Monty Python legend John Cleese: The eternal rogue celebrates his 85th birthday

He once insulted King Arthur as a “fucked-up, English fresh beer drinker”, had to fight with women behind false beards during the stoning of an infidel, equipped James Bond with all sorts of sophisticated agent frippery and gave perhaps the most touching and at the same time funniest eulogy in the history of the world Humanity. John Cleese (85) is a special man. A particularly funny, particularly clever man. But also a man who doesn’t shy away from taking on his Monty Python colleagues. On October 27th, the eternal child’s head turns 85 years old.

That’s cheese!

It’s just fitting that a man becomes a world-famous comedian whose family originally bore the name Cheese – that forced exclamation in countless, unbearable group photos around the globe that is supposed to ensure an authentic laugh in the picture. It was only when his father Reginald Francis Cheese joined the army in 1915 that he changed his surname to Cleese.

The fact that he was almost two meters tall at the age of 13 didn’t really help the young John Cleese either. However, thanks to the many jokes at the expense of the long rant, he acquired a thick comedy skin – and a fearsome verbal repartee.

Between seriousness and humor

On the one hand, Cleese studied law at Cambridge and got a degree in it, but on the other hand, he always pursued his passion for comedy and slapstick. Through various jobs, including at the BBC, he met Graham Chapman (1941-1989), Eric Idle (81), Terry Jones (1942-2020), Terry Gilliam (83) and Michael Palin (81) and founded the company with them finally the legendary Monty Python troupe. With their “Flying Circus” they were to write British TV history together for five years (1969-1974), not to mention successful cinema films.

Whether “The Knights of the Coconut” (1975), “The Life of Brian” (1979) or “The Meaning of Life” (1983) – every Monty Python film combines exuberant slapstick and witty elements with even more blatant slapstick: ” I’ll spit in your eye and blind you!”

Far less unknown than the quote from the armless and legless black knight from “Knight of the Coconut” is another fact: Cleese wrote two highly successful psychology books, “Families And How To Survive Them” with Robin Skynner, a pioneer in psychotherapy. and “Life and How to Survive It.” Seriousness and humor always go hand in hand with Cleese.

The most entertaining funeral ever

Nowhere was this more evident than in 1989, when his Python colleague and best friend, Graham Chapman, died of cancer at the age of just 48. Cleese gave the eulogy and, after initially touching farewell words, caused the mourners to burst out laughing.

“We’re finally rid of him, that parasitic bastard, I hope you burn in hell,” Cleese suddenly said against his dead friend, perfectly capturing Chapman’s sense of humor. “The reason I say this is because I know that if I didn’t, he would never forgive me. If I had passed up this glorious opportunity to shock you all in his name.” At the end of his speech, like everyone present, he wipes tears from his eyes – half from crying, half from laughing.

Of the six members of Monty Python, four are still alive. Or, as Cleese put it in his usual British-angry manner after the death of Terry Jones in 2020: “Two gone, four to go.” Cleese also seems to have had a serious falling out with one of his three living colleagues: Eric Idle said in several tweets that he hadn’t seen Cleese for seven years – and was happy about it.

Idle was also missing from a reunion of the other three members of the comedy troupe in May 2024. Idle’s criticism of the alleged mismanagement of the comedy group was suspected to be the reason for the falling out between the two comedy alpha animals. According to Idle, this meant that he was still unable to retire in his 80s. The Cleese brand’s response to this alleged origin of the dispute: Complete nonsense, they have always “hated and loathed each other”. .

John Cleese and the love of US ladies

If Monty Python doesn’t mean anything to you, then you probably know Cleese from films like “A Fish Called Wanda” (1988) or two of Pierce Brosnan’s (71) appearances as James Bond. However, in only one of them was Cleese able to name Q, the genius who equips 007 with his deadly gadgets. In “The World Is Not Enough” (1999) he had to be content with the role of assistant to the only Q, Desmond Llewelyn (1914-1999). Only in “Die Another Day” (2002) is Cleese himself referred to as Q.

While Cleese’s humor is typically British, when it comes to love, he has always been fond of US women. Wives number one and two were the two US actresses Connie Booth (83) and Barbara Trentham (1944-2013). His third marriage was to the US psychotherapist Alyce Faye Eichelberger (79) and his current wife, Jennifer Wade, is not only from the USA, but also over 30 years younger than him. Because Camilla Cleese (40), the younger of his two daughters, has clearly inherited his sense of humor, dad has to listen to a lot: “We recently welcomed a new child into our family – my new stepmother,” she said quoted by The Sun.

Meanwhile, Cleese himself recently joked about his wife of 2012 that it was somehow a shame “that I will probably die so much earlier than her.” However, one thing gives him hope that he too will be able to spend a few more years on earth: “I’m not fit, but the way I see it, the doctors can’t yet tell me for sure what I’ll die of.”

The conditions for a few more years on earth seem good. His mother lived to be 101 years old, his father was only 78, “but he smoked forty cigarettes a day and died of bronchitis and pulmonary emphysema. Otherwise he would have made it into his nineties,” Cleese was sure in 2018. “So I have good genes, I hope. Because I find life much more interesting and fun than ever before.”