John Cleese Net Worth

John Cleese's Quotes

• [in 2001] I think there's much more fear now than there used to be, much more fear of failure.
• [in 2001] You go in and meet the head of BBC One and get an assurance about not dumbing down. And then, of course a few months later, he's been replaced by someone you haven't met.
• It's lovely that Harry Potter and the Bond movies are still shot in England - that's a great pleasure, but it's true that most of the well-paid work is in America.
• I never enjoyed The Meaning of Life (1983). I always regarded that entire film as a bit of a cockup.
• In Britain, girls seem to be either bright or attractive. In America, that's not the case. They're both.

Interesting Facts about John Cleese

1. He was a member of the comedy group Monty Python, along with Graham Chapman, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, Eric Idle and Terry Gilliam.
2. He is the father of two daughters: Cynthia Cleese (born 1971) with Connie Booth and Camilla Cleese (born 1984) with Barbara Trentham.
3. He holds a law degree from Cambridge University. He went on to play a lawyer in A Fish Called Wanda (1988) and Splitting Heirs (1993).
4. He co-wrote several episodes of Doctor in the House (1969) and its sequels with Graham Chapman, and also wrote some later episodes as sole author.
5. He was a cast member of the highly successful radio show "I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again". His fellow cast members were Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden, Bill Oddie, David Hatch and Jo Kendall. It was during this radio show that Cleese's famous 'Ferret Song' (later sung on the television series At Last the 1948 Show (1967)) was first heard.
6. He was a member of the prestigious Cambridge University Footlights Club.
7. He went to the United States with the Footlights stage show "Cambridge Circus" in 1964, and appeared on Ed Sullivan's Toast of the Town (1948).
8. When he had to join the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists in 1989, for his third appearance on American TV, none of the staff at the AFTRA office recognized him or had any idea who he was.
9. Ever since one of his most famous Monty Python sketches, The Ministry of Silly Walks, he has found himself continually pestered by admirers to do silly walks for them. He has stated that the sketch was born during a moment of silly improvisation, and he himself doesn't particularly care for it.
10. Who's Who lists his recreations as "gluttony, sloth."
11. He was the rector of the University of St Andrews from 1970 to 1973.
12. According to Brian Henson, when Cleese guest-starred on The Muppet Show (1976), he enjoyed the show very much and became very close with the writers because he wanted to get involved in the writing. When he did get involved with the writing, he and the other writers came up with a concept whereby Cleese was being held against his will on the show and would try to get off the show while the Muppets were trying to get him to do his scheduled bits. Of course, in this case, life did not imitate art, as, a few years later, Cleese appeared again with the Muppets in the film The Great Muppet Caper (1981).
13. He is an Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University.
14. He co-owns the Christine Schell Fine Objects antique shop in Montecito, CA.
15. Cleese's father's name was Reg Cleese but his grandfather was named John Edwin Cheese. His grandfather changed his name when he joined the British army in 1915.
16. He reached adult height of 6'5" by the age of 13. He was already six feet at age 12.
17. He claims he was to be the first person to say the F-word at a memorial service when he spoke at Graham Chapman's.
18. His mother, Muriel Cleese (b. Cross, 5 October 1899 - 5 October 2000) died on her 101st birthday.
19. The inspiration for Fawlty Towers (1975) came from a hotel stay he had with the other Pythons in the Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay, England. The hotel manager was called Donald Sinclair, someone Cleese considered to be the rudest man he had ever encountered. He later played a character by the name of Donald P. Sinclair in Rat Race (2001).
20. When he left the Monty Python team, he was approached by the BBC to do something else and, together with Connie Booth, created Fawlty Towers (1975), based on their experiences in a Torquay hotel.