John Cleese — Most Of The Best People Are Dead

Monty Python sage and all-around contrarian John Cleese is 74. He’s got about “five or six years left” he figures, and thank goodness. “I’m looking forward to it,” the Daily Mirror reports Cleese saying–the “it” being his imminent end. “Most of the best people are dead,” Cleese reminds us. He plans to have a wonderful time. But just because his life is nearly finished doesn’t mean it’s not worth thinking about. Otherwise there wouldn’t be his new autobiography, So, Anyway… The title with its ellipses does make it seem that Cleese is just getting started with his story…

The master comedian, who has entertained on TV, film and the page for decades, revealed one particularly sad fact to his audience recently at the Cheltenham Literary Festival: “The sad thing is, and this is quite sincere, when you have been doing comedy for as long as I [have], you really do know most of the jokes.”