Graham Chapman

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, Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) and Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979).

Chapman was born in Leicester and grew up 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. He eventually established a writing partnership with John Cleese, which reached its critical peak with Monty Python during the 1970s. Chapman subsequently left Britain for Los Angeles, where he attempted 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, he died of tonsil cancer that 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, in a testament to Chapman's surreal sense of humour that the remaining five members of Monty Python enacted.