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Tony Slattery dead: Top BBC comedian & Whose Line Is It Anyway? star dies aged 65 as heartbreaking tributes pour in
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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.
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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."
Born November 9, 1959, 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 is survived by his partner of more than three decades, the actor Hutchinson.
CAREER
He was a regular on British television in the 1980s and 90s, most notably for his role on the Channel 4 show, Whose Line Is It Anyway?
Slattery's first big-break on television was as a regular on Chris Tarrant's show, Saturday Stayback in 1983.
At the end of the 1980s, he became a film critic, presenting his own show, Saturday Night At The Movies.
Due to illness and some personal issues, he took a hiatus from television work from the mid-nineties to the early-noughties.
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Slattery suffered what he described as a, "midlife crisis" – triggered by drug abuse and excessive drinking.
He revealed that he didn't remember how much he spent on drugs, but "would not be surprised," if the media's reports that he spent £4,000 per week on drugs were accurate.
After he was persuaded to go to the hospital he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
This period of his life, was documented in a discussion he had with Fry, called The Secret Life Of The Manic Depressive.
Slattery has been in a relationship with the Hutchinson since 1986.
He spoke on his life, trials and tribulations in BBC Two documentary broadcast in 2020 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 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.
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