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Jonathan Lynn
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Jonathan Lynn
Jonathan Adam Lynn (born 3 April 1943) is a British-American film director, screenwriter, and actor. He directed the comedy films Clue, Nuns on the Run, My Cousin Vinny, and The Whole Nine Yards. He also co-created and co-wrote the political-satirical television series Yes Minister.
Lynn was born in Bath, Somerset, to Jewish parents. He was the son of Robin Lynn, a Scottish physician and Ruth Helen (née Eban), an English sculptor.
His father Robin was from Glasgow, whose own father had come by boat from Lithuania. His mother Ruth's first cousin on her own mother's side was the neurologist Oliver Sacks; another cousin, Caroline Sacks, married Nicholas Samuel, 5th Viscount Bearsted. Lynn's maternal uncle was Israeli statesman Abba Eban, who, like Jonathan, studied at Cambridge, in the 1930s, and his grandmother was a secretary to Chaim Weizmann, first president of Israel.
Lynn described his family as "Jewish but secular". He was teased at school for his Jewishness, but in a later interview shrugged it off, as he believed "They just didn’t know any better". As a teenager, Lynn played drums in jazz bands.
Lynn was educated at Kingswood School, Bath, between 1954 and 1961. After he was accepted at age seventeen, he studied law at Pembroke College, Cambridge. He chose a degree in law despite his love for performing arts, as he said that studying law would "ensure his parents could still sleep at night knowing that their child had a legitimate career to fall back on, just in case".
While studying at his first year in Cambridge, he met Eric Idle. Idle asked Lynn to join the Cambridge University Footlights Club. In 1965, he was in the Footlights revue Cambridge Circus. With Bill Oddie, Tim Brooke-Taylor and David Hatch, he appeared on Broadway and on The Ed Sullivan Show. Lynn then took acting lessons from actress Mira Rostova.
Lynn's first West End appearance was in a stage production of Green Julia, for which he was nominated for the 1965 Plays and Players Award as Most Promising New Actor. In 1967, he played Motel the tailor in the original West End production of Fiddler on the Roof (production recorded by CBS Records). In 1968, he was in the film Prudence and the Pill. From the late 1960s, Lynn was appearing in and writing television sitcoms, including the television comedy series Twice a Fortnight with Graeme Garden, Bill Oddie, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Tony Buffery.
Lynn played the Irish medical student Danny Hooley in the second series of the television comedy Doctor in the House in 1970, replacing Martin Shaw, who played Welsh man Huw Evans. He wrote some episodes for future series in the Doctor in the House franchises including Doctor at Large, Doctor in Charge, Doctor at Sea and Doctor on the Go. He also wrote episodes of On the Buses and wrote for Harry Worth and George Layton. In the 1970s, his most memorable roles included Beryl's boyfriend Robert in early series of The Liver Birds; Harold in Jack Rosenthal's 1976 television film Bar Mitzvah Boy,; and Ted Margolis in Rosenthal's The Knowledge (1979).
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Jonathan Lynn
Jonathan Adam Lynn (born 3 April 1943) is a British-American film director, screenwriter, and actor. He directed the comedy films Clue, Nuns on the Run, My Cousin Vinny, and The Whole Nine Yards. He also co-created and co-wrote the political-satirical television series Yes Minister.
Lynn was born in Bath, Somerset, to Jewish parents. He was the son of Robin Lynn, a Scottish physician and Ruth Helen (née Eban), an English sculptor.
His father Robin was from Glasgow, whose own father had come by boat from Lithuania. His mother Ruth's first cousin on her own mother's side was the neurologist Oliver Sacks; another cousin, Caroline Sacks, married Nicholas Samuel, 5th Viscount Bearsted. Lynn's maternal uncle was Israeli statesman Abba Eban, who, like Jonathan, studied at Cambridge, in the 1930s, and his grandmother was a secretary to Chaim Weizmann, first president of Israel.
Lynn described his family as "Jewish but secular". He was teased at school for his Jewishness, but in a later interview shrugged it off, as he believed "They just didn’t know any better". As a teenager, Lynn played drums in jazz bands.
Lynn was educated at Kingswood School, Bath, between 1954 and 1961. After he was accepted at age seventeen, he studied law at Pembroke College, Cambridge. He chose a degree in law despite his love for performing arts, as he said that studying law would "ensure his parents could still sleep at night knowing that their child had a legitimate career to fall back on, just in case".
While studying at his first year in Cambridge, he met Eric Idle. Idle asked Lynn to join the Cambridge University Footlights Club. In 1965, he was in the Footlights revue Cambridge Circus. With Bill Oddie, Tim Brooke-Taylor and David Hatch, he appeared on Broadway and on The Ed Sullivan Show. Lynn then took acting lessons from actress Mira Rostova.
Lynn's first West End appearance was in a stage production of Green Julia, for which he was nominated for the 1965 Plays and Players Award as Most Promising New Actor. In 1967, he played Motel the tailor in the original West End production of Fiddler on the Roof (production recorded by CBS Records). In 1968, he was in the film Prudence and the Pill. From the late 1960s, Lynn was appearing in and writing television sitcoms, including the television comedy series Twice a Fortnight with Graeme Garden, Bill Oddie, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Tony Buffery.
Lynn played the Irish medical student Danny Hooley in the second series of the television comedy Doctor in the House in 1970, replacing Martin Shaw, who played Welsh man Huw Evans. He wrote some episodes for future series in the Doctor in the House franchises including Doctor at Large, Doctor in Charge, Doctor at Sea and Doctor on the Go. He also wrote episodes of On the Buses and wrote for Harry Worth and George Layton. In the 1970s, his most memorable roles included Beryl's boyfriend Robert in early series of The Liver Birds; Harold in Jack Rosenthal's 1976 television film Bar Mitzvah Boy,; and Ted Margolis in Rosenthal's The Knowledge (1979).