Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Monty Python’s Carol: I fear I’ve suffered a stroke
Actress’s horror over ‘lopsided smile’
MONTY Python star Carol Cleveland has revealed how she feared she had suffered a stroke after collapsing while out walking her dog.
Carol, 76 – known as “The Seventh Python” – appeared in 35 of the 45 episodes of the Monty Python TV series and all five of their hit movies.
She was taken to hospital for tests after passing out and gashing her head on the pavement.
Carol said: “I had the biggest bruise on the whole left side of my face – it was black and blue.
“I looked like I’d just done 10 rounds with Mike Tyson.”
She feared a stroke after noticing her “smile had gone lopsided” as she put on lipstick later.
She said: “My smile was my biggest concern. I thought, ‘Am I going to be like this for ever?’” Tests did not confirm a stroke and the reason for her collapse near her home in Worthing, West Sussex, remains a mystery.
But Carol added: “That is definitely the end of my acting career – unless I get a job as a stroke victim in Casualty! “I was very unhappy. But gradually my smile started to come back, and it has come back now.
“I still don’t know what caused the fall, or whether I had a stroke or not.
“My doctor suggested it was probably a trapped nerve.”
Carol first acted with the Pythons in 1969 and appeared in the classic TV series until 1974.
She added: “The Pythons are not immune to age. “I should think that all of us probably have some ailments now.”
Graham Chapman died of cancer in 1989, aged 48. Terry Jones, 76, has a form of dementia. Carol’s book Pompoms Up!: From Puberty to Pythons and Beyond is out now