Graham Chapman

Graham Chapman (born January 8, 1941, Leicester, Leicestershire, England—died October 4, 1989, Maidstone, Kent) was a British comedian and writer who was a founding member of the Monty Python troupe, which set a standard during the 1970s for its quirky parodies and wacky humour on television and later in films.

Chapman grew up in Leicestershire and began acting while in grammar school. He later studied medicine at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He became a member of the Cambridge Footlights Dramatic Club, where he met fellow member John Cleese. Following his graduation in1962, Chapman joined the 1963 Footlights revue, A Clump of Plinths, which toured the world as Cambridge Circus. Returning to school, he graduated from St. Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical College (1966), but, rather than practice medicine, he chose to continue in the entertainment industry.

Chapman became a television writer with Cleese for The Frost Report, a satiric show hosted by David Frost, and other TV shows, and he wrote and performed in the 1967 sketch comedy series At Last the 1948 Show. He then joined with Cleese, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, Eric Idle, and Terry Gilliam to create Monty Python’s Flying Circus, which first aired on October 5, 1969. The show startled viewers with its anarchic and surreal send-ups of standard television fare and British life in general. Along with Cleese, Chapman was the coauthor of most of the troupe’s works. In addition, Chapman was credited with generating many of the sketch ideas. He perfected various often absurdly rigid characters, notably the Colonel (who steps in to stop sketches for violating rules) and Raymond Luxury-Yacht. Monty Python’s Flying Circus ended its run on BBC1 in 1974. Chapman and Cleese were the principal writers for the movies Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), in which Chapman played King Arthur; Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979), with Chapman in the title role; and The Meaning of Life (1983).

Post-Python, Chapman cowrote and starred in the less-successful film Yellowbeard (1983) and created a pilot in 1988 for a proposed American TV series, Jake’s Journey. He recounted his successful battle with alcoholism (he stopped drinking in 1977) and his life as a homosexual in A Liar’s Autobiography: Volume VI (1980; film 2012). In 1988 Chapman was diagnosed with throat cancer, which spread to his spine. He died the following year.