Terry Jones: from Monty Python to the Iraq War

Comedy actor and writer Terry Jones, best known as one of the stars of Monty Python, has died at the age of 77.

Jones died four years after being diagnosed with a rare form of dementia, the BBC reports.

A statement from his family said: “We have all lost a kind, funny, warm, creative and truly loving man.”

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

“Terry passed away on the evening of 21 January 2020 at the age of 77 with his wife Anna Soderstrom by his side after a long, extremely brave but always good humoured battle with a rare form of dementia, FTD,” the statement continued.

As part of the legendary Monty Python crew, Jones starred in and directed some of the group’s most loved work, including Life Of Brian, and became known for his performances in drag.

Later in life, Jones was a vocal critic of the Iraq War and penned numerous articles in newspapers attacking Tony Blair and George W Bush.

Many of these were republished in a book dubbed Terry Jones’s War On The War On Terror, in which he questioned Blair’s mental state.

“With all this acclaim for the US president’s lobotomy, it is scarcely surprising that Tony Blair, should have decided to follow suit and undergo similar psychosurgery,” he wrote in The Guardian in 2004.

Metro reports that in 2015, the Monty Python star was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia – an uncommon form of the disease which starts at a younger age, affects the front and sides of the brain and causes issues with behaviour and language.

Fellow Python star Sir Michael Palin said: “Terry was one of my closest, most valued friends. He was kind, generous, supportive and passionate about living life to the full.

“He was far more than one of the funniest writer-performers of his generation, he was the complete Renaissance comedian - writer, director, presenter, historian, brilliant children's author, and the warmest, most wonderful company you could wish to have.”