Graham Chapman

Graham Chapman
File:Chapman3.jpg
Born	Graham Arthur Chapman
Other names	Gray Chapman
Years active	ca. 1960-1989
Height	188 cm (74 in)
Spouse	David Sherlock (1966-1989)
Website	www.gcarchives.com

Graham Chapman (8 January 1941–4 October 1989) was an English comedian, actor, writer, physician and one of the six Monty Python members and lead actor in their two narrative films, playing King Arthur in Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Brian in Life of Brian.

Education and early performances

Chapman was educated at Melton Mowbray Grammar School and studied medicine at Emmanuel College at the University of Cambridge, where he began writing comedy with fellow University student John Cleese. He qualified as a medical doctor at the Barts Hospital Medical College, but never practised medicine professionally.

While at Cambridge, Chapman joined Footlights. Fellow members were John Cleese, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Bill Oddie, David Hatch, Jonathan Lynn, Humphrey Barclay, and Jo Kendall. Their revue A Clump of Plinths was so successful at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival that they renamed it Cambridge Circus, and took the revue to the West End in London and later New Zealand and Broadway in September 1964. The revue appeared in October 1964 on The Ed Sullivan Show.

Writing for the BBC

Chapman and Cleese wrote professionally for the BBC during the 1960s, primarily for David Frost, but also for Marty Feldman. Chapman also contributed sketches to the BBC radio series I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again and television programmes such as The Illustrated Weekly Hudd (starring Roy Hudd), Cilla Black, This is Petula Clark, and This is Tom Jones. Chapman, Cleese, and Tim Brooke-Taylor then joined Feldman in the television comedy series At Last the 1948 Show. Chapman, and on occasion Cleese, also wrote for the long-running television comedy series Doctor in the House. Chapman also co-wrote several episodes with Bernard McKenna and David Sherlock.

Monty Python's Flying Circus

Graham Chapman as The Colonel in Monty Python's Flying Circus

In 1969 Chapman and Cleese joined Michael Palin, Terry Jones, Eric Idle and American artist Terry Gilliam for Monty Python's Flying Circus. Cleese and Chapman's classic Python sketches include “The Ministry of Silly Walks” and “Dead Parrot”. One of Chapman's most famous characters was “The Colonel”, a stuffy army officer who occasionally appeared from nowhere ordering an end to the sketch for being too silly. After Cleese left the series in 1973, Chapman wrote alone, although he did work with Neil Innes and Douglas Adams for the final fourth series. He then developed a number of television and movie projects, most notably Out of the Trees, The Odd Job and Yellowbeard, in which he starred alongside Cleese, Peter Cook, Cheech and Chong and Marty Feldman, who died during the final days of production.

After Python

File:KingGraham.jpg

Graham Chapman as King Arthur in Monty Python & The Holy Grail

In the late 1970s, Chapman moved to Los Angeles, where he guest-starred on many US television shows, including The Hollywood Squares, Still Crazy Like a Fox, and the NBC sketch series The Big Show. Upon returning to England he became involved with the Dangerous Sports Club (an extreme sports club which introduced bungee jumping to a wide audience), and he began the first of a lengthy series of US college comedy lecture tours in the 1980s. His memoir, A Liar's Autobiography, was published in 1980 and, unusually for an autobiography, had five authors: Chapman, his partner David Sherlock, Alex Martin, David Yallop and Douglas Adams, who in 1977 was virtually unknown as a recent graduate fresh from Cambridge. Together they wrote a pilot for a TV series Out of the trees, and Adams was mentored by Chapman, but they later had a falling out and did not speak for several years.

Chapman's last project was to have been a TV series called Jake's Journey. Although the pilot was made, there were difficulties selling the project and with Chapman's death there was no interest. To this day the pilot lies somewhere on a shelf. Chapman was also to have played a guest role as a television presenter in the Red Dwarf episode “Timeslides”, but died before filming was to have started.

In the years since Chapman's death, only a few of his projects have actually been released. One such that has, is a play entitled O Happy Day, brought to life in 2000 by Dad's Garage Theatre Company in Atlanta, Georgia. Michael Palin and John Cleese assisted the theatre company in adapting the play. He also appeared in the Iron Maiden video, Can I Play with Madness.

File:Graham-Chapman-DVD.jpg

DVD of Graham Chapman's
1980s US college lectures

Personal life

Chapman was an alcoholic and drank heavily from his time in medical school through the 1970s. His drinking affected his performance on the television recording set as well as on the set of Holy Grail. It was Christmas 1977 when he decided to stop drinking, and remarkably kept his word, which helped him with his performance in Life of Brian.

Chapman kept his homosexuality a secret until the mid 1970s when he famously came out on a chat show hosted by British jazz musician George Melly, thus becoming one of the first celebrities to do so. Several days later, he came out to a group of friends at a party held at his home in Belsize Park where he officially introduced them to his partner, David Sherlock, whom he had met in Ibiza in 1966, and subsequently raised their son, John Tomiczek together. After Chapman made his homosexuality public, a member of the television audience wrote to the Pythons to complain that she had heard a member of the team was gay, and reminded the Pythons that the Bible recommends all homosexuals be stoned to death. With fellow Pythons already aware of his sexual orientation, Eric Idle replied, "We've found out who he was and we've taken him out and stoned him."

Chapman was a vocal spokesman for gay rights, and in 1972 he lent his support to the fledgling newspaper the Gay News which publicly acknowledged his financial and editorial support by listing him as one of its ‘special friends’.

Among Chapman's closest friends were Keith Moon of The Who, singer Harry Nilsson, and Beatle Ringo Starr.

On his DVD in the set of Monty Python's favourite sketches, it was said that he was an incredibly odd man, who was not unknown to “crawl around on his knees at dinner parties and nibble the guests' knees.”

Death

Chapman died of pneumonia brought about by throat cancer, which had spread to his spine. He was diagnosed in November 1988 after visiting his dentist where a growth was found on his tonsils. Chapman was 48 at his death on 4 October 1989. Those at his side at the time of his passing were John Cleese, Michael Palin, David Sherlock, his brother John and John's wife. Terry Jones and Peter Cook visited earlier that day. Chapman's death occurred one day before the 20th anniversary of the first broadcast of Flying Circus with Jones commenting, “the worst case of party-pooping in all history.”

A memorial service was held for Chapman in December 1989 in the Great Hall at St Bartholomew's Hospital. With Cleese delivering the eulogy, after his initial remarks, and using several expletives he scandalized the service as a final tribute to his former colleague shouting, “…good riddance to him, the freeloading bastard, I hope he fries!” He explained that Chapman would have been offended had Cleese, the first person to say shit on British television, not used Chapman's own funeral as an opportunity to also become the first person at a British memorial service to use the word fuck. Afterward, Cleese joined Gilliam, Jones, and Palin along with Chapman's other friends as Eric Idle led them in a rendition of “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” from the film, Monty Python's Life of Brian.

Chapman's ashes were scattered over the summit of Snowdon, North Wales by David Sherlock on June 18 2005.

Legacy

The remaining Python members have acknowledged that, while brilliant, Chapman was exasperating to work with, and difficult to know. After his death, speculation of a Python revival inevitably faded, with Idle saying, “we would only do a reunion if Chapman came back from the dead. So we're negotiating with his agent.” Subsequent gatherings of the Pythons have actually been accompanied by an urn, said to contain Chapman's ashes. At the 1998 Aspen Comedy Arts festival, the urn was 'accidentally' knocked over by Terry Gilliam, spilling the 'ashes' on-stage. The cremains were then removed by vacuuming.

Asteroid 9617 Grahamchapman, named in Chapman's honour, is the first in a series of six asteroids carrying the names of members of the Monty Python comedy troupe.

References

• McCabe, Bob (2005). The Life of Graham, The authorised biography of Graham Chapman. London: Orion Books. ISBN 0-7528-5773-8.
• Chapman, Graham (2005). Jim Yoakum (ed.) (ed.). Calcium Made Interesting : Sketches, Letters, Essays & Gondolas. London: Sidgwick & Jackson. ISBN 0-283-07016-1. {{cite book}}: |editor= has generic name (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
• Hewison, Robert (1983). Footlights! - A Hundred Years of Cambridge Comedy. London: Methuen London. ISBN 0-413-51150-2.
• Wilmut, Roger (1980). From Fringe to Flying Circus - 'Celebrating a Unique Generation of Comedy 1960-1980'. Eyre Methuen. ISBN 0-413-46950-6.
• Chapman, Graham (1980). A Liar's Autobiography (Volume VI). Methuen Publishing Ltd. ISBN 0-416-00901-8.

External links

• Graham Chapman at the Internet Broadway Database
• Graham Chapman at IMDb
• Graham Chapman biography and credits at the BFI's Screenonline
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• Graham Chapman at the TCM Movie Database
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• Graham Chapman Official Website
• Graham Chapman at the BBC Comedy Guide
• Graham Chapman at the Comedy Zone

At Last the 1948 Show
Tim Brooke-Taylor — Graham Chapman — John Cleese — Marty Feldman — Aimi MacDonald