William Chapman's former teacher has said she worried the 24-year-old might fall into a gaming obsession after he stopped attending his acting lessons. Chapman died last Saturday after entering a tiger enclosure at Yorkshire Wildlife Park.
Career and struggles
Chapman was a successful child actor who appeared in productions for the BBC and ITV. As he grew older, he began to struggle with behavioural changes that led to significant mental health struggles. He was diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), a mental health issue known to co-occur with schizophrenia.
Marylyn Phillips, 76, taught Chapman for more than a decade and has spoken about her relationship with him and his interest in acting.
Phillips said: "It was very difficult when I heard the news. It is just so sad when someone is young, talented, and has everything going for them. It's heartbreaking enough when they leave [the school] let alone this. They are a lovely family, and they are devastated."
Family and acting talent
Speaking to the Mail, Phillips said of Chapman's family: "They were always very, very nice and never pushy at all. Anything their children needed, they had it. If he needed to be taken somewhere, he would be taken somewhere. They were just really lovely people and honourable people. That's what is so sad. It is so hard."
Chapman appeared in the ITV production May Contain Nuts alongside Shirley Henderson, known for playing Moaning Myrtle in the Harry Potter films, and portrayed Edward Jenner as a young boy in the BBC series True Stories.
Phillips said of Chapman's acting: "He was very talented and very good, so this came across in all his auditions. He might have been fighting against everyone else for roles, but he always seemed to come out on top. He cared about what he did. If I gave him a script, it would be learned by the next time I saw him. We always stayed in touch and our agency represented him for a time, but then he went on to college."
Mental health and gaming worries
Chapman's mother, Virginia Burges, wrote a blog post when her son was 15, stating he had stopped going to his lessons at stage school. She added that her boy was slowly disappearing as he grew older. In 2017, Burges wrote: "When my younger son, now 15, hit his early teens, my lovely, polite, happy and kind boy transformed into a being unrecognisable to me." The post was named "Cure for troubled teenagers."
Phillips spoke of Chapman's mental health, knowing he dealt with OCD, and said she was worried when he stopped his extra-curricular dance and drama classes. She said: "It must have been hard, he had all that testosterone circulating round his still relatively childlike body and it made him angsty, aggressive and confused. At this time his OCD became a real problem and he stopped going to his extra-curricular dance and drama. I was worried. I didn't want him to get stuck into a gaming obsession."
Chapman was known to be an avid gamer and enjoyed The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, a fantasy game where players use mediaeval weaponry to fight monsters, beasts, and mythical creatures.
Neighbour's account and inquest
An anonymous neighbour who lived close to Chapman described him as shy yet polite and well-spoken. The neighbour told the Mail: "He was living there a long time. He was a lovely, lovely man. He was absolutely harmless but he would struggle to speak to more than two people. He was very shy when I first got to know him but he soon opened up and was always polite and well-spoken. For the past six months or so, he became very approachable and friendly. I usually saw him on a daily basis and I probably saw him about a week before he died. He did not seem his regular self when I last saw him."
An inquest into Chapman's death heard he had a history of mental illness and a diagnosis of schizophrenia, as well as sometimes suffering from psychosis.
