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1-7 of 7
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Graham Chapman was born on January 8, 1941 in Leicester, England while a German air raid was in progress. Graham's father was a chief police inspector and probably inspired the constables Graham often portrayed later in comedy sketches. Graham studied medicine in college and earned an M.D., but he practiced medicine for only a few years.
At Cambridge, he took part in a series of comedy revues and shortly after completing his medical studies at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, Graham realized what he wanted to do with his life. He wanted to perform comedy. In 1969, Graham along with University friends John Cleese, Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Jones and American Terry Gilliam formed their own comedy group called Monty Python. Their BBC TV series Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969), which aired a short while later was a an instant hit. Their often self-referential style of humor was delightfully original but completely accessible to most audiences in the UK.
Before the show appeared on public television in the US, many people assumed that Americans would find Monty Python much too British to consider it funny. But PBS never had a larger audience than when stations began to air it during the early 1970s. The classic routines have since become standard college humor.
So enduring was the Python humor that fans know entire sketches such as "The Pet Shop," "Nudge-Nudge, Wink-Wink," "Argument Clinic," and "Penguin on the Telly." Graham was a standout of the group with his tall, blond profile and his zany characters (one of the more memorable was Colonel Muriel Volestrangler, a vaguely military-type character who would stop a sketch because it was "much too silly").
Graham was openly gay long before it was socially acceptable, and was open about his long-term relationship with writer David Sherlock, who lived with him for 24 years. He even adopted and raised a teenage runaway named John Tomiczek. Graham played the title role in the movie Life of Brian (1979) as well as King Arthur in Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975). By the late 1970s, most of the Python members were pursuing independent movie projects and the group was slowly fading into obscurity after their last successful effort The Meaning of Life (1983). Also in 1983, Graham co-wrote and starred in the movie Yellowbeard (1983), which received negative reviews.
In 1988, Graham began working on another series when his health began to decline. A longtime alcoholic, who suffered liver damage before he stopped drinking for good in 1977, Graham began to have trouble concentrating at work. In November 1988, a routine visit to a dentist revealed a malignant tumor on one of his tonsils which was surgically removed. A visit to the doctor a few months later revealed another tumor on his spine which had to be removed which confined him to a wheelchair. During most of 1989, he underwent a series of surgical operations and radiation therapy but for every tumor that was found and removed, another would form either along his spine or in his throat. By July 1989, his cancer was declared terminal and that he would not survive the year, yet he continued to pursue treatments which included chemotherapy. In his wheelchair, he attended the September 1989 taping for the Monty Python's 20th anniversary special. But on October 1, he was hospitalized after a massive stroke which turned into a hemorrhage. He died at the Maidstone hospital at age 48 on October 4, 1989 from complications of the stroke as well as throat and spinal cancer.- Her father, J. King Ross was a superb horse trainer, a dapper gentleman who was with numerous traveling circuses and shows. Betsy was born on 14 March 1921 (not 1922 which is the date most often given for her birth). She appeared in a few motion pictures but when she was about 13 she decided she did not want to be an actress and her parents honored her wish. She married a road building engineer named Day and lived on a 10,000 acre ranch in South American while her husband was building roads there. The couple had one son, who was born in the USA (as per Betsy's wish). She and baby returned to the ranch after his birth. Her husband was killed in a landslide, she and baby returned to California where she reentered college. (This bio courtesy of Mr. Donn Moyer who knew Betsy's father)
- Cherokee Landrum was born on 14 February 1908 in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma, USA. He was an actor, known for Broken Arrow (1956). He died on 4 October 1989 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Secretariat was born on 30 March 1970 in Doswell, Virginia, USA. He died on 4 October 1989 in Paris, Kentucky, USA.
- Actor
- Writer
- Director
A beloved, warmly popular French character player and screenwriter in his heyday, Noël Noël was born Lucien Édouard Noël on August 9, 1897 in Paris. He initially developed his celebrity in music halls and the cabaret venue, where he created his Adémaï Joseph comic character, a blundering, oafish French soldier. He eventually took this character successfully to film in the early 30s and remained in movies as both actor and sometime writer and director in both his own vehicles and those of others top comedians. A leftist cartoonist at one time not to mention a skillful songwriter, many of his ideals seeped into his work.
Noël Noël began immediately in starring roles with the comedy La prison en folie (1931) (Prison Madness); as a buffoonish lover in the more dramatic Mistigri (1931) opposite Madeleine Renaud; as a fiancé torn between two women in the comedy Papa sans le savoir (1932); as the title comic role in Monsieur Albert (1932); and as a snubbed lover in [the social comedy Mam'zelle Spahi (1934). He took his popular protagonist, the naive, unassuming, bewildered-looking Adémaï soldier, to cinematic life first in the short films Adémaï et la nation armée (1932) and Backbench (2014), then to feature films with Adémaï aviateur (1934) co-starring Fernandel, Passing Glory (1999) co-starring Michel Simon and the war time picture Adémaï bandit d'honneur (1943).
Noël Noël became just as popular during the WWII years starring in such escapist film vehicles as La famille Duraton (1939), Sur le plancher des vaches (1939) and A Cage of Nightingales (1945). He continued sporadically as a character lead or support in the 1950's and 1960's with such delights as the musical comedy La vie chantée (1951), which he also wrote and directed; La fugue de Monsieur Perle (1952), in the title role; the Preston Sturges comedy The French, They Are a Funny Race (1955); the political comedy La terreur des dames (1956); The Gangsters (1957); the mystery comedy Le septième ciel (1958) with Danielle Darrieux; the comic farce Sputnik (1958); Messieurs les ronds de cuir (1959); Les vieux de la vieille (1960); and the sex comedy Jessica (1962) starring Maurice Chevalier and Angie Dickinson.
He left films after starring in the farcical comedy La sentinelle endormie (1966), which he also wrote, in which he portrays a doctor who conspires with the royalists against Napoleon. Married twice, he died in France on October 4, 1989, age 92.
.- Paula Braend was born on 6 August 1905 in Starnberg, Germany. She was an actress, known for Isar 12 (1961), Zar und Zimmermann (1956) and The Serpent's Egg (1977). She died on 4 October 1989 in Munich, Bavaria, West Germany.
- Actor
- Music Department
Ram Marathe was born on 23 October 1924 in Pune, Maharashtra, India. He was an actor, known for Gopal Krishna (1938), Gopal Krishna (1938) and Iye Marathi Che Nagri (1965). He died on 4 October 1989 in Thane, Maharashtra, India.