In a recent interview with The Times, comedy legend John Cleese made some heartbreaking observations about growing older and having to keep working because he needs the money.
When asked about the book he is writing about Fawlty Towers, the British sitcom written by and starring Cleese and then-wife Connie Booth, Cleese reflected on how many of his contemporaries have died.
“All these lovely people. Geoffrey Palmer, Joan Sanderson, Ken Campbell, Bernard Cribbins, all these wonderful people that I’d really enjoyed working with, all dead. Every time somebody came up and I thought, are they still alive? Dead! And I started getting a bit depressed, and it was just loss, really, a realization of the loss. I ought to warn your readers that when you get to your eighties, you’re not prepared. I think Philip Roth once finished one novel about old age by saying it’s a massacre,” said Cleese.
The Monty Python star went on to talk about how he has gone to therapy “on and off” and thinks he may seek it out here as he nears the end of his life.
“I haven’t [been to therapy] for a long time. I think I’m going to find a Jungian, because Jung was very, very good on the second half of life. And I think as you approach death there’s more of an awareness of it,” said Cleese.
He also spoke candidly about his divorces and how expensive they have been for him, which is why he is still working instead of sailing off into quiet retirement.
“The third wife got two properties, one was in London and one was in New York, and we had to sell the other three,” said Cleese, adding, “What’s the difference between a famous singer and a famous comedian? About $200 million…If you lose your nest egg at 70 then there’s not much alternative [to constantly working] I could have married somebody rich.”
Cleese is on his fourth wife, jewellery designer Jennifer Wade, 53. He was previously married to Booth, with whom he shares daughter Cynthia, 54. His second wife was Barbara Trentham, with whom he shares daughter Camilla, 41. His third wife was Alyce Faye Eichelberger, who was the divorce that cost him the most.
