John Cleese celebrates 70th birthday

Deciding how to celebrate a landmark birthday can be a dilemma.

However, few people are likely to pose the question that John Cleese did recently on the social networking website Twitter.

"How," he queried, "Should I end it all on my birthday?"

Weston-super-Mare born Mr Cleese is unlikely to have intended his remark to be taken seriously. After all, it was widely known that he had committed himself to perform in Europe and the USA in his new one-man show A Final Wave at the World – The Alimony Tour, Year One, following his acrimonious £12 million divorce from his third wife, American psychotherapist Alyce Faye Eichelberger.

It is more likely to have been an example of the dark humour that the star of comedy classics such as Monty Python and Fawlty Towers has indulged in after Ms Eichelberger was left richer than him as a result of their marital breakdown.

The man who went from being 'The Tall One' in Monty Python's Flying Circus to a Hollywood star in A Fish Called Wanda and Shrek, also observed: "At least I will know in future if I go out with a lady they will not be after me for my money."

In fact, Mr Cleese will not be left on his uppers by the payout to his 64-year-old wife of 16 years, whom he met when she was living in a third-floor council flat in London with two sons from a previous marriage.

It has been estimated that the ruling will reduce his wealth to about £10m.

In a recent interview Mr Cleese, who has two daughters, one from his first marriage and one from his second, remarked: "In my 70th year I will still be spending two months a year doing work that is of no interest to me and which is probably slightly spiritually depleting in order to feed the beast."

While others of around the actor's age might be relaxing with walks along the North Somerset seaside town's promenade, Mr Cleese – who attended Clifton College in Bristol – will be starting the US leg of his tour later this week in Gallo Center for the Arts in Modesto, California. The show opened earlier this month with seven dates in Norway.

Until the divorce court in Santa Barbara, California, made its ruling earlier this year, Mr Cleese had not needed to spend time on the road touring to make extra money.

Following appearances in the films projects Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Life of Brian, Mr Cleese enjoyed an international box-office hit in 1988 with A Fish Called Wanda.

More recently he was the voice of the king in Shrek 2, played Nearly Headless Nick in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and was 'Q' in the 2002 James Bond film Die Another Day.

Now, following his divorce settlement, he is finding that his professional success during his marriage to Ms Eichelberger has come at a personal price.

"I get angry that I have to pack my trunk just to go away to make money," he has said.

"That I, at my age, would have to plan my life anew to pay her all the money she is to get for the next seven years – well it irritates me. I'd rather have been drinking coffee, reading books and writing. I can't afford that now."