Actor and comedian Tony Slattery dies aged 65 after heart attack
By Charlotte McLaughlin, PA Senior Entertainment Reporter
Comedian Tony Slattery has died aged 65 following a heart attack, his partner announced.
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.
Slattery, who was born in north London on November 9, 1959, to Irish parents, was a regular on British television in the 1980s, but also starred in numerous big-name movies, such as The Crying Game.
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.
Outside of stand-up, Slattery appeared in 1980s and 1990s films including crime thriller The Crying Game, Peter’s Friends with Laurie, Fry and Thompson, and black comedy How To Get Ahead In Advertising with Richard E Grant.
In 2020, Slattery – who regularly spoke openly about his bipolar disorder – revealed he went bankrupt following a battle with substance abuse and mental health issues.
In 2019 he revealed he had been repeatedly sexually abused by a priest at the age of eight, but had never told his parents.
He told the Radio Times that his “fiscal illiteracy and general innumeracy” as well as his “misplaced trust in people” had also contributed to his money problems.
Slattery released the BBC Two Horizon documentary What’s The Matter With Tony Slattery? in the same year, which saw him and Hutchinson visit leading experts on mood disorders and addiction.
Slattery is survived by his partner of more than three decades, the actor Hutchinson.