jones?

He was British, from the United Kingdom. He was born in Wales to a Welsh father and an English mother.
Who were Terry Jones's parents?

His father was Alick George Parry Jones, a bank clerk. His mother was Dilys Louisa Newnes, a homemaker. His brother Nigel Jones was a production designer.
Who was Terry Jones married to?

He was married to Alison Telfer from June 20, 1970 until their divorce in 2012. He later married Anna Söderström in 2012, staying married until his death.
Did Terry Jones have children?

Yes, he had three children: Sally Jones born 1974 and Bill Jones born 1976 with Alison Telfer, and Siri Jones born 2009 with Anna Söderström.
Where did Terry Jones go to school?

He attended the Royal Grammar School in Guildford, where he was head boy. He later studied at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, reading history.
What awards did Terry Jones win?

He received the European Film Academy Lifetime Achievement Award, the Time Machine Award, the Children’s Book Award UK, and the Annual award ACFK.
How many awards did Terry Jones win?

He won four major awards, including the European Film Academy Lifetime Achievement Award and the Children’s Book Award UK.
What is Terry Jones best known for?

He is best known as a founding member of Monty Python, co-directing Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and directing Monty Python’s Life of Brian. He also wrote children’s books.
How tall was Terry Jones?

He was 5 feet 8 inches 1.73 meters tall. He was the shortest member of the Monty Python troupe, about an inch shorter than Terry Gilliam.
Did Terry Jones have any nicknames?

Yes, he was sometimes called Jonesy. The nickname likely originated from friends and colleagues.
Why did Terry Jones use aliases like Spam Terry Jones?

He used various aliases for credits and performances, including Spam Terry Jones and Terry C. Jonesberg. These were often playful references to Monty Python sketches.
Was Terry Jones a member of Monty Python?

Yes, he was one of the six founding members of Monty Python, along with Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, and Michael Palin.
What was Terry Jones's height?

He was 5 feet 8 inches 1.73 meters tall, making him the shortest Python.
Did Terry Jones have any siblings?

Yes, he had an older brother, Nigel Jones, who worked as a production designer.
What was Terry Jones's birth name?

His birth name was Terence Graham Parry Jones.
How many children did Terry Jones have?

He had three children: Sally, Bill, and Siri. Sally and Bill were from his first marriage, Siri from his second.
Was Terry Jones married at the time of his death?

Yes, he was married to Anna Söderström at the time of his death in 2020.
What was Terry Jones's cause of death?

He died from complications of primary progressive aphasia, a form of dementia that affects language. He was diagnosed in 2016.
Did Terry Jones write any books?

Yes, he authored books on medieval history, such as Chaucer’s Knight, and children’s tales. He also wrote a libretto for an opera.
What documentaries did Terry Jones present?

He presented Medieval Lives 2004 and Barbarians 2006, among others. These focused on historical topics he was passionate about.
Did Terry Jones direct any films?

Yes, he co-directed Monty Python and the Holy Grail and solo-directed Monty Python’s Life of Brian, The Meaning of Life, Erik the Viking, and Absolutely Anything.
What was Terry Jones's role in Labyrinth?

He wrote the screenplay for Labyrinth 1986, based on a story by Jim Henson and Dennis Lee.
Was Terry Jones politically active?

Yes, he was an outspoken critic of the Iraq War and supported a motion to impeach Prime Minister Tony Blair.
What was Terry Jones's educational background?

He studied at the Royal Grammar School, Guildford, and then read history at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford. He was head boy and a sports captain.
Did Terry Jones have a speech impediment?

He had a mild speech impediment, specifically trouble pronouncing the letter r.
What health issues did Terry Jones face?

He was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2006, and later with primary progressive aphasia, a type of dementia, in 2016.
How did Terry Jones meet Michael Palin?

They met at Oxford University and performed together in the Oxford Revue. This partnership continued into Monty Python and beyond.
What is Terry Jones's legacy?

He is remembered as a key creative force in Monty Python, a director of iconic comedy films, and a passionate historian who made documentaries and wrote books.
Was Terry Jones a director?

Yes, he directed several films, including Monty Python’s Life of Brian and The Meaning of Life, and co-directed Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
Did Terry Jones act in Monty Python?

Yes, he portrayed many classic characters in Monty Python’s Flying Circus, such as Mr. Creosote and various rat-bag women.
What was Terry Jones's first TV show?

His early TV work included The Late Show 1966 and Do Not Adjust Your Set 1967, both with Michael Palin and Eric Idle.
Did Terry Jones win any awards for his children's books?

Yes, he won the Children’s Book Award UK for one of his books.
What was the name of Terry Jones's older brother?

His older brother was Nigel Jones, a production designer.
How long was Terry Jones married to Alison Telfer?

They were married from June 20, 1970 until their divorce in 2012, a total of 42 years.
What was Terry Jones's role in Monty Python and the Holy Grail?

He co-directed the film with Terry Gilliam and also acted in multiple roles, including Dennis’s Mother and Sir Bedevere.
What was Terry Jones's height in meters?

He was 1.73 meters tall.
Did Terry Jones have any grandchildren?

The source record does not mention grandchildren, so no information is available.
What was Terry Jones's religion?

The source does not specify his religious beliefs.
What was Terry Jones's net worth?

The source does not provide net worth information.

View all 47 questions View fewer questions

Audited & updated by

Emma has 8 years of editorial experience and a very clear idea of what a good biography looks like. At Famousy, she runs the editorial operation and decides what meets the bar and what doesn't. She's the kind of editor who remembers the profiles she pushed back on more clearly than the ones she approved. That's not a complaint. That's exactly why the site reads the way it does.

Published on June 16, 2026

Report an issue

If something on this page looks off, we genuinely want to know about it. Send us a quick email with the celebrity's name, the detail that seems incorrect, and any sources you're referencing. We review every report and update the page as soon as we can.

Report an issue