If it had been for his parents, John Cleese would’ve been a lawyer. Thank God he decided to try sketch comedy. He was in Monty Python and as such; he was an incredible comedian, writer, and actor. Every member of the group had its own interests (writing, directing, music) and Cleese was the one who took acting the most seriously, appearing in all the Python’s movies, but also in other Hollywood films and British TV shows. Here are John Cleese’s best performances, ranked:
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8 Rat Race (2001)
Paramount Pictures
Donald P. Sinclair (Cleese) is an eccentric casino tycoon, who has the ultimate gambling idea for his high rollers: have a group of ordinary people compete in a race across the country to get two million dollars. While the contestants do anything to get there first, the high rollers will bet on everything they do. Directed by Airplane! And Naked Gun genius director Jerry Zucker, Rat Race is a free-for-all comedy, where there are many gags-per-second in this crazy movie that tries to rival It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad World, as the craziest adventure ever. Cleese’s performance is unhinged. He lives in a bubble so big, that normal people look to him as puppets he can play with to get more money. Sinclair is eccentric and has his own logic, which makes total sense to himself, and only himself, a kind of character logic he had perfected during the Flying Circus years.
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7 The World is not Enough (1999)
MGM Distribution Co.
James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) has to protect a beautiful woman (Sophie Marceau) from a terrible villain (Robert Carlyle), who can’t feel physical pain and kidnapped her years ago. Desmond Llewelyn had played Q in all the Bond movies, and retired before The World is Not Enough. Enter Cleese as his replacement; the new Q; a tall man, with British humor that can create unique artifacts for the spy, while sparring verbally with 007. Cleese could do all that with his eyes closed, and became a scene-stealing character in both movies where he played the character.
6 The Meaning of Life (1983)
Universal Pictures
The Meaning of Life was a back-to-basics for Monty Python. They worked together again, doing different sketches that only had one common theme: the meaning of life. From life to death, but with all kinds of fun, surrealistic stops along the way. As the movie is sketch-based, Cleese plays many characters: a fish, a waiter, a doctor, a maitre, and, especially the Grim Reaper. As always with the Python, you can see Cleese enjoying himself playing all those characters, and he has to make an effort not to laugh at every moment, in what is the only sketch movie to ever win the Cannes Film Festival Grand Prix.
5 Monty Python and The Holy Grail (1975)
EMI Films
The Arthurian legend is revisited through the Python’s looking glass, creating an incredible fun retelling of everything that happened in Medieval times. Monty Python and The Holy Grail is an incredible movie full of memorable moments where Cleese plays multiple roles. He’s Sir Lancelot, a role that in many movies would be heroic, noble, and would have its spinoff. Here he’s just a dumb jock who slays first and thinks later. Maybe that’s why his two most memorable characters in the film are the other ones. Cleese is Tim the Enchanter, keeper of the secrets of the Castle Aaaagh and the Black Knight, a scene-stealing character who keeps fighting while losing limbs (“it’s only a flesh wound”, he says, without arms or legs).
4 Life of Brain (1979)
Cinema International Corporation
Life of Brian tells the story of Brian (Graham Chapman), whose life parallels the one of Christ from birth (he was born literally in the adjacent barn to him) in this parody of Roman epic films. The movie is one of the most controversial religious movies ever, as many religious people thought it was making fun of their beliefs. The movie makes fun of everyone but Christ in this satire about the Roman Empire and life back then. As always, Cleese co-wrote the film and played many roles during it. His most memorable is Reg, the coward leader of the rebel group who has a love-hate relationship with the Romans, and the Centurion of the Yard that corrects Brian’s Latin on his graffiti against the Romans. As always, Cleese’s appearances show us the ins and outs of its characters while they make us fall to the floor laughing.
3 A Fish Called Wanda (1988)
United International Pictures
Wanda (Jamie Lee Curtis) and Otto (Kevin Kline) are jewel thieves who team up with two Brits for a job. After a successful heist, all four try to double-cross each other while a defense lawyer (Cleese) is making things even more difficult for them. A Fish Called Wanda was written by Cleese himself, with the movie’s director Charles Chrichton (they got nominated for an Oscar for the script) in what might be his best performance ever. Although his character is a supporting role, Cleese uses all his mannerisms and body language to create a unique, surreal character who’s the bane of Jamie Lee Curtis and Kline’s characters’ existence.
2 Fawlty Towers (1975-1979)
BBC Studios
Fawlty Towers was a British TV show about Basil Fawlty (Cleese), a clumsy, paranoid full-of-himself hotel owner, who shares his life with his viperine wife Sybil (Prunella Scales), and the butt of all jokes, Manuel (Andrew Sachs). Cleese wrote several episodes and starred in the lead role, so this show was his baby through-and-through. The comedy had Pyton-esque, surreal moments, but was a little more grounded in reality, creating a TV show that’s still revered in Britain, where it was named the greatest British TV sitcom ever.
1 Monty Python’s Flying Circus (1969-1974)
BBC1
Monty Python changed comedy forever with this show. The comedy group was Cleese, Eric Idle, Graham Chapman, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, and Terry Gilliam, and they created this sketch comedy show. More than fifty years later, it is still influencing comics. They all wrote and acted in the sketches, giving free rein to all their ideas in what was a smart, satiric, crazy, surreal, playful, imaginative, spectacular show, with absolute creative freedom. Terry Jones told Vanity Fair of how the Python worked: “The way we went and did the shows is, first of all, we’d meet and talk about ideas. And then we’d all go off for like two weeks and each writes individually or in our pairs. So at the end of two weeks, we’d all meet together, quite often downstairs in my front room or dining room, and we’d read out the stuff. That was the best time of Python, the most exciting time, when you knew you were going to hear new stuff, and they were going to make you laugh.”
Monty Python’s Flying Circusallowed the whole team to experiment and act on every crazy and brilliant idea they had. Cleese benefited from the sketches, as his acting muscles were always improving, trying new things and characters. Lessons that served him well in the great Python movies and in the acting career that followed and is still going.
