John Cleese: I only earned $21,000 for all of 'Monty Python's Flying Circus'

Considering the effect that "Monty Python" has had on popular culture, you would probably think its creators would be set for life. Not so for John Cleese.

The 75-year-old British comedian, one of the founding members of Monty Python’s Flying Circus comedy troupe, recently admitted that he's actually not rich at all. He made the admission earlier this month while promoting his new memoir, "So Anyway...," in an on-stage conversation with The Globe and Mail's Ian Brown, which was excerpted in the paper on Friday.

"You see, I never made the sort of money that Americans made," Cleese said. "I mean, for a season of 'Monty Python,' I used to earn £4,000 [$7000]. The money for working for the BBC was like being a successful bank manager."

He added that even when Monty Python took to America in the musical "Monty Python's Spamalot" in 2004, matters didn't improve much.

Cleese said, "I used to get one quarter of 1 per cent of the original performance fee, which was £240 ($420). It was enough for a nice starter in a restaurant. And that’s for an entire series. So I never had huge quantities of money."

He said he now lives in a small apartment with a mortgage with his fourth wife, Jenny, and is trying to earn enough to pay off his alimony to his three exes. According to Cleese, his divorce from third wife Alice Eichelberger cost $20 million, so he now has to earn $1 million more until next year to be able to afford it.

Here's a glimpse at how much Cleese has earned for his projects:

"Monty Python's Flying Circus": $21,000
Going by Cleese's calculations of $7,000 per season for three seasons of the show (it aired from 1969 to 1974, but Cleese quit after the third season) he would have earned only $21,000.

"Fawlty Towers": $10,000
According to The Mirror, Cleese was paid just $900 per episode for his phenomenally successful BBC sitcom "Fawlty Towers," which he co-created with then-wife (and co-star) Connie Booth. With only 12 episodes airing (six in 1975 and six more in 1979) that came to around $10,000 for the entire show.

"Spamalot": $3.5 million
Though Cleese complained to the Globe about how little he made for the 2004 to 2005 Broadway show,  it was one of his bigger paycheques he has received over the past few years. He and co-stars Michael Palin, Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones reportedly earned $3.53 million each, while Eric Idle, the fifth member of the troupe and the brain child behind the musical, reportedly earned a healthy $14 million in royalties. Having said that, the musical did win three Tonys and reportedly grossed over $175 million.

"So Anyway...": $354,000
While 28-year-old "Girls" creator Lena Dunham was paid an advance of more than $3 million for her memoir "Not That Kind of Girl," Cleese reportedly only earned approximately $354,000 last year from Random House for his.

Of course, that doesn't take into account his other film roles, as well as how much Cleese earned during the Monty Python live shows. But when your alimony payments (times three!) costs tens of millions, it's easier to understand why Cleese agreed to take roles in movie clunkers like "George of the Jungle 2."