Graham Chapman

Graham Chapman was a British comedian and actor who was one of the six members of Monty Python's Flying Circus and co-wrote many of the group's most celebrated sketches and films, including Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) and Life of Brian (1979), in which he played the lead. He came out as gay in 1967 — extraordinarily early for a public figure — and was one of the first British celebrities to do so openly. He was in a long relationship with David Sherlock from 1966 until his death from throat cancer in 1989. Chapman was also a recovering alcoholic who wrote frankly about both his sexuality and his drinking in his autobiography A Liar's Autobiography (1980).