Monty Python's John Cleese's Five Fun Thoughts on Aging Javascript must be enabled to use this site. Please enable Javascript in your browser and try again. × Search search POPULAR SEARCHES SUGGESTED LINKS Join AARP for just $9 per year when you sign up for a 5-year term. Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. Leaving AARP.org Website You are now leaving AARP.org and going to a website that is not operated by AARP. A different privacy policy and terms of service will apply. Close
John Cleese 5 Fun Thoughts About Aging
The Monty Python comic 79 stars in Hold the Sunset a comedy about grownups in love
John Cleese, still making TV shows and movies at 79, says he got his start in comedy when he realized that he could deflect his schoolmates' teasing by making them laugh. Jörg Carstensen/picture alliance via Getty Images Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. For the first time in my life, I'm playing myself. And my wife [says] it's the first time she's ever seen me onscreen and recognized me, because I just sit there making snarky remarks and hoping someone else will open the front door. On whether life is too short to edit oneself
Oh, yes, I think that's right. The closer you get to death, the more you don't give a ----. It's as simple as that. Cleese (left) stars with Jason Watkins and Alison Steadman in the BBC series "Hold the Sunset," which is available to American viewers through the BritBox streaming service. Adam Lawrence/BBC For entertainment news, TV reviews and more, get . On aging
I think [after] about the age of 60, height becomes a handicap, because you get old and stiff, and you can't move properly, and trying to get into things like cars becomes a major undertaking. I would say for the first 60 years of my life, I was very grateful that I was tall. And now it's very inconvenient. On his greatest accomplishments at 79
My greatest personal accomplishment is to have established a really good relationship with our cats. My greatest professional accomplishment is, or will be, a movie that I'm writing now. It's a light comedy about cannibalism, and it's called Yummy. [Cleese may be kidding; what's certain is that he's just published a book of his lectures, Professor at Large: The Cornell Years (Cornell University Press), and his next films are 2019's The Naked Wanderer and The Martini Shot, costarring Derek Jacobi, 80, and Matthew Modine, 59.] On the childhood source of his grownup comic gift
It was a survival mechanism when I went to school. Because I was very tall, and everybody teased me for being called “Cheese,” and I found if I could make them laugh, the atmosphere improved, and they embraced me more happily. MORE FROM AARP AARP NEWSLETTERS %{ newsLetterPromoText }% %{ description }% Subscribe AARP VALUE & MEMBER BENEFITS See more Health & Wellness offers > See more Flights & Vacation Packages offers > See more Finances offers > See more Health & Wellness offers > SAVE MONEY WITH THESE LIMITED-TIME OFFERS