Eric Idle is broke, 80, working, and PISSED

I thought Carrigan killed him?

I thought SPAMALOT was a constant cash cow for the Pythoners.

This is what happens if you don’t have a retirement plan!

They must have signed a bad deal with the Monty Python stuff and/or had a bad agent. You'd think he'd still be getting royalties from the movies and play.

The article explains it.

That would explain that there's about 5 or 6 MP documentaries on Netflix alone.

This is what the Friends cast has to look forward to. Someday they'll only be receiving $10 million a year in royalties.

Holy shit?!? He survived pancreatic cancer? I didn't think anyone did

I bet his standard of living despite being broke far exceeds that of anyone in a middle class income bracket. I'm sure he's been cheated out of a ton of money by shady deals but at the same time he has likely pocketed millions so he either should've planned for retirement or scaled back his lifestyle.

Seriously what a little whiny cunt. If you're still working at 80 given all the opportunities you've had for financial reasons that's on you. Maybe MaryLou Rotton can lend him a hat to pass around.

They're a rotten lot, that Monty Python bunch. They've outlived their claim to fame by many decades, revealing their individual smallness.

They're toffs who benefited from the class system and they try to hide it. Total Tories.

I too expect my efforts from 1969 to support me now; but the dirty diaper resale market isn’t what I expected it to be.

Silly walking isn't as funny after hip replacement

R8 they probably caught it at a very early stage while he was having surgery for something else. Or he could be like charlotte Rae who had a family history of it and was medically monitored and it was caught early.

Steve Jobs was caught at an early stage when he was having surgery for something else and his doctors begged him to get it treated because it was so very rare that pancreatic cancer gets caught at a early curable stage like his was. Instead he decided he knew better and did a holistic diet and treatment. When he went back to his doctors to get treated it was terminal and there was nothing the doctors could do.

I don’t know if much of Monty Python still holds up. Perhaps it was of its time to an extent and people aren’t as interested in it now?

R15 wow, I didn't know any of that. He had a veritable gift like that and fucking squandered it. Rich weirdos make me sick.

John Cleese is loaded... maybe Eric Idle hasn't been careful with his money or investments.

Cleese was smart and talented enough to make his mark in the world, separate from Monty Python.

He was foolish for saying "fuck documentaries and Netflix".

He should do the comic con circuit. He'd clean up just from being in the 86 Transformers movie not to mention all the Python stuff.

Cleese (very down-to-earth and fun) does auto signings and he doesn't need the cash but loves meeting the fans.

r15 And then when he needed a liver transplant he used his wealth and power to queue jump and got to the top of the list in Tennessee. He was an absolute piece of shit right to his dying days.

He probably did not save or invest his money properly and/or he spent it as fast as he made it. He made many millions over the years, to expect a steady flow of revenue from Money Python work after 50 years was probably not a wise financial planning.

John Cleese has become a grumpy Tory whinger as well.

If Joan Collins still has money, Eric Idle has nothing to complain about. He can only blame himself.

Does Michael Palin still have money?

Okay, this financially irresponsible right-wing “anti-woke” fuck is suddenly is a “poor” and needs help?

Fucking snowflake!

I’m sure he has enough $$$ squirreled away to support a very nice grave. He also doesn’t mention his ride on the “socialist bandwagon “ supporting his folks cancer treatment.

May his god fuck him to the grave…without lube.

Oh…and whatever happened to bootstraps?

Working at 80 seems like a big fucking drag and a huge burden unless you want to do it.

It’s not as if he has to work retail or drive a bus r29. He could do panel discussions and commercials and make a ton of money for doing very little.

Michael Palin has had a second career doing travel writing and docs. He talks about writing, so I assume he does get some things made or published (what I don't know).. Otherwise, I assume he didn't manage his money well.

I love Monty Python and it had a formative effect on my sense of humor, but it was also half a century ago. And Idle, more so than the others, has been milking it ever since. I mean come on, Spamalot is complete trash.

Is he really surprised after scraping butter across too much bread for decades that it eventually dried out?

Palin and Cleese moved on to new projects instead of beating the same horse for diminishing returns. So did Jones for that matter.

[quote]Steve Jobs was caught at an early stage when he was having surgery for something else and his doctors begged him to get it treated because it was so very rare that pancreatic cancer gets caught at a early curable stage like his was. Instead he decided he knew better and did a holistic diet and treatment. When he went back to his doctors to get treated it was terminal and there was nothing the doctors could do.

This is why you shouldn't ask Siri for medical advice.

In the 90s, John Cleese was doing speaking engagements for executives. My company had an offsite for the top executives and Cleese was the speaker.

Michael Palin has had at least two books published from the diaries he kept during his career. Plus, he did several travel documentaries.

Please bffr. The movies are from five decades ago. No one under the age of 45 knows who Monty Python is. And they’re seriously overrated.

[quote] Michael Palin has had a second career doing travel writing and docs

Most boring man alive

[quote] Please bffr. The movies are from five decades ago. No one under the age of 45 knows who Monty Python is. And they’re seriously overrated.

As a teenager in the 1990s I considered myself superior and outré for watching the Pythons. I soon came to the realisation that they were seriously dweeby.

John Cleese starred in a two-season Britcom from 2018-2019 called "Hold the Sunset." It's on Britbox.

BEFORE Monty Python, there was "I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again". with John Cleese

His corpse is looking quite nice.

[quote]Palin and Cleese moved on to new projects instead of beating the same horse for diminishing returns. So did Jones for that matter.

As, of course, did Terry Gilliam.

R 33: you made me laugh. I didn’t know that about the revered Steve Jobs. His doc tells him he discovered pancreatic cancer at an early stage , and jobs went holistic ?????

I can hardly believe this . I need corroboration DL ers

R41 it’s common knowledge.

I read that Terry Gilliam's daughter is the administrator of the Monty Python assets, and that Idle blames her for the pittance they are currently earning from them. He'd probably shit if he looked into the current value of the Rudy Vallee and Eddie Cantor IP.

Monty Python eas something I never got or found amusing. Same for Rocky Horror: leaves me stonefaced.

R15 .....

R41 Everyone knows this. His biography sold millions of copies.

He always wrote material on his own. He is a talented musician and has the ability to make horribly tragic things seem less painful. He has always been emotionally expressive. He was friends with the Beatles and he convinced George Harrison to make quite a financial contribution. I think he also lost his dad as a kid and lived in poverty during the war. Despite being toffs they were completely anti establishment, mocked the cops and military constantly, etc.

I thought Cleese was broke because of his multiple ex-wives bleeding him dry.

Cleese did a one-man show, openly branded as his alimony tour. He has a chat show on GB News, and has fashioned Fawlty Towers for the West End soon. Clearly he doesn't mind working at 84.

Michael Palin is the only attractive one of this gruesome bunch. It’s no surprise he’s gone on to have a successful career doing travelogues and documentaries. He’s much easier on the eyes and ears than the other Pythons, who sadly were hit hard by British inbreeding.

"I'm a COOL Tory!"

Monty Python doesn’t hold up these days. It’s almost like an intro to humor show that you’d study in a writing class about the evolution of comedy.

he didnt invest? buy property? with blue chip stocks he should have been rich

Michael Palin may be the most attractive of the bunch, but during the MP days Eric Idle played women quite well. He passed very well when he was wearing makeup and the right women's clothes, and he did the physical part of it effectively with mannerisms and facial expressions that were spot on.

[quote] Eric Idle played women quite well. He passed very well when he was wearing makeup and the right women's clothes,

Of course he would. He was a Cambridge grad

R54 In the early Monty Python years Terry Gilliam was very attractive. Michael Palin however managed to retain his look throughout the years.

[quote]They're toffs who benefited from the class system and they try to hide it. Total Tories.

Speak English!

[quote] Speak English!

Get a passport! Get out more!

[quote]They're toffs

Educated middle-class, but not 'toffs'. Toffs are those whom Python satirised with extremity in their 'Upper Class Twit Of The Year' sketch. Doubtless as encountered at Oxbridge.

To your average working person, they would indeed be toffs... especially Cleese.

Yeah, I don't have a lot of sympathy for someone whose made tens of millions of dollars and is now crying broke.

I do get it. Many people simply don't understand basic concepts of money, investing, and saving. On an annual cashflow basis, they're in the black, so don't think much beyond that and think they're being "smart" with their money. It's one thing to be like Sedgewick and Bacon who invested with Madoff and lost money. That was a seemingly sensible investment decision (at the time). But, frittering your money away on cars and homes (and likely ex-wives) is a recipe for working when you're in your 80s.

Eric Idle wanted - and got - a young trophy wife. Those are expensive.

John Cleese married about eight thousand times, but the marriages weren't to arm candy. Still, he did spend a lot on alimony yet doesn't bitch about working in his 80s. Just gets on with things.

Michael Palin and Terry Gillian stayed married to the same women for decades, and I've never seen them cry poor, either.

Spend money on real estate, paintings, hell, even fancy gourmet meals. But if it floats, flies or fucks, rent it. Much cheaper.

Le pince nez.

The British socialist tax system does not leave them much to invest with, especially since Tony Blair and Angela Merkel began importing all those fine people from the meddle east and Africa

Why can't he look on the bright side of life?

R64, that is not the case. You're lying.

In the UK:

No state tax

No personal property tax

No tax on royalties, unlike the US

NHS and pension is just about as much as FICA.

You're a goddamned liar.

And besides which, Idle moved the US in 1994

For fuck's sake, R64, look at the maximum tax rates, capping out at 45% for incomes greater than £125,000, and yet Michael Palin for years a travel writer and host of related travel TV series is a rich man with half the estimated fortune of Terry Gilliam (£25.4M); Terry Jones and (the now ruined, we are told) Eric Idle were estimated at £9.5M each; and John Cleese, after a series of famously ruinous divorces, managed to come in at £6.5M. Of course celebrity net worth estimations are far from an exact science, but Palin, Gilliam, Jones, Idle, and Cleese all managed to buy houses and live well enough thanks in no small part to a TV series that ended a half century ago. Taxes taken out up front they managed to do this

Cleese will complain about anything, but Idle is the one who whinges loudest and has done the least to diversify his income stream. Now he blames managers on the dwindling Monty Python income - from what? residuals from a 50 year old series for which they were paid next to nothing at the time. And still he manged to acquire the L.A. house is is now selling for $6.5M, and in 2014 he sold his house in St. John's Wood, London house for £9M and a year before sold another North London property that had been jointly owned as a studio (resold as a house) for the original Monty Python members for £12M. Not too shabby for someone who potters about when it suits him writing shitty songs and plays for half a century.

From where I sit, the UK tax rates haven't enslaved him too very terribly.

R21, Idle likely thinks he's above all that. Which is a major contributor to his situation.

Monty Python mostly holds up pretty damn well, but the best and truly forward thinking Pythons - Terry Jones and (openly gay in the 70s!) Graham Chapman - are sadly dead. Michael Palin was quite the hottie…

This seems to be an issue with Terry Gilliam / his daughter running finances.

[quote]In the early Monty Python years Terry Gilliam was very attractive…

If you’re into gargoyles, yes.

The Pythons are like the Beatles younger people. There’s some appeal but they are mainly a curiosity.(Fawlty Towers still stands up in sitcom terms). I’m a Millennial in my early 40s, and I loved the Beatles as a teen back in the 1990s but even I didn’t understand the appeal of them on the Ed Sullivan show. I can’t fathom a Gen Z kid caring about the cultural import of the Beatles’ somewhat overproduced music.

Maybe if they had made a film of Spamalot 15 years ago things would be different for Eric.

I work with a guy who's 27 who quotes Monty Python stuff all the time. Never asked him what he thinks of the Beatles' "somewhat overproduced" stuff.

[quote] No one under the age of 45 knows who Monty Python is

Lol. 90% of the 14 year olds on reddit can quote every python movie verbatim. And they do it annoyingly. at. least. several. times. a. day.

Can't he do autograph shows like Richard Dreyfuss was doing some years back?

The 𝐿𝘢𝑟𝘤ℎ

Maybe he could go on tour with Billy Idol. Call the show “Idle Idol.”

Don’t agree with posters above saying the 1970s TV show doesn’t hold up. A lot of it is ingenious. Certainly on par or better than any other “classic” tv show.

Also their best films from the late 70s and early 80s are still remarkable in humor and scope (MEANING OF LIFE, LIFE OF BRIAN, etc.)

I still watch Holy Grail when I need a dose of silliness. Some of their skits don't hold up, but skits like Argument Clinic are classic.

And the Fish Slapping Dance will make me laugh until the day I die.

The only thing worse than Monty Python was Benny Hill.

The Pythons' skits were always a mixed bag, even in their heyday. The best of the stuff still holds up--the twits, the Parrott, etc. Holy Grail was the best of the films and still seems pretty good.

Their best stuff was a mix of sort of ingenious/avant concepts or frame structuring, then combined with totally low brow fart jokes or childish silliness. The tv show when it was good, was great.

Monty Python can still be funny today, but The Goons (just a radio show, I'm afraid) is just surreal and its comedy much more finely focused. Didn't MP credit them as influences? So far ahead of its time. Mind you, as Spike Milligan had some sort of mental illness you'd expect it to be more off the wall.

John Cleese is making it clear that he – and a few other Pythons – are in complete disagreement with long-ago co-star Eric Idle, who last weekend slammed manager (and daughter of Python co-founder Terry Gilliam) Holly Gilliam for what Idle suggested were the troupe’s dwindling finances.

I think we just found our new Feud subject. Feud: Eric Idle vs Monty Python

I thought it was pretty well-known that Cleese and Idle despise each other.

This is the real life

"Girls! Girls! You're BOTH cunts!"

Michael Palin and I spent some time trying to put together one of his documentaries. He contacted me originally after reading about my thing in the Times (of London).

Unfortunately, his required timings and mine couldn't mesh so that went down the crapper.

Anybody see Boy George yet?

ooops sorry meant for Broadway thread.

r66 And property taxes in the UK are a hell of a lot cheaper than the ultra-red county I live in.

What was your thing, r88?

R92 I can't say specifically because that is personally identifiable information, but it was a completely nutty trip from the Eastern Mediterranean to the US using an unlikely route, it was just like the kind of thing he wanted to feature. He was going to come along and document it, and then of course that would have been a multi-episode feature. I would pay for all of their transportation expenses (him and his crew). We actually did do the trip. I'm sorry I can't be more detailed about it, it was craaazy and I will never forget it.

I knew Cleese and Idle weren't close but I didn't think they despised each other.

Sounds interesting r93!

R 41 here —- this is why I’m on datalounge — to supplement my woefully pathetic education and life experiences.

I shall study up … thanks guys !

At least he still has his naturally brown hair.

Even from Idle’s own statements it seems like the problem is that time has passed the Pythons by and as Boomers die off the prime audience for their old shows and brand of humor is dying with them.

Cleese had “Fawlty Towers” to enhance his fan base, and he has always stayed busy, whereas it sounds like Idle relied on Python royalties to keep him afloat rather than trying to establish a non-Python identity as an actor and comedian.

Remembering Graham Chapman .... who first met his long-term partner David Sherlock in Ibiza in 1966.[55] He later described realising he was homosexual as "an important moment in my life".[56]

The following year, he told his close friends, including Cleese and Feldman, about his relationship.[57] Chapman and Sherlock moved to Belsize Park in 1968,[58] and the pair enjoyed visiting gay clubs in Central London.[59] In the early 1970s, after Chapman had found fame with Monty Python, they moved to a house in Highgate, North London.[60]

In 1972, on a television show hosted by English jazz and blues singer George Melly, Chapman first disclosed his homosexuality publicly, becoming one of the first celebrities to do so.[61][62] He was a vocal spokesman for gay rights, supporting the Gay Liberation Front.[63] In 1972, Chapman supported the newspaper Gay News, which listed him as one of the publication's "special friends" in recognition.[64] During a college tour, Chapman mentioned that a television audience member had written to the Pythons to complain about them having a gay member, citing a Bible passage that said any man who lies with a man should be taken out and stoned. Idle replied jokingly that they had found the perpetrator and killed him.[65]

In 1971, Chapman and Sherlock adopted John Tomiczek as their son. Chapman met Tomiczek when Tomiczek was a 14-year-old run-away from Liverpool. After discussions with Tomiczek's father, it was agreed that Chapman would become Tomiczek's legal guardian.[66] Both Sherlock and Tomiczek remained a constant presence in Chapman's life.[67] During the 1970s, Chapman became increasingly concerned about the Pythons' income and finances. He subsequently moved to Los Angeles to avoid British income tax.[68] In the mid-1980s, he returned to the UK and moved to Maidstone, Kent, with Sherlock and Tomiczek.[67] Tomiczek later became Chapman's business manager; he died of a heart attack in 1992 at age 35.[69]

I recently read the autobiography of Hayley Mills, and she was robbed of her childhood earnings - not by her parents, but by the UK government which appropriated 91% of the money in her trust fund. She was broke, and has tried over the years to appeal for some restitution, to no success.

Maybe, just maybe....

r100 I don't know why you're trying to make it sound like it was stolen, when it was simply a case that she was taxed. 91% was the top rate at the time - in both the UK and the US.

for years Python must have produced sizable revenue from home video sales and cable tv...

that is all reduced to Netflix I assume, which would pay very little in comparison

Another flap between the members was that Idle owned a lot of the music publishing/ and Idle was the one getting royalties from Spamalot?

Reply 100: What you say is just part of the story. I read her book too. Her parents WERE ultimately to blame, had they arranged things differently when she was younger, gotten better advice or informed Hyley of the arrangements earlier, it might not have ended that way.

Though Mills is not ever critical in her memoir about her show biz parents, if you read between the lines, it’s clear they (and especially her mother) developed a certain amount of jealousy about Hayley’s fame in movies, especially in America, and loved to slight and downplay her success. Her mother in particular hated Hollywood and summarily refused to let Hayley’s brother enter Disney films though he had done a successful screen test to co-star in one of Hayley’s movies, something he was furious about for years.

Both parents were snobbish about films vs theater and John Mills’ career always had to come first (though Hayley made more money) and her parents did not look out for her and support her as much as they should have.

A bit off the subject but I recently watched Mel Brooks, The Spanish Inquisition, from History of the World Part 1, which came after Python's 'Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition' skit, and wondered if Brooks kind of 'stole' Python's idea and blew it up into this number, which was really good, but nothing about the Spanish Inquisition was around comedically till these two.

Cleese says it's all a joke (at least his part)

[quote]I recently read the autobiography of Hayley Mills, and she was robbed of her childhood earnings - not by her parents, but by the UK government which appropriated 91% of the money in her trust fund. She was broke, and has tried over the years to appeal for some restitution, to no success.

I guess that's why she's starting an OnlyFans account.

Fun fact: John Cleese's family name was originally CHEESE, until his father (understandably) changed it early in the 20th century.

Another cash cow for Cleese -

A few years ago, I went to 'An Evening with John Cleese' which started with a showing of the film 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail' followed by a Q&A with Dean Richards (a popular Chicago entertainment reporter) and JC.

He was very funny and had some great stories to tell. He was also honest about the fact that he did these appearances throughout the country for the paycheck. He remarked that while we were watching the film, he and his wife are having dinner at the finest restaurants and driven afterward to the theatre. For a while, Eric Idle joined him on the tour. This was over five years ago and I think Eric didn't finish the 'gig'.

[quote] Cleese had “Fawlty Towers” to enhance his fan base, and he has always stayed busy, whereas it sounds like Idle relied on Python royalties to keep him afloat rather than trying to establish a non-Python identity as an actor and comedian.

I don’t prefer one over the either (Cleese vs Idle) but Idle got Spamalot going, so this claim is not true. Yes, it’s Python, but it’s a hit theatrical show that’s been going on for years. He pushed for a musical because he and Neil Innes wrote songs together for years. So no, Idle wasn’t relying on Python royalties for the last 50 years. Idle and Innes wrote the Rutles (pretty funny in its time) and idle has been a regular and /ir semi regular on American television series. He did an attraction at Epcot for over15 years and at Disneyland for 12 years. He’s been doing voice work for years in films, tv and video games. He’s working on a film version of Spamalot.

What is he doing with his money? No idea. Maybe using it to invest in his own projects? That’s not a very good idea. One should always get investors (and he knows it since he’s the one who got George Harrison to invest in Python films)

I can’t see how he should be broke while Cleese, who’s been married multiple times, still has his head well above water despite his alimony woes.

I think Idle has been living beyond his means for decades and now that the Monty Python revenue has subsided due to streaming service profits being substantially less that physical media and cable television, he's seeing much less money coming to him. By age 60 he should have had at least a comfortable nest egg to live on without worry about future income.