FILM · 1983 · UK
Yellowbeard
27 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (27)
- #001
This was Marty Feldman's (Gilbert) final cinema film. He died of a heart attack on 2 December 1982 during production.
- #002
He appears as "The Shark" without being listed in the credits.
- #003
The film was inspired by Keith Moon, drummer of the English rock band The Who and a personal friend of Graham Chapman. Moon wanted to play Yellowbeard but was unable to because of his health. (He died in September 1978.) Chapman once recalled that Moon lived like a pirate with his wild behaviour. The character named Moon (Peter Boyle) in this film was named in his memory.
- #004
Yellowbeard is based on and is a parody of the notorious, murderous real-life pirate Edward "Blackbeard" Teach. Blackbeard wove hemp into his hair and set it alight to frighten his prey, as Yellowbeard does in this film. Teach was also known for killing the crew of a target ship in horrific ways if the ship offered any resistance.
- #005
Three of the cast members were from Monty Python: Graham Chapman, John Cleese and Eric Idle. Cleese stated that he accepted his role in this film only as a favour to Graham Chapman and that he thought the script was the worst he had ever read.
- #006
The entire harbour at Acapulco, Mexico, was redesigned to resemble the eighteenth-century English seaport of Portsmouth.
- #007
This was Graham Chapman's (Yellowbeard) last reputable cinema film.
- #008
Adam Ant was originally cast in the role of Dan, but he lost patience because of delays in the production and resigned. Sting was then approached and wanted the role, but the producers insisted on an American actor. Martin Hewitt was eventually cast.
- #009
Keith Moon and Graham Chapman initially wanted their mutual friend Sam Peckinpah to direct.
- #010
Martin Hewitt, Graham Chapman and David Bowie went on a drunken Jeep tour of the city one night. Bowie eventually got into a taxi and ruined everything. He then pulled out a wad of money and paid the taxi owner 5,000 dollars, while security guards took them back to the hotel where they were staying.
- #011
Blind Pew (John Cleese) takes his name from a pirate in Robert Louis Stevenson's classic adventure story "Treasure Island".
- #012
This was Peter Bull's (Queen Anne) final cinema film.
- #013
John Cleese took a role in the film because Graham Chapman would not accept no for an answer. Like most of the cast, he said that being part of the production was great fun even though the film itself did not turn out very well.
- #014
The joke that Yellowbeard commits horrific acts of violence and theft but is imprisoned for tax evasion is a reference to Al Capone.
- #015
This was Spike Milligan's (Flunkie) final cinema film.
- #016
Harry Nilsson was initially asked to compose the score, including a song to be sung by the main cast.
- #017
This was director Mel Damski's first cinema film.
- #018
Graham Chapman, John Cleese and Eric Idle appear in this film, while the other Monty Python members Terry Jones and Michael Palin turned down the roles of Dr. Gilpin and Dan respectively.
- #019
This was Nigel Planer's (Mansell) first cinema film.
- #020
Yellowbeard is one of two period comedy films Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong made in the mid-1980s; the other is Cheech & Chong's: The Corsican Brothers (1984).
- #021
Both Spike Milligan (The Goon Show) and Peter Cook (of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore) were major influences on Graham Chapman and Monty Python.
- #022
The film spent a long time in development hell, with a significant amount of time devoted to securing financing.
- #023
Yellowbeard is one of several pirate films made between the mid-1970s and the mid-1990s that failed at the box office, alongside Pirates (1987), Swashbuckler (1976), Nate and Hayes (1983), The Pirate Movie (1982) and Cutthroat Island (1995).
- #024
Peter Boyle (Moon), Marty Feldman (Gilbert), Madeline Kahn (Betty) and Kenneth Mars (Mr Crisp / Verdugo) all appeared together in Young Frankenstein (1974).
- #025
Like Pontius Pilatus in Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979), also written by Graham Chapman, the malicious El Nebuloso (Tommy Chong) speaks with a lisp.
- #026
Some of the extras were "GO" staff from Club Med Ixtapa. During filming in Ixtapa, Mexico, most of the cast and crew stayed at Club Med Ixtapa.
- #027
The poster shows a mustachioed man's head cut open with the characters inside, and a written map on top of the head (like an open lid). In the film the map is written on Dan's head (Martin Hewitt)… but the head on the poster does not belong to Dan, who is younger and has no mustache.
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