Stephen Fry remembers ‘deeply talented’ Tony Slattery as ‘sweetest soul’
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Comedian and actor Tony Slattery has died aged 65 following a heart attack, his partner said. Slattery appeared on the Channel 4 comedy improvisation show Whose Line Is It Anyway? and comedy shows Just A Minute and Have I Got News For You. A statement on behalf of his 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.".
Slattery was the contemporary of Dame Emma Thompson, Sir Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie at the University of Cambridge. He was the former president of the improvisation group Cambridge Footlights, and had recently been touring a comedy show in England and launched a podcast, Tony Slattery's Rambling Club, in October.
Slattery was born in Stonebridge, North London, on November 9, 1959, into a working-class background, and is the fifth and last child of Irish immigrants. In 2019, he revealed that he had been abused by a priest at the age of eight, but had never told his parents.
He believes the event contributed to his unstable character later in life. Slattery is survived by his partner of more than three decades, the actor Hutchinson. His lifelong friend Stephen Fry led tributes online, declaring he was “wonderful” and “just about the gentlest, sweetest soul I ever knew. Not to mention a screamingly funny and deeply talented wit and clown”.
He added: “A cruel irony that fate should snatch him from us just as he had really begun to emerge from his lifelong battle with so many dark demons. He had started live “evenings with” and his own podcast series. Lovely, at least, this past year for him to have found to his joyous surprise that he was still remembered and held in great affection”.
