Tony Slattery, star of Channel 4‘s Whose Line Is It Anyway? and 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.”
The British actor and comedian was famed for his quick wit and improv on the popular comedy show, but also featured in films like 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 role as Gordon in Tim Firth’s Neville’s Island.
The actor and comedian was born in Stonebridge, north London, into a working-class background, winning a scholarship to attend the prestigious 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 first 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 quickly became a regular performer on Whose Line Is It Anyway?
Fellow comics Richard K. Herring and Al Murray led the tributes to Slattery on Tuesday, as well as Absolutely Fabulous actress and comedian Helen Lederer.
“Really sad news about Tony Slattery. Such a dazzling talent,” Murray said, while Herring posted: “Oh, Tony.” 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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