John Cleese to Receive Rose d’Or Lifetime Achievement Award

GENEVA: British actor and comedian John Cleese will be honored with the Rose d’Or Award for lifetime achievement at the 55th annual ceremony, to be held in Berlin on September 13.

Cleese began his career in the mid-1960s. He is renowned for his television work as part of the Monty Python team and for his self-penned sitcom Fawlty Towers. He is also widely recognized for appearances in films such as Clockwise and A Fish Called Wanda, as well as the Harry Potter series.

Cleese commented: “I am delighted by this chance to annoy Terry Gilliam and I’m also very humbled by the offer of an all-expenses-paid holiday in Berlin.”

The media director at the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), Jean Philip De Tender, said: “The EBU believes no one is more deserving of the Rose d’Or lifetime achievement award than John Cleese. He has been making audiences around the world laugh for 50 years and his writing and instantly recognizable performances have contributed to some of the best and funniest entertainment on television and in film.”

Rose d’Or compère BBC broadcaster Paddy O’Connell added: “John Cleese helped invent TV entertainment—but has never forgotten the producers who put him on the screen. He knows the business inside out as writer, actor and performer. He’s a rare public figure in the English-speaking world for learning German as a young man and told Der Spiegel he only wished it was his first language. For these reasons and thousands more, including a dead parrot, he’s the perfect fit to pick up the Rose d’Or lifetime achievement award in Berlin.”