Terry Gilliam in his forty-year career as a director has directed a series of visually stunning films that have supported the power of imagination and challenged viewers to see the world differently.
Born near Minneapolis, Minnesota, Gilliam settled in London in 1960 where he became a member of the Monty Python team, contributing to its vitality. He co-directed Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) with Terry Jones. He was set designer, actor, screenwriter and animator for Brian of Nazareth (1979). In Monty Python – The Meaning of Life (1983), Gilliam directed the extravagant short: The Crimson Permanent Assurance.
Gilliam’s first film as a solo director was 1977’s Jabberwocky followed by 1981’s The Time Bandits. In 1985, Gilliam shot Brazil, which won Best Picture at the Los Angeles Film Critics, and received two Oscar nominations (Original Screenplay and Art Direction).
Brazil was followed by The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988), shot in Rome with John Neville, Robin Williams and Oliver Reed, which took four Oscar nominations.
Gilliam then shot his next three films in the United States. The Legend of the Fisher King (1991), which won the Silver Lion at the Venice International Film Festival. The next film The Army of the Twelve Monkeys (1995) is a time travel film starring Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt. In 1998 he filmed Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas based on the novel by Hunter S. Thompson, starring Johnny Depp and Benicio del Toro.
In 2000, Gilliam moved to Spain to film The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. Filming was suspended due to bad weather and injuries to some of the actors. Gilliam then filmed The Brothers Grimm and the Lovely Witch (2005) in Prague with Matt Damon and Heath Ledger, and the disturbing Tideland (2005), with Jodelle Ferland and Jeff Bridges.
Gilliam also co-wrote and directed Parnassus – the Man Who Wanted to Deceive the Devil (2009) with Heath Ledger, Christopher Plummer, and Andrew Garfield.
In 2011, he wrote and directed a 20-minute short film The Wholly Family that was awarded best short film by the European Film Academy. In May of that year Gilliam also made his operatic directorial debut directing Hector Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust for the English National Opera in London. His penultimate film is 2013’s The Zero Theorem.
This year, after many misadventures, he will release The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, about which he said in 2013, “I want to do it to get it out of my life. I have become possessed by my ideas, and as long as I have a catharsis these remain and gnaw away at every part of my life.”