John Cleese remembers the late, great Graham Chapman in 1989 eulogy
Graham Chapman, one of the original founding members of the comedy troupe, Monty Python, passed away 35 years ago, Friday on October 4, 1989 at age 48. Thankfully, the comedy world was all the greater as Chapman ultimately 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.
Aside from his days on Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Chapman also had starring roles in, perhaps, the two funniest films on Planet Earth, Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Life of Brian. Chapman began to study medicine at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, joining the Cambridge Footlights which is where he first began writing with fellow Cambridge student, John Cleese.
Following their Footlights success, Chapman and Cleese began to write professionally for the BBC, initially for both David Frost and Marty Feldman. Even still, Chapman was 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 Medical College and became professionally registered as a doctor.
It wasn’t until 1969 when Chapman and Cleese joined the other Pythons, Michael Palin, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam for Monty Python’s Flying Circus when the group’s writing was split into well-defined teams, with Chapman collaborating almost exclusively with Cleese that the world knew that Chapman made the right choice.
As co-writer of the brilliant “Dead Parrot Sketch”, Cleese’s equally brilliant eulogy at Chapman’s funeral in 1989 took on a whole new meaning. RIP, Graham Chapman.
The picture above was taken in March 1975 when Chapman, Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam and Michael Palin were in the KERA studios the night after the L.A. premiere of Monty Python and the Holy Grail to participate in KERA’s fundraising pledge drive around the Flying Circus hosted by then KERA Program Director, Ron Devillier.
It was Devillier and then KERA President, Bob Wilson, who pulled the string on acquiring the Flying Circus series in October 1974 making KERA the first television station in the U.S. to broadast the series. British comedy in America was born following that fateful night in North Texas.
As KERA, the PBS station in North Texas, prepares to celebrate the 50th anniversary of being the first television station in the U.S. to bringing Monty Python’s Flying Circus to America in October 1974, stay tuned for news of an exciting event being planned for Wednesday, November 13 at the Texas Theatre in Dallas.
Cheers.
In: Comedy
