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Mark Irwin Forstater (born 1943) is an American film and TV producer, author, audio producer, music producer and tech entrepreneur, notable for producing the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. [1] In 2012, he sued the five living members of Monty Python over a dispute regarding royalties from merchandising income, including the Spamalot musical, which was “lovingly ripped off from” the Holy Grail movie.[2] He is a graduate of London Film School.[3]

Childhood and education

Forstater was born in Philadelphia and is Jewish.[4] He was educated in Philadelphia public schools and graduated in the 216 class of Central High School. He attended and graduated from Temple University, also in Philadelphia. He moved to England in 1964 to read English Literature at the University of Manchester as a visiting student.[5]

Career

Forstater worked as an assistant editor on ITV Anglia‘s Survival. He produced his first feature film – The Great Wall of China, directed by Joel Tuber. Forstater also made two short films for the BFI Production Board. In 1971 he started Chippenham Films with Julian Doyle.[6]

At City College of New York Film School, Forstater was a classmate and flatmate of Terry Gilliam. In 1969, he reunited with Gilliam in London, where Gilliam introduced him to Michael Palin and Terry Jones. After the commercial failure of And Now for Something Completely Different, the Pythons decided to make an original film and asked Forstater to produce. That project became Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Forstater later wrote about the film’s production and the subsequent Spamalot royalties legal dispute in his book The 7th Python.

Forstater has made over 30 films including The Grass Is Singing, from the novel by Doris Lessing, made in Zambia and directed by Michael Raeburn, and Marigolds in August, by Athol Fugard, directed by Ross Devenish.[1][7]

In 1981, Forstater produced the cult classic Xtro directed by Harry Bromley Davenport. Other notable productions include: The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, from the book by Joan Aiken, directed by Stuard Orme; the Cannes official selection Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, directed by Marion Hänsel; Forbidden, directed by Anthony Page; The Cold Room, directed by James Dearden; The Fantasist, written and directed by Robin Hardy; and The Glitterball, directed by Harley Cokliss.

Forstater also produced a drama series Grushko for BBC1.

In 1999, Forstater produced his first audio – the Tao Te Ching, with Nigel Hawthorne reading the text. This led to Forstater writing and producing a series of four books and audiobooks on spirituality and philosophy – The Spiritual Teachings of Marcus Aurelius, The Spiritual Teachings of the Tao, The Spiritual Teachings of Yoga, and The Spiritual Teachings of Seneca. Forstater has written three further books: The Living Wisdom of Socrates, I Survived a Secret Nazi Extermination Camp, and the autobiographical The 7th Python.

In 2018, Forstater started a new company with video producer and composer Nathan Neuman. Forstater produced film Swipe Fever.

On 4 July 2013, he won the High Court of Justice case[8][9] against the surviving members of Monty Python over royalty payments to Spamalot as a derivative work of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.[10][11] They owed £1.3 million in past royalties and legal fees, which prompted them to produce Monty Python Live (Mostly) in 2014 to pay their debt.[2][12][13]

Personal life

Forstater lives in London. He has been married twice and has four daughters,[7] including Maya Forstater, and three grandsons.

Forstater has said that the protracted Spamalot royalties case was greatly detrimental to his well-being both financially and mentally.[14]

Films produced

Books

  • The Seventh Python – A Twat’s Tale[20][21]
  • I Survived a Secret Nazi Extermination Camp (2013).[22] Forstater was inspired to write this unique memoir ‘a retelling of his own stateside family history, […] a meditation for the extended family he never knew’ who died in the Belzec extermination camp after he read the memoirs of Rudolf Reder, ‘one of two known Jewish survivors of […] Belzec’, where 600,000 Jews and Roma were killed. Reder’s memoir is included in Forstater’s book. Several of Forstater’s relatives were murdered in the Belzec camp.[23]
  • The Spiritual Teachings of Marcus Aurelius (Harper, 2000)[24][25]
  • The Age of Anxiety: A Guided Meditation for the Financially Stressed[26]

References

  1. ^ a b “Mark Forstater”. BritishComedyGuide. Retrieved 6 June 2019.
  2. ^ a b “Monty Python sued over Spamalot royalties”. BBC News Online. 30 November 2012. Retrieved 30 November 2012. Mr Forstater claimed he was entitled to one-seventh of this figure, the same share enjoyed by each of the other Pythons – but was told he was only entitled to one-fourteenth, and has been paid accordingly since 2005. …
  3. ^ “Mark Forstater”. Mark Forstater’s website. Retrieved 24 December 2022.
  4. ^ Fraser, Jenni (17 March 2016). “Jewish ‘seventh Python’ gets revenge with spammy memoir”. Times of Israel. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  5. ^ “Monty Python Musical was no laughing matter for ‘cheated’ Mark” Jewish Telegraph. www.jewishtelegraph.com. Retrieved June 11, 2021.
  6. ^ “‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail’ producer wins ‘Spamalot’ trial”. www.ft.com. Archived from the original on 11 July 2024. Retrieved 30 March 2026.
  7. ^ a b “Mark Forstater”. HarperCollins.
  8. ^ MR JUSTICE NORRIS (5 July 2013), Forstater & Anor v Python (Monty) Pictures Ltd & Anor [2013] EWHC 1873 (Ch), retrieved 30 November 2019
  9. ^ “Mark Forstater and Mark Forstater Productions Limited -v- Python (Monty) Pictures Ltd and Freeway Cam (UK) Ltd”. www.judiciary.uk. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  10. ^ “‘Seventh Python’ awarded more than $300,000 – Mt. Airy native wins court case against Monty Python”. Chestnut Hill Local Philadelphia PA. 10 July 2013. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  11. ^ Lear, Len (5 April 2019). “Mt. Airy native wins eight-year lawsuit against Monty Python”. Chestnut Hill Local Philadelphia PA. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  12. ^ “Monty Python lose Spamalot court battle”. BBC News. 4 July 2013. Retrieved 5 July 2013. Mark Forstater, who produced the 1975 film Monty Python And The Holy Grail, claimed he was underpaid royalties since the musical’s launch in 2005. …
  13. ^ “John Cleese: Monty Python reunion is happening because of my £800,000 legal bill”. Daily Mirror. 23 May 2014. Retrieved 28 December 2014. Last July, the Pythons lost a royalties case to Mark Forstater, who produced 1975 film Monty Python And The Holy Grail. …
  14. ^ “Monty Python Musical Was No Laughing Matter for ‘cheated’ Mark”. Jewish Telegraph.
  15. ^ Canby, Vincent (20 June 1984). “Screen: Fugard Stars in Last of His Trilogy” (Review). The New York Times. Retrieved 28 May 2019. produced by Jonathan Cohen and Mark Forstater
  16. ^ “The Friday Film Special: The Glitterball”. The Radio Times. No. 3256. Longon. 17 April 1986. p. 91. Producer: Mark Forstater
  17. ^ “The Fantasist” (Review). Film Ireland. 17 January 2009. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  18. ^ “Mark Forstater”. IMDb. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  19. ^ Lear, Len (27 March 2019). “Prolific Mt. Airy producer/author: 30 films, 8 books”. Chestnut Hill Local Philadelphia PA. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  20. ^ Topping, Alexandra (11 October 2015). “Monty Python legal battle left me living in a bedsit, says ‘seventh Python’“. The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  21. ^ “The 7th Python”. www.the7thpython.com. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  22. ^ “The painful truth about survival”. Jewish Chronicle. 29 September 2015. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  23. ^ Rocker, Simon (31 January 2013). “‘Seventh Python’ claims his Spamalot share was cut a lot”. Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  24. ^ Remsen, Jim (10 August 2000). “Following Gladiator’s emperor: Author Mark Forstater believes we can still learn from Marcus Aurelius”. National Post.
  25. ^ Carpenter, Sue (18 April 2000). “Guru for our times”. The Times.
  26. ^ Goodchild, Sophie (2 September 2009). “Give Your Mind a Rest (brief review)”. Evening Standard.