List of Famous people born in Weston-super-Mare, United Kingdom
John Cleese
John Marwood Cleese is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. He achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and performer on The Frost Report. In the late 1960s, he co-founded Monty Python, the comedy troupe responsible for the sketch show Monty Python's Flying Circus. Along with his Python co-stars Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Graham Chapman, Cleese starred in Monty Python films, which include Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), Life of Brian (1979) and The Meaning of Life (1983).
Jill Dando
Jill Wendy Dando was an English journalist, television presenter and newsreader. She spent most of her career at the BBC and was the corporation's Personality of the Year in 1997. At the time of her death, her television work included co-presenting the BBC One programme Crimewatch with Nick Ross.
Con O'Neill
Robert "Con" O'Neill is an English actor. He started his acting career at the Everyman Theatre and became primarily known for his performances in musicals. He received critical acclaim and won a Laurence Olivier Award for playing Michael "Mickey" Johnstone in the musical Blood Brothers. Subsequently, he was nominated for a Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award for the same role. He also appeared in many films and television series.
Ritchie Blackmore
Richard Hugh Blackmore is an English guitarist and songwriter. He was one of the founding members of Deep Purple in 1968, playing jam-style hard rock music that mixed guitar riffs and organ sounds. Blackmore is prolific in creating guitar riffs and is often noted for his classically influenced solos.
Edwin Stephen Goodrich
Edwin Stephen Goodrich FRS, was an English zoologist, specialising in comparative anatomy, embryology, palaeontology, and evolution. He held the Linacre Chair of Zoology in the University of Oxford from 1921 to 1946. He served as editor of the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science from 1920 until his death.
Henry Edwards
Henry Edwards was an English actor and film director. He appeared in 81 films between 1915 and 1952. He also directed 67 films between 1915 and 1937. Edwards was married to actress Chrissie White, who co-starred in a number of his films. He was born in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset and died in Chobham, Surrey.
Rupert Graves
Rupert S. Graves is an English film, television, and theatre actor. He is known for his roles in A Room with a View, Maurice, The Madness of King George and The Forsyte Saga. From 2010 to 2017 he starred as DI Lestrade in the BBC television series Sherlock.
John Polkinghorne
John Charlton Polkinghorne, is an English theoretical physicist, theologian, and Anglican priest. A prominent and leading voice explaining the relationship between science and religion, he was Professor of Mathematical Physics at the University of Cambridge from 1968 to 1979, when he resigned his chair to study for the priesthood, becoming an ordained Anglican priest in 1982. He served as the president of Queens' College, Cambridge, from 1988 until 1996.
Augustus Edward Hough Love
Augustus Edward Hough Love FRS, often known as A. E. H. Love, was a mathematician famous for his work on the mathematical theory of elasticity. He also worked on wave propagation and his work on the structure of the Earth in Some Problems of Geodynamics won for him the Adams prize in 1911 when he developed a mathematical model of surface waves known as Love waves. Love also contributed to the theory of tidal locking and introduced the parameters known as Love numbers, which are widely used today. These numbers are also used in problems related to the tidal deformation of the Earth due to the gravitational attraction of the Moon and Sun.
A. V. Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Hillsborough
Albert Victor Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Hillsborough,, was a British Labour Co-operative politician. He was three times First Lord of the Admiralty, including during the Second World War, and then Minister of Defence under Clement Attlee.