Graham Chapman

at Melton Mowbray Grammar School (now King Edward VII School), which Chapman attended 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". 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." == Career ==

Pre-Python career 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 follow up, Doctor in Charge, with Bernard McKenna. Monty Python 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''. sketches mid-flow dressed as The Colonel, complaining they were "too silly". The same year, he starred in a pilot of a proposed television series, Jake's Journey'', but financial problems prevented a full series from being made. In 1988, he also appeared on stage with three other Pythons (Gilliam, Jones and Palin) at the 41st British Academy Film Awards where Monty Python received the BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Contribution To Cinema. Broadcast in November 1989, the 20th anniversary television special, Parrot Sketch Not Included – 20 Years of Monty Python, hosted by Python fan Steve Martin, was Chapman's final onscreen appearance with the other five Python members. Chapman was intended to be cast in the Red Dwarf episode "Timeslides", but died before shooting could begin. == Personal life ==

with his partner David Sherlock during the 1970s. Chapman first met his long-term partner David Sherlock in Ibiza in 1966. He later described realising he was gay as "an important moment in my life". The following year, he told his close friends, including Cleese and Feldman, about his relationship. Chapman and Sherlock moved to Belsize Park in 1968, and the pair enjoyed visiting gay clubs in Central London. In the early 1970s, after Chapman had found fame with Monty Python, they moved to a house in Highgate, North London. In 1972, on a television show hosted by English jazz and blues singer George Melly, Chapman first disclosed his homosexuality publicly, becoming one of the first celebrities to do so. He was a vocal spokesman for gay rights, supporting the Gay Liberation Front. In 1972, Chapman supported the newspaper Gay News, which listed him as one of the publication's "special friends" in recognition. During a college tour, Chapman mentioned that a television audience member had written to the Pythons to complain about them having a gay member, citing a Bible passage that said any man who lies with a man should be taken out and stoned. Idle replied jokingly that they had found the perpetrator and killed him. In 1971, Chapman and Sherlock adopted John Tomiczek as their son. Chapman met Tomiczek when Tomiczek was a 14-year-old run-away from Liverpool. After discussions with Tomiczek's father, it was agreed that Chapman would become Tomiczek's legal guardian. Both Sherlock and Tomiczek remained a constant presence in Chapman's life. During the 1970s, Chapman became increasingly concerned about the Pythons' income and finances. He subsequently moved to Los Angeles to avoid British income tax. In the mid-1980s, he returned to the UK and moved to Maidstone, Kent, with Sherlock and Tomiczek. Tomiczek later became Chapman's business manager; he died of a heart attack in 1992 at age 35. Chapman took up pipe smoking aged 15, which became a lifelong habit. He began drinking heavily during his time at Cambridge and St. Bartholomew's, favouring gin. He was an alcoholic from his time at Cambridge until he quit drinking shortly before working on Life of Brian. By the time Monty Python went out on tour in 1973, Chapman's drinking had begun to affect his performance, causing him to miss cues to go on stage, and he was known to suffer from delirium tremens (DTs). He stopped drinking during Christmas 1977, concerned about being able to act in Life of Brian successfully, and remained sober for the rest of his life. == Illness and death ==

In 1988 Chapman made a routine visit to a dentist, who found a small, malignant tumour on one of his tonsils, leading to both being removed via a tonsillectomy. The following year it was discovered that the cancer had spread into Chapman's spinal column, where another tumour was surgically removed. Chapman had several chemotherapy treatments and surgeries during the final months of his life, but ultimately the cancer was declared inoperable. According to his brother, Chapman was visibly upset by the death of his mother that July, by which time he was terminally ill. Shortly afterwards, Chapman filmed scenes for the 20th anniversary of the first broadcast of ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'', the final time he appeared on television. Chapman died on 4 October 1989 in Maidstone Hospital from resulting complications, aged 48. At the time of his death, he was being visited by Sherlock, his brother John and his sister-in-law, and fellow Pythons Palin and Cleese, the latter of whom had to be led out of the room to deal with his grief. Palin was alone with Chapman when he died, and recounted the moment of death in his diary entry of 4 October 1989: I walk round to the window and then come back to his right-hand side; take his cold hand in my hot one and tell him, quite loudly, that we all love him. The regularity of his breathing is broken. A long pause, then a long inhalation. His lower jaw rises, his mouth closes and bares his lower teeth. I reach for my cup of tea. He breathes heavily. I start to talk again. A single tear emerges from his right eye and rolls down his cheek. The mouth is set. The great ridge of Adam's apple is still. There's no more noise from him. Nothing dramatic, no rattles or chokes or cries. He's not moving any more. I don't want to leave him, nor do I want to make any noise or sudden movement. It's a moment out of time. All I feel is that I shouldn't be here, that David and John his brother should be. There's noise outside. The clatter of patients and visiting friends. I call John and David to go in. They re-emerge a minute or so later. Graham is dead. It's about twenty past seven. Peter Cook had intended to visit, but arrived too late and was visibly shaken by the news. Chapman's death occurred on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the Pythons' collective debut on British television, and Jones called it "the worst case of party-pooping in all history". Memorial service The five surviving Python members had decided to stay away from Chapman's private funeral to prevent it from becoming a media circus and to give his family some privacy. They sent a wreath in the shape of the Python foot, with the message: "To Graham from the other Pythons with all our love. PS: Stop us if we're getting too silly". The Rolling Stones also sent a floral arrangement, saying "Thanks for all the laughs." A public memorial service for Chapman was held in the Great Hall of St Bartholomew's on 3 December, two months after his death. The service began with a chorus of the hymn "Jerusalem" sung in Engrish with a mock Chinese accent. Cleese delivered a eulogy to Chapman with shock humour that he believed Chapman would have appreciated and became the first person at a televised British memorial service to say "fuck". Palin also delivered a eulogy to Chapman, as did Idle, quipping that Chapman had decided to die rather than listen to Palin again. Idle led the other surviving Pythons and Chapman's close friends and family in a rendition of the song "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life", from Life of Brian, and later closed his remarks by saying: "I'd just like to be the last person at this meeting to say 'fuck'." Ten years after Chapman's death, his ashes were first rumoured to have been "blasted into the skies in a rocket" with assistance from the Dangerous Sports Club. In a second rumour, Chapman's ashes had been scattered on the mountains of Snowdonia, Wales, where he had visited regularly as a climber. == Legacy ==

Following Chapman's death, reformations of the Pythons have included an urn said to contain his ashes. At the 1998 Aspen Comedy Arts festival, the urn, brought onstage by a stiff English butler, was "accidentally" knocked over by Terry Gilliam, spilling the "ashes" on-stage. The apparently cremated remains were then removed with a DustBuster. Idle recalled meeting Sherlock, saying "I wish he [Chapman] was here now" and Sherlock replied "Oh, but he is. He's in my pocket!" Asteroid 9617 Grahamchapman, named in Chapman's honour, is one of six asteroids named after the Python members. In 1997, Sherlock allowed Jim Yoakum to start the "Graham Chapman Archives". Later that year, the novel Graham Crackers: Fuzzy Memories, Silly Bits, and Outright Lies was released. It is a semi-sequel to ''A Liar's Autobiography'', with Chapman's works compiled by Yoakum. A compendium of writings, Calcium Made Interesting: Sketches, Letters, Essays & Gondolas, also compiled and edited by Yoakum, was published in 2005 in association with the David Sherlock and John Tomiczek trust. In 2000, Chapman's play O Happy Day was performed by Dad's Garage Theatre Company in Atlanta, Georgia, with the assistance of Cleese and Palin. In 2006, the album and DVD release Looks Like Another Brown Trouser Job came out, featuring a college lecture recorded in April 1988. In June 2011, it was announced that Cleese, Jones, Gilliam and Palin would perform in a 3D-animated version of Chapman's memoir ''A Liar's Autobiography: Volume VI''. Co-director Jeff Simpson worked closely with Chapman's estate and the surviving Python members to "get this exactly right". The film, titled ''A Liar's Autobiography: The Untrue Story of Monty Python's Graham Chapman'', was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2012 and premiered in the UK the following month as part of the BFI London Film Festival. The voices of Cleese, Gilliam, Jones and Palin were spliced into commentary recorded by Chapman reading from his memoir and taped shortly before his death. The film's official trailer quoted Chapman as saying, "This is the best film I've been in since I died." In September 2012, a British Comedy Society blue plaque commemorating Chapman was unveiled at The Angel pub in Highgate by Jones, Palin, Barry Cryer, Ray Davies and Carol Cleveland. Palin said, "Highgate was his patch, and he should be celebrated because he was a very good, brilliant, funny, nice, wise, kind man, who occasionally drank too much." In December 2014, a green plaque funded by Leicestershire County Council was placed on Chapman's former home in Burton Road, Melton Mowbray. A year later, a blue plaque at the entrance of Chapman's old school, King Edward VII School, was reported as stolen but was later found inside the building. In March 2017, the plaque was moved to Melton Mowbray town centre. == Filmography ==

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