Graham Chapman (8 January 1941 – 4 October 1989) was a British actor, comedian and writer. He was one of the six members of the surrealist comedy group Monty Python. He portrayed authority figures such as The Colonel and the lead role in two Python films, Holy Grail (1975) and Life of Brian (1979).
Chapman was born in Leicester and was raised in Melton Mowbray. He enjoyed science, acting, and comedy and after graduating from Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College, he turned down a career as a doctor to be a comedian. Chapman eventually established a writing partnership with John Cleese, which reached its critical peak with Monty Python during the 1970s. He subsequently left Britain for Los Angeles, where he attempted to be a success on American television, speaking on the college circuit and producing the pirate film Yellowbeard (1983), before returning to Britain in the early 1980s.
Chapman was in a long-term partnership with David Sherlock and supportive of gay rights. He was an alcoholic from his time at Cambridge until he quit drinking shortly before working on Life of Brian. He became an enthusiast and patron of the Dangerous Sports Club in the later years of his life. In 1989, Chapman died of tonsil cancer which had spread to his spine. His life and legacy were commemorated at a memorial service in the Great Hall of St Bartholomew's Hospital two months after his death, which was a testament to Chapman's surreal sense of humour that the remaining five Pythons enacted.
Chapman was born on 8 January 1941 at the Stoneygate Nursing Home, Stoneygate, Leicester, the son of policeman Walter Chapman and Edith Towers. Walter Chapman was a police constable at the time of Graham's birth; he ended his career as a chief inspector. He had been trained as a French polisher for a coffin-maker before entering the police force in the 1930s.
Chapman had an elder brother, John, who was born in 1936. They had, according to Chapman and his brother, an "extremely poor upbringing". One of Chapman's earliest memories was seeing the remains of Polish airmen who had suffered an aeroplane accident near Leicester, later saying the sight remained in his memory.
Chapman was educated at Melton Mowbray Grammar School. He showed a strong affinity for science, sports and amateur dramatics and was singled out for attention when a local paper reviewed his performance of Mark Antony in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. Graham and his brother John were both avid fans of radio comedy, being especially fond of The Goon Show and Robert Moreton's skill of telling jokes the wrong way round and reversing punchlines. Biographer Jim Yoakum said "the radio shows didn't necessarily make him laugh".
In 1959, Chapman began reading medicine at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He joined the Cambridge Footlights, where he first began writing with John Cleese. Following graduation, Chapman joined the Footlights show Cambridge Circus and toured New Zealand, deferring his medical studies for a year. After the tour, he continued his studies at St Bartholomew's Medical College, but became torn between whether to pursue a career in medicine or acting. His brother John later said, "He [Graham] wasn't ever driven to go into medicine... it wasn't his life's ambition."
Following their Footlights success, Chapman and Cleese began to write professionally for the BBC, initially for David Frost but also for Marty Feldman. Frost had recruited Cleese, and in turn Cleese decided he needed Chapman as a sounding board. Chapman also contributed sketches to the radio series I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again and wrote material on his own and with Bill Oddie. He wrote for The Illustrated Weekly Hudd (starring Roy Hudd), Cilla Black, This Is Petula Clark and This Is Tom Jones. Chapman, Cleese and Tim Brooke-Taylor later joined Feldman in the television comedy series At Last the 1948 Show. It was Chapman's first significant role as a performer as well as a writer and he displayed a gift for deadpan comedy (such as in the sketch "The Minister Who Falls to Pieces") and imitating various British dialects. The series was the first to feature Chapman's sketch of wrestling with himself.
Despite the series' success, Chapman was still unsure about abandoning his medical career. In between the two series of At Last The 1948 Show, he completed his studies at St Bartholomew's and became professionally registered as a doctor. Chapman and Cleese also wrote for the long-running television comedy series Doctor in the House, and both appeared on a one-off television special, How to Irritate People alongside Brooke-Taylor and future Python member Michael Palin. One of Cleese's and Chapman's sketches, featuring a used car salesman refusing to believe a customer's model had broken down, became the inspiration for the Dead Parrot sketch. Chapman also co-wrote several episodes of Doctor in the House's follow up, Doctor in Charge, with Bernard McKenna.
In 1969, Chapman and Cleese joined the other Pythons, Michael Palin, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam, for their sketch comedy series Monty Python's Flying Circus. The group's writing was split into well-defined teams, with Chapman collaborating almost exclusively with Cleese. Chapman was particularly keen to remove stereotypical punchlines in sketches and created The Colonel, who would stop them in mid-flow by saying they were "too silly".
Although the pair were officially equal partners, Cleese later thought that Chapman contributed comparatively little in the way of direct writing, saying "he would come in, say something marvelous and then drift off in his own mind". The other Pythons have said that Chapman's biggest contribution in the writing room was an intuition for what was funny. Gilliam later recalled that "Graham would do the nudge that would push it into something extraordinary". The series was an immediate success, and Chapman was delighted to learn that medical students at St Bartholomew's crowded round the television in the bar to watch it. Chapman was frequently late for rehearsing or recording, leading to the other Pythons calling him "the late Graham Chapman".
Chapman's main contribution to the "Dead Parrot sketch", derived from the piece within How to Irritate People and involving a customer returning a faulty toaster, was "How can we make this madder?", turning the toaster into a dead Norwegian Blue parrot. Cleese later said he and Chapman believed that "there was something very funny there, if we could find the right context for it". Cleese was in particular concerned that the Cheese Shop sketch simply was not funny, in that it was just mainly a man listing different types of cheese. Chapman urged his partner to continue with it, telling him "Trust me, it's funny." When it was read out at the next script meeting, Cleese found that the others, particularly Palin, thought it was hilarious. The group felt that Chapman had the best acting skills among them; Cleese said he was "particularly a wonderful actor".
Chapman played the lead role in two Python films, Holy Grail and Life of Brian. He was chosen to play the lead in Holy Grail because of the group's respect for his straight acting skills, and because the other members wanted to play lesser, funnier characters. Chapman did not mind being filmed fully nude in front of a crowd in Life of Brian, but the scene, filmed in Tunisia, caused problems with the female Muslim extras.
In 1975, Chapman and Douglas Adams wrote a pilot for a television series, entitled Out of the Trees, but it received poor ratings after being broadcast at the same time as Match of the Day and only the initial episode was produced. In 1978, Chapman co-wrote the comedy film The Odd Job with Bernard McKenna and starred as one of the main characters. Chapman wanted his friend Keith Moon to play a co-lead role alongside him, but Moon could not pass an acting test, so the part went to David Jason who had previously appeared on Do Not Adjust Your Set with Pythons Idle, Jones and Palin. The film was moderately successful. Chapman guest-starred on several television series including The Big Show.