Comedian Tony Slattery dies aged 65 after heart attack | Tony Slattery

Comedian and actor Tony Slattery has died aged 65 following a heart attack, his partner has announced.

Slattery was known for his improvisations on the popular comedy show Whose Line Is It Anyway? as well as his appearances on Just a Minute and Have I Got News for You.

A statement on behalf of Mark Michael Hutchinson, his partner of more than three decades, 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, after a heart attack on Sunday night.”

Paying tribute to Slattery, comedian Sandi Toksvig said: “I don’t think I’ve ever met a more handsome man than Tony Slattery. I was 19 when we met and thought he was stunning.

“Fantastic to look at, glorious smile, infectious laughter and a streak of kindness a mile wide. I loved him. We all did. In a room full of talent, he was the smartest and the best.”

Clive Anderson, who hosted Whose Line Is It Anyway?, said: “With a quick wit and stunning good looks, Tony was unfailingly funny and even more unfailingly outrageous. He wouldn’t mince words if one unabashedly wanted to – the naughtiest kid in the class, adored by the studio audience and those watching on TV.”

Born into a working-class family in north London in 1959, Slattery won a scholarship to study medieval and modern languages ​​at Cambridge University.

At Cambridge he was contemporaneous with Dame Emma Thompson, Hugh Laurie and Sir Stephen Fry – who invited him to join the Cambridge Footlights, the university’s famous amateur drama club. Soon Slattery was appointed president of the club, following in the footsteps of Eric Idle, Clive Anderson and Peter Cook. “Getting up on stage and hearing laughter took over,” he once said.

Slattery had recently been touring a comedy show in England and launched a podcast, Tony Slattery’s Rambling Club, in October.

Outside of standup, he appeared in films in the 1980s and 90s, including the crime thriller The Crying Game, Peter’s Friends, which also starred Laurie, Fry and Thompson, and the comedy How to Get Ahead in Advertising, with Richard E Grant.

He also had prominent roles in the theater and received an Olivier Award nomination in 1995 for Best Comedy Performance for the Tim Firth play Neville’s Island, which was later made into a film starring Timothy Spall. He also starred in the Second World War production Privates on Parade, based on the film of the same name, as impersonator Captain Terri Dennis.

His West End debut was in the 1930s-style musical Radio Times, and on TV he also played a detective in Tiger Bastable, a spoof comedy show, and the title character in the sitcom Just a Gigolo.

But he will be best remembered for his work on Channel 4 flagship comedy show Whose Line Is It Anyway?, which saw performers perform a series of short improvisational skits with suggestions from the host or the audience.

Slattery appeared in 48 episodes from 1988 to 1995 and became one of the show’s most popular performers. His departure in series seven affected the series’ ratings.

Anderson added: “Recently we did a live stage version of Whose Line at the Edinburgh Festival. Older and wiser, a bit battered, having endured many ups and downs in life, Tony was still the baddest kid in the class. And the audience adored him still.”

Speaking openly about his bipolar disorder, Slattery told the Guardian in 2019: “I had a very happy time until I went a bit barmy.”

In 2020, he revealed that he went bankrupt after experiencing substance abuse and mental health issues. He told the Radio Times that his “tax illiteracy and general inhumanity”, as well as his “misplaced trust in people”, had also contributed to his financial problems.

Slattery released the BBC Two Horizon documentary What’s the Matter With Tony Slattery? in the same year that he and Hutchinson visited leading experts in mood disorders and addiction.

He had previously appeared on the 2006 BBC Two program The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive to talk about his condition.

He said: “I rented a big warehouse by the Thames. I just stayed in there by myself, didn’t open the mail or pick up the phone for months and months and months. I was just in a pool of despair and mania.”

Slattery also appeared in the last Carry on film, Carry on Columbus, as well as Robin Hood, Red Dwarf, The English Harem, Cold Blood, The Royal and Coronation Street.

He won the first Perrier Award on the outskirts of Edinburgh with Fry and Thompson, was one of the original patrons of the Leicester comedy festival with Norman Wisdom and Sean Hughes and had been Chancellor of the University of Dundee.

Other comics paying tribute to Slattery on Tuesday included Richard Herring, Al Murray, Arthur Smith, Jonathan Pie and Absolutely Fabulous actor Helen Lederer.

Murray called Slattery “a dazzling talent”. Smith hailed Slattery’s “brilliantly quick wit”, while Pie called him “a genius”.

Lederer said: “My best friend in laughter, wit, love, absurdity, when we were my best man (twice), we adored you – what do we do now?”