'Monty Python' producer, comedian writer dies at 73

Barry Took, one of Britain\'s most famous comedians and comic writers who helped produce such shows as "Monty Python's Flying Circus," died Sunday at the age of 73, his family announced.\nTook, once described as one of the funniest men in Britain, died at a north London nursing home after a battle with cancer, his family said.\nTook had an unusually long career as a standup comic, radio scriptwriter writer, television executive and film critic.\nHe was responsible for celebrated radio series like "Round the Horne," "The Army Game," "Educating Archie" and "Bootsie and Snudge." The shows were a vital part of British life in the austere decades after World War II, when food rationing lasted for years and the country struggled to adjust to its diminished role in the world.\nTook also worked on the U.S. television show, "Laugh In."\nA native of London, Took was dogged by self-doubt, depression, domestic problems and ill-health. His two marriages ended in divorce.\nLeaving school at the age of 15, he worked as an office boy and a cinema projectionist before serving in the air force, where he was involved in entertainment programs.\nTook later worked as a stage hand and comic. In his autobiography, "A Point of View," he recalled that he once did 12 shows in the city of Wolverhampton without raising a single laugh.\nIn 1957, he began working with fellow comic Marty Feldman, and they went on to create and write some of the most successful radio shows of the 1960s. The pair turned out scripts at a rapid pace, often compiling four or five shows a week.\nAlthough his working life revolved around comedy, Took once said: "I don't like comedians very much because I don't like neurotic people. I think they should go and get cured. I'm mad too but I'm as cured as I can get."\nDubbed Baron von Took by a television executive, he was involved in plans for a show called "Baron von Took's Flying Circus" which eventually became "Monty Python's Flying Circus."\nIn later life, Took wrote film reviews for Punch magazine and did panel shows on radio.\nTook is survived by two daughters and two sons.