COMEDIAN Tony Slattery has died aged 65 after suffering a heart attack, his partner has announced.
Slattery appeared on Channel 4’s comedy improv show Whose Line Is It Anyway? and comedy shows Just a minute and Do I have news for you.
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Tony Slattery has died aged 65 Credits: Alamy
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Slattery with Dale Winton and Nicholas Parsons on ITV’s Just A MinuteCredits: Rex Features
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Slattery with Stephen Fry in the drama series KingdomCredit: Rex Features
A statement on behalf of his partner Mark Michael Hutchinson said: “It is with great sadness that we have to announce that actor and comedian Tony Slattery, aged 65, has passed away today, Tuesday morning, following a heart attack on Sunday night.”
Born on 9 November 1959, Slattery was a contemporary of Dame Emma Thompson, Sir Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie at Cambridge University.
He was a former chairman of improv group Cambridge Footlights and recently toured a comedy show in England and launched a podcast, Tony Slattery’s Rambling Club, in October.
Slattery is survived by his older partner of more than three decades, actor Hutchinson.
CAREER
He was a regular on British television in the 1980s and 90s, most notably for his role in the Channel 4 show Whose Line Is It Anyway?
Slattery’s first big break on television was as a regular guest on Chris Tarrant’s Saturday Stayback in 1983.
In the late 1980s he became a film critic, hosting his own show Saturday Night At The Movies.
Due to illness and some personal problems, he took a break from television work from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s.
Slattery was suffering from what he described as a “mid-life crisis” – brought on by drug abuse and excessive drinking.
He revealed he did not remember how much he spent on drugs but “wouldn’t be surprised” if media reports that he was spending £4,000 a week on drugs were correct.
After being persuaded to go to the hospital, he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
This period of his life is documented in a conversation he had with Fry, entitled The Secret Life of a Manic Depressive Patient.
Slattery has been involved with the Hutchinsons since 1986.
He spoke about his life, trials and tribulations in a 2020 BBC Two documentary called What’s The Matter With Tony Slattery?
Slattery was born in Stonebridge, North London, into a working-class background, and is the fifth and last child of Irish immigrants.
In 2019, Slattery revealed that he was abused by a priest at the age of eight, but never told his parents.
He believes that this event contributed to his unstable character later in life.
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Slattery with partner Mark Hutchinson in the 2020 documentary Horizon: What About Tony Slattery? Credit: BBC
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Slattery at the Orange Prize for Fiction 2000 at the Victoria and Albert Museum Credit: PA
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Stephen Fry (bottom of picture) with (from left), Jennifer Saunders, Hugh Laurie, Emma Freud and SlatteryCredit: PA
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