Michael Palin risks bankruptcy as he admits to taking jobs that ‘didn’t pay well’

Hollywood legend Sir Michael Palin has confessed his father never wanted him to become an actor due to worrying financial fears. The beloved comedy actor, 82, rose to fame back in the late 1960s when he teamed up with comedy writer Terry Jones. The dynamic duo went on to write and produce the likes of Monty Python and Fawlty Towers which catapulted their careers on the big screen.

Despite the last film hitting screens back in 1983, the beloved films regularly return to our screens every Christmas. But the epic film franchise may have never happened.

Before the actor became a beloved British actor, his father warned him to avoid stepping into the world of Hollywood. In an interview with The Telegraph back in 2017, the dad-of-three confessed: “My father was very strict about my not becoming an actor.

“He’d spent a lot on my education at Shrewsbury School and he saw it as a slippery slope towards bankruptcy. But while studying at Oxford, I became good friends with Terry Jones.

“We ended up writing The Frost Report, before moving towards the ultimate goal of making people laugh and doing a bit of comedy, which is what happened with Monty Python.

“I wish I could say we saw the golden future ahead of us, but really, we were just lucky to have that particular job at that time. It didn’t pay well, but it was enough for me to start raising a family.”

Thankfully for us, the actor ignored his father’s words of warning and went on to become one of the most loved British actors on screen.

It comes after the TV favourite opened up about his will and admitted in a heartbreaking interview that his children will “know where to find what they need to find should I die.

The 82-year-old was married to Helen Gibbins for almost 60 years before she sadly died two years ago from chronic kidney disease. He’s now spoken about his own death during an interview on the Marie Curie podcast.

He admitted: “I do think about death, and the family is rather wonderful about it: ‘Have you made a will? Can I be in your will?’ I’ve made my will and all that. My family, my children, know where to find what they need to find should I die.”

The actor has three children Helen: Thomas, 56, William, 54, and Rachel, 50. He told listeners he had given them all of his passwords in case he “gets run over by a bus”.

“However fit you are, anything might happen. But I don’t dwell on mortality. I dwell on life.” Michael, who met his wife when they were both teenagers on a summer trip to Suffolk, added: “I’m 82 now, which is longer than any Palin male has lived for 200 years.

“I keep fit, and I’m working, fortunately, and doing some quite dificult stuff, such as filming and all that. I kid myself that I’m going to be alright, and yet I know that I won’t because you feel tired at certain times.

“You’re slightly unsteady as you get out of bed, and you think, ‘What’s happening?’ Well, the old car’s getting a bit rusty.” Sir Michael has been through some health issues in recent years, and he underwent open heart surgery in 2019 to repair a valve.

Opening up about the life-saving surgery, he shared: "That saved my life, really. And so I've been through that, which I think is quite important - to know that your body is vulnerable. And the older you get, the more vulnerable it is."