Tony Slattery’s death at 65 has led to an outpouring of grief from former stage and screen colleagues and fans – as well as tales of how his health was ravaged by drug and alcohol addictions.
The comedian revealed how the battle with his demons saw him lock himself away in his Thames-side apartment as he snorted £4,000 of cocaine a week and drank two bottles of vodka per day.
He talked openly in recent years about how this dark period of his life drove him to bankruptcy and lose friends.
Speaking in 2019, Slattery admitted he was very saddened when famous pals and hangers on deserted him when his money dried up.
The star was renowned for 1980s and 1990s appearances on shows such as Whose Line Is It Anyway? before stepping back from the spotlight in decades to follow.
He later opened up on his struggles with bipolar disorder as well as drink and drugs addictions, while hiding away his luxury Wapping flat – and also revealed how he was sexually abused as an eight-year-old by a priest.
Slattery’s death was announced on Tuesday by his partner of 40 years, Mark Michael Hutchinson – following a heart attack suffered on Sunday night.
Slattery starred alongside the likes of Emma Thompson, Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie in an award-winning 1981 Cambridge Footlights show, gefore going on to feature on other comedy programmes such as Have I Got News For You and Just A Minute.
But he also struggled with his mental health, suffering a breakdown in 1996 and going bankrupt as he struggled with drink and drug abuse as well as bipolar disorder.
Tony Slattery, who has died aged 65, had spoken out about his struggles with bipolar, drink and drugs addiction and bankruptcy
He opened up on his health difficulties during this May 2019 interview on ITV’s This Morning
His last public appearance was in an Instagram post on Christmas Day, wearing a festive scarf
The 2019 Guardian interview in which he suggested former friends had abandoned him told how he was due that summer to reunite with old Whose Line Is It Anyway? colleagues for an Edinburgh show.
Slattery joked: ‘So people can come to that and say, “F*** me, I thought he was dead”.’
He highlighted musician Richard Vranch as one of those from the Channel 4 programme who remained one of his closest friends, one of the ‘few’ to stick by him – while other celebrities and hangers on disappeared ‘when the money dried up, which was saddening’.
In 2020, Slattery told the Radio Times that his ‘fiscal illiteracy and general innumeracy’ and his ‘misplaced trust in people’ had led him to bankruptcy.
The same year he was the subject of the BBC’s Horizon documentary called What’s The Matter With Tony Slattery?, in which he explored his years of turmoil.
The programme saw him and his partner meet experts, establish he had biopolar disorder, confront his addictions and open up about childhood trauma.
Slattery had first spoken about the priest who sexually abused him when he was aged just eight in a follow-up Guardian interview in 2020.
The interviewer asked why he had a ‘longstanding reputation for anger issues’, to which he replied: ‘I have a feeling that what might have been a contributing factor is something that happened when I was very young. A priest. When I was about eight.’
His death was announced on Tuesday by his partner of 40 years, Mark Michael Hutchinson – the couple are pictured here on 2020 TV show What’s The Matter With Tony Slattery?
He never informed his parents about the abuse because a psychiatrist had advised him not to, telling him: ‘Bear in mind that some things are so deeply buried there is nothing to be gained by an archaeological dig. Keep it buried.’
But Slattery said this method worked for him and telling his parents would have been ‘another bloody thing to deal with, along with the booze, the bipolarity, the overwork, the feeling of being let down by friends, my own bad behaviour’.
He also called his long-time partner Mark his ‘rock’, describing him in 2019 as ‘supportive, authentic and real’, adding that he ‘means everything to me’.
And Slattery spoke candidly about experiencing paranoia, including how he was driven to throwing electrical devices into the River Thames from his luxury warehouse apartment in Wapping, east London, because he thought he was being spied on – and locked himself away in the flat for six months.
Paying tribute to the star this week, his lifelong friend Fry shared a photo of the pair with Laurie, Emma Freud and Jennifer Saunders, calling Slattery ‘wonderful’ and ‘just about the gentlest, sweetest soul I ever knew’.
He added: ‘Not to mention a screamingly funny and deeply talented wit and clown.
‘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’.
Tony Slattery and Stephen Fry spoke in the 2020 BBC2 Horizon documentary What’s The Matter With Tony Slattery?, having previously worked together in 2007 ITV drama Kingdom
In his BBC Two Horizon documentary What’s The Matter With Tony Slattery?, the comic told Fry: ‘No one in their right mind chooses to be depressed.’
He added: ‘I rented this stupid, huge, luxury warehouse overlooking the Thames but I was so nutty I threw loads of stuff in the Thames.
‘I used to stay up for four days and then the paranoia. I thought everything was bugged, I became obsessed with electrical equipment and chucked it all into the Thames.
‘My grip on time and how it passes became very fuzzy. I think I just got bloody exhausted and withdrew.’
His partner Mark told the documentary: ‘I’d have to try and talk him down, he kept mentioning he was being spied on, people were breaking into the apartment, people were destroying things, it became apparent he was becoming a danger to himself and needed help.’
Slattery said he had been ‘genuinely moved’ by the reaction to the documentary and all the messages of ‘love, kindness and support’ he received.
Slattery was last seen in an Instagram post on Christmas Day where he wore a tinsel and holly scarf and fans of his new podcast, the Rambling Club, remarked on how well he looked.
Outside of stand-up, Slattery appeared in 1980s and 1990s films including crime thriller The Crying Game, Peter’s Friends with Laurie, Sir Stephen and Dame Emma, and black comedy How To Get Ahead In Advertising with Richard E Grant.
Tony Slattery, pictured performing at the Queen’s Theatre in London in May 1993, told six years ago how famous friends appeared to have abandoned him when his ‘money ran out’
He also had prominent roles in the theatre, which including receiving a 1995 Olivier Award nod for best comedy performance for the Tim Firth play Neville’s Island.
And he starred in Second World War-set production Privates On Parade, based on the film of the same name, as ace impersonator Captain Terri Dennis.
Slattery’s West End debut was in the 1930s-style musical Radio Times, and on TV he also played a detective in Tiger Bastable, a gentlemen comedy spoof, and the title character in sitcom Just A Gigolo.
He was the son of an Irish Heinz factory worker and grew up as the youngest of five children on a council estate in Willesden, north-west London, before winning a prestigious scholarship to the University of Cambridge to read medieval languages.