Actors - Graham Chapman

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	Actors - Graham Chapman

Graham Chapman (8 January 1941–4 October 1989) was a British comedian and writer. He was 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 rarely practiced medicine.

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. 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 programs 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 Cleese on occasion) 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 is born

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 out of nowhere to order the end of a sketch for being too silly. After Cleese left the series in 1973, Chapman wrote alone, as well as a bit with Neil Innes and Douglas Adams for the final fourth season. 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 Feldman (who died during the final days of production.)

After Python

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 (TV 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 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. Adams was mentored by Chapman, but they later had a falling out and did not speak for several years.

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Actors - Graham Chapman

Education and early performances

Writing for the BBC

Monty Python's Flying Circus is born

After Python

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