# Michael Palin
**Michael Palin** (born 1943 in [Sheffield](https://www.edgepedia.org/sheffield), Yorkshire) is an English comedian, actor, writer and television traveler, best known as a founding member of the [Monty Python](https://www.edgepedia.org/monty-python) comedy troupe and later as the presenter of a series of globe-circling travel documentaries.[1](https://www.themichaelpalin.com/about/biography/) • [2](https://www.montypython.com/python_Michael%20Palin/16)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born | Sheffield, Yorkshire, 1943; father an engineer[1](https://www.themichaelpalin.com/about/biography/) |
| Education | Brasenose College, Oxford; 2nd Class Modern History degree, 1965; wrote and performed with Terry Jones in the Oxford Revue[1](https://www.themichaelpalin.com/about/biography/) • [2](https://www.montypython.com/python_Michael%20Palin/16) |
| Monty Python | Founding member; *Monty Python's Flying Circus* premiered 5 October 1969 and ran on BBC from 1969 to 1974[3](https://www.montypython.com/python_the_pythons/14) • [4](https://apnews.com/article/d3f6f873f2ac30fae78a09a2a48673a9) |
| Python films | *Monty Python and the Holy Grail* (1975), *Monty Python's Life of Brian* (1979), *Monty Python's The Meaning of Life* (1983)[5](https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/media/resources/9781474475174_And_Now_For_Something_Completely_Different_-_Introduction.pdf) |
| Travel documentaries | *Around the World in Eighty Days* (1988), *Pole to Pole*, *Full Circle*, *Michael Palin's Hemingway Adventure*, *Sahara*, *Himalaya*, *Michael Palin's New Europe*, *Brazil*[2](https://www.montypython.com/python_Michael%20Palin/16) |
| Writing | Three published volumes of diaries, including *Diaries 1969–1979: The Python Years* (Weidenfeld & Nicolson); novels *Hemingway's Chair* and *The Truth*[1](https://www.themichaelpalin.com/about/biography/) • [2](https://www.montypython.com/python_Michael%20Palin/16) |
| Honors | Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG), New Year Honours, for services to travel, culture and geography[1](https://www.themichaelpalin.com/about/biography/) |
## Early life and pre-Python career
Palin was born in Sheffield, where he attended Birkdale Preparatory School and then Shrewsbury School; his first stage appearance was as Martha Cratchit in a school production of Dickens' *A Christmas Carol*, from which he fell off the stage.[1](https://www.themichaelpalin.com/about/biography/) He went up to Brasenose College, Oxford, in 1962 to read history, and began writing and performing comedy, first with Robert Hewison and then with [Terry Jones](https://www.edgepedia.org/terry-jones), with whom he appeared in the Oxford Revue at the Edinburgh Festival in 1964.[1](https://www.themichaelpalin.com/about/biography/) • [5](https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/media/resources/9781474475174_And_Now_For_Something_Completely_Different_-_Introduction.pdf)
After leaving Oxford in 1965 with a second-class degree in modern history, he worked with Jones as a writer for television shows including *The Frost Report*, whose writing team won the Golden Rose of Montreux for the BBC, and the pair's credits before Python also included *Marty*, *Do Not Adjust Your Set*, and *The Complete and Utter History of Britain*.[1](https://www.themichaelpalin.com/about/biography/) • [2](https://www.montypython.com/python_Michael%20Palin/16) In April 1966 he married Helen Gibbins.[1](https://www.themichaelpalin.com/about/biography/)
## Monty Python
Monty Python came together in May 1969, when five Britons, Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin, and the American animator [Terry Gilliam](https://www.edgepedia.org/terry-gilliam) met to discuss a new BBC comedy series.[3](https://www.montypython.com/python_the_pythons/14) The result, *Monty Python's Flying Circus*, broke with conventional sketch comedy by running absurd, loosely connected sequences instead of tidy punchlines, held together by Gilliam's surreal animation.[6](https://www.vg.no/rampelys/i/gkvMMq/monty-python-stjernen-eric-idle-fikk-doedelig-kreftdiagnose-jeg-maatte-le) Palin and Jones wrote as a pair, leaving Idle and Gilliam to their individual components of the group's output.[7](https://discovery.dundee.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/49453004/E_Wilson_Thesis_Corrected_Signed_27052020.pdf)
**Characters.** The official Python site describes Palin as the most innocent-looking member of the group, which let him play some of its most subversive parts, such as gangsters and unctuous presenters. His best-known characters include the leader of the [Spanish Inquisition](https://www.edgepedia.org/spanish-inquisition), the proprietor of the pet shop selling a dead parrot, the owner of a cheese shop with no cheese, the transvestite lumberjack, the host of the game show "Blackmail", the bicyclist Mr. Pither, a Gumby, the leader of the Knights Who Say "Ni!", and [Pontius Pilate](https://www.edgepedia.org/pontius-pilate) in *Life of Brian*, afflicted with a giggle-inducing speech impediment.[2](https://www.montypython.com/python_Michael%20Palin/16) The site also singles out the "Fish Slapping Dance", in which his character is knocked off Teddington Lock into the Thames by a man wielding a very large fish.[2](https://www.montypython.com/python_Michael%20Palin/16)
**Films and later Python work.** After the television series, the group made *Monty Python and the Holy Grail* (1975), *Monty Python's Life of Brian* (1979), and *Monty Python's The Meaning of Life* (1983), the last of their films before the troupe formally wound down.[5](https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/media/resources/9781474475174_And_Now_For_Something_Completely_Different_-_Introduction.pdf) • [8](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/comedy/features/monty-python-the-last-laugh-9558042.html) Palin took part in the 2014 reunion show *Monty Python Live (Mostly)* at the O2, though he and Gilliam had objections to [Eric Idle](https://www.edgepedia.org/eric-idle)'s *Spamalot* musical.[6](https://www.vg.no/rampelys/i/gkvMMq/monty-python-stjernen-eric-idle-fikk-doedelig-kreftdiagnose-jeg-maatte-le)
Palin has a public reputation for equability. The *Independent* has called him famously the only Python who has constantly remained on speaking terms with all the others, and he has objected to being described as merely nice, a paper once calling him "terminally nice".[9](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/the-dark-knight-rises-perhaps-michael-palin-isn-t-the-nicest-chap-in-britain-after-all-7976634.html) • [10](https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2014/sep/06/michael-palin-world-is-absurd-silly-place) He has also been candid about the group's uneven output, telling an interviewer that the television shows were uneven, with really good material among a lot of dross, and agreeing that some of the humor had a cliquish intellectual quality.[9](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/the-dark-knight-rises-perhaps-michael-palin-isn-t-the-nicest-chap-in-britain-after-all-7976634.html)
## Acting outside Python
Palin's screen credits outside the troupe include Terry Gilliam's *[Jabberwocky](https://www.edgepedia.org/jabberwocky-1977-film)* and *Time Bandits*, in which he played a nice-guy torturer in Gilliam's *[Brazil](https://www.edgepedia.org/brazil-1985-film)*; an animal-loving jewel thief in *A Fish Called Wanda*; *The Missionary*; and *A Private Function*.[2](https://www.montypython.com/python_Michael%20Palin/16) He also starred in the [Alan Bleasdale](https://www.edgepedia.org/alan-bleasdale) television series *G.B.H.* (1991) and the BBC1 three-part supernatural thriller *Remember Me* (2014), and his play *The Weekend* was produced in London in 1994.[2](https://www.montypython.com/python_Michael%20Palin/16) The Monty Python team received the Michael Balcon Award at BAFTA, and Palin won a Best Supporting Actor BAFTA Award.[1](https://www.themichaelpalin.com/about/biography/)
## Travel documentaries and writing
The travel documentaries that gave Palin a second career began in 1988, when, as he put it, at 42 he made *Around the World in 80 Days* and wrote a book about the trip, and "so I started this great career".[11](https://lib.ysu.am/disciplines_bk/d341080c308c570ac2c8e48679e819a8.pdf) The series continued with *Pole to Pole*, *Full Circle*, *Michael Palin's Hemingway Adventure*, *Sahara*, *Himalaya*, *Michael Palin's New Europe*, and *Brazil*.[2](https://www.montypython.com/python_Michael%20Palin/16) The Sahara series included his interview on the subject of female genital mutilation, which the *Independent* later described as sensitive and uninhibited.[9](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/the-dark-knight-rises-perhaps-michael-palin-isn-t-the-nicest-chap-in-britain-after-all-7976634.html)
**Books.** Palin has published three volumes of his diaries, covering his working life from 1969 to the end of the century, beginning with *Diaries 1969–1979: The Python Years*, published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson.[1](https://www.themichaelpalin.com/about/biography/) • [12](https://www.themichaelpalin.com/my-diaries/my-diaries-about-my-diaries/) He has also written two novels, *Hemingway's Chair* and *The Truth*, and children's books including *Small Harry and the Toothache Pills*.[2](https://www.montypython.com/python_Michael%20Palin/16)
## Later recognition
In the New Year Honours, Palin was appointed a Knight Commander of the [Order of St Michael and St George](https://www.edgepedia.org/order-of-st-michael-and-st-george) (KCMG) for services to travel, culture and geography.[1](https://www.themichaelpalin.com/about/biography/) He remains active: his official site announced a UK tour, "Michael Palin – In The Philippines", for 2026, including a date at Bath Pavilion on 11 June 2026.[13](https://www.themichaelpalin.com/news/michael-palin-in-the-philippines-uk-tour-2026/)
## References
1. [Biography, The Official Michael Palin Website](https://www.themichaelpalin.com/about/biography/)
2. [The Pythons: Michael Palin, Monty Python Official Site](https://www.montypython.com/python_Michael%20Palin/16)
3. [The Pythons, Monty Python Official Site](https://www.montypython.com/python_the_pythons/14)
4. [Britain's Royal Mail celebrates Monty Python with stamps, AP News](https://apnews.com/article/d3f6f873f2ac30fae78a09a2a48673a9)
5. [Introduction, *And Now for Something Completely Different: Critical Approaches to Monty Python*, Edinburgh University Press](https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/media/resources/9781474475174_And_Now_For_Something_Completely_Different_-_Introduction.pdf)
6. [Monty Python-stjernen Eric Idle fikk dødelig kreftdiagnose, VG](https://www.vg.no/rampelys/i/gkvMMq/monty-python-stjernen-eric-idle-fikk-doedelig-kreftdiagnose-jeg-maatte-le)
7. [E. Wilson, PhD thesis, University of Dundee](https://discovery.dundee.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/49453004/E_Wilson_Thesis_Corrected_Signed_27052020.pdf)
8. [Monty Python: The last laugh?, The Independent](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/comedy/features/monty-python-the-last-laugh-9558042.html)
9. [The dark knight rises: Perhaps Michael Palin isn't the nicest chap in Britain after all, The Independent](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/the-dark-knight-rises-perhaps-michael-palin-isn-t-the-nicest-chap-in-britain-after-all-7976634.html)
10. [Michael Palin: 'The world is an absurd and silly place', The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2014/sep/06/michael-palin-world-is-absurd-silly-place)
11. [Journeys of a Lifetime (interview with Michael Palin)](https://lib.ysu.am/disciplines_bk/d341080c308c570ac2c8e48679e819a8.pdf)
12. [About My Diaries, The Official Michael Palin Website](https://www.themichaelpalin.com/my-diaries/my-diaries-about-my-diaries/)
13. [Michael Palin – In The Philippines – UK Tour 2026, The Official Michael Palin Website](https://www.themichaelpalin.com/news/michael-palin-in-the-philippines-uk-tour-2026/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Screen people and creators › Screen actors of the Anglosphere and Europe › English actors: 1970s to 1990s › Surnames N to R*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 12, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license