Tony Slattery, British Actor, Comedian and ‘Whose Line Is It Anyway?’ Regular, Dies at 65
Tony Slattery, star of Channel 4‘s Whose Line Is It Anyway? and a contemporary of Emma Thompson, Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry, has died. He was 65.
In a statement given to the BBC on behalf of Slattery’s partner, Mark Michael Hutchinson said, “It is with great sadness we must announce actor and comedian Tony Slattery, aged 65, has passed away today, Tuesday morning, following a heart attack on Sunday evening.”
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The British actor and comedian was famed for his quick wit and improv on the popular comedy show, but he was also featured in such films as Peter’s Friends (1992) alongside his Cambridge University peers Thompson, Laurie and Fry, and The Crying Game (1989).
Slattery received an Olivier Award nomination for best comedy performance for his turn as Gordon in Tim Firth’s Neville’s Island.
He was born in Stonebridge, north London, into a working-class background, winning a scholarship to attend Cambridge University. It was here he discovered a love of the theater and met Fry, then also a student, who invited him to join the university’s famous comedy troupe, Cambridge Footlights. Other members at that time included Laurie, Thompson, Sandi Toksvig, Jan Ravens and Richard Vranch.
Slattery broke into television as a regular performer on Chris Tarrant’s follow up to O.T.T., Saturday Stayback (1983) while also appearing for children in Behind the Bike Sheds and the Saturday morning show TX. In 1988, he became a regular performer on Whose Line Is It Anyway?
Fellow comics Richard K. Herring and Al Murray and Absolutely Fabulous actress and comedian Helen Lederer led tributes to Slattery on Tuesday.
“Really sad news about Tony Slattery. Such a dazzling talent,” Murray said. Herring posted, “Oh, Tony,” and Lederer wrote on social media: “My best friend in laughter, wit, love, absurdity, being my best man (twice), we adored you — what will we do now.”
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