SoCalDem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Sun Nov-04-07 03:23 AM
Graham Chapman's eulogy (Monty Python)..what a riot
If you have not ever seen this, do yourself a favor, and watch it.. now THAT was a eulogy befitting a Python. :rofl:
http://www.milkandcookies.com/link/32473/detail/http://orangecow.org/pythonet/graham-chapman.htmlGraham Chapman
Born 8 January 1941 in Leicester, Midlands
Died 4 October, 1989 at the age of 48 from cancer
Education: Melton Mowbray Grammar School and Cambridge
Utterly useless fact: Qualified medical doctor forsook stethoscope for antler headdress.
Graham's father was a policeman, and the young Graham had to move around the country quite a bit whenever his father had a new posting. At Melton Mowbray Grammar School, the young Graham tried his hand at acting. Graham's older brother John was a doctor, and Graham wanted to go to medicine too ... but always had his eyes on Cambridge college and their Footlights - a famous proving-ground for actors, writers and comedians. At Cambridge Chapman met John Cleese, and they began to write together. Graham became so busy appearing in and writing for Footlights revues that he gave up medicine entirely. With Cleese, he wrote for The Frost Report, the film The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer, and Richard Gordon's "Doctor ..." series, appearing in the film Doctor in Trouble. He and Cleese wrote for and appeared in the film The Magic Christian. With Marty Feldman and Tim Brooke-Taylor, Chapman and Cleese created their own sketch comedy series, At Last the 1948 Show, which ran for two series. Despite critical acclaim, the series was not widely seen.
Graham was twenty-five when he realized he was gay. When he came out publicly, just before the Flying Circus TV series began, John Cleese was shocked ... and so were several ladies who had crushes on the eccentric writer! For two decades, before his death, Graham lived with David Sherlock, and they became like an old married couple. In 1972 Chapman co-founded the publication Gay News, striving to change the way gays were perceived by the public.
Graham always seemed like the most eccentric and uncontrollable of the Pythons, often playing the most bizarre characters. However, he was best known for his leading roles as Arthur in Holy Grail and Brian in Life of Brian - classic leading man roles that required him to play the straight man to the other Pythons' eccentric characters. Of course Graham was the perfect straight man, because his well-behaved, upper-class British exterior could hide a dangerous and unpredictable eccentricity. Thus making it all quite a bit funnier.
John Cleese quit the Python team after the third series of the Flying Circus, and Graham was on his own. In the fourth series of Python, Graham began writing with Douglas Adams (future creator of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), and they created a comedy pilot called Out of the Trees, which aired once against a football match and received low ratings. The series was not continued. Chapman was always the most self-conscious Python, and his nervous mannerisms weren't always part of the act. He smoked a pipe constantly, and also drank constantly. By the time of the third series of Python Graham had become an alcoholic. His taste for the bottle nearly killed him.
During the shooting of Holy Grail Graham was so affected by alcohol he had trouble performing. Being a qualified physician, Graham knew how his alcoholism was affecting his body. Yet he kept destroying himself anyway - three pints of gin a day. Finally, over Christmas 1977, he decided to stop drinking. He spent three days in bed shivering and hallucinating. After three days he finally stopped shaking, and got up. But he hadn't eaten, and was very short of blood sugar. He went into muscular spasm and then an epileptic fit, hitting his head and passing out unconscious.
When Graham became conscious again, he realized with some relief that he was still alive. He never drank again. He still retained his off-kilter edge, and fully sober in 1980, delivered his best performance in "The Life of Brian"
Post-Python, Chapman conducted a comic lecture tour of college campuses throughout the U.S. and Australia, featuring reminiscences on Python, memories of friend Keith Moon and his legendary one-man wrestling act. In 1983, Chapman starred in, produced and co-wrote the pirate film "Yellowbeard". He also starred in "The Odd Job," with David Jason and Carolyn Seymour.
Chapman and longtime companion David Sherlock adopted a son, John Tomiczek, who died in 1992. Tragically, Chapman was diagnosed with cancer of the tonsils in 1988. With Chapman on the day of his death were Terry Jones, John Cleese and Michael Palin. Chapman passed away on 4 October 1989, just a day short of the 20th anniversary of the first broadcast of Monty Python's Flying Circus. Jones, speaking of Graham, said it was "the worst case of party pooping I had ever seen." At Graham's funeral, a huge number of friends and associates arrived to pay tribute to the eccentric genius of their friend Graham.
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