Actor and comedian Tony Slattery, a British screen stalwart famous for his improv skills on the popular show Whose Line Is It Anyway? has died. 

The 65-year-old suffered a heart attack on Sunday (local time) and did not recover, his partner Mark Michael Hutchinson told BBC News. 

“It is with great sadness we must announce actor and comedian Tony Slattery, aged 65, has passed away today, Tuesday morning,” he said. 

Slattery was a consistent presence on Whose Line Is It Anyway? from 1988 to 1995. 

He also starred in his own improvisational comedy series, S&M, in 1991 alongside fellow comedian Mike McShane, and took on a dramatic role in the popular Neil Jordan thriller The Crying Game (1992). 

Tony Slattery had been open about his struggles with mental health and drug use in the past. Photo / Getty Images 

Slattery, who took a hiatus after leaving Whose Line Is It Anyway, had been open about his struggles with drug use, mental health and bipolar disorder in the past. 

In an interview with the Guardian in 2003, the actor revealed that after a 1996 “breakdown” he got to a stage where he didn’t “open any bills, or wash”. 

“I have very strong recollections of behavioural disinhibition, ungovernable, compulsive, socially unacceptable behaviour, irrationality,“ he said. 

“But then that would suddenly flip, and negative symptoms would replace, like utter social withdrawal, isolationism, mutinous ... my symptoms were florid and uncontrollable and profoundly disordered.” 

He also noted that he struggled with cocaine and alcohol addiction, stemming from childhood trauma as discussed in his 2020 documentary What’s the Matter with Tony Slattery? 

Close friend and fellow comedian Sir Stephen Fry, whom Slattery opened up to for his film The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive, paid tribute to his friend on social media. 

“So very sad to have lost the wonderful Tony Slattery, just about the gentlest, sweetest soul I ever knew. Not to mention a screamingly funny and deeply talented wit and clown,” he said. 

“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.” 

Fry also sent his “love and condolences” to Hutchinson, whom he described as Slattery’s ”staunch, devoted life partner of almost 40 years”. 

Born on November 9, 1959, in Stonebridge, North London, Slattery met Fry while studying at the University of Cambridge. 

Other comedians who paid tribute to Slattery included his Whose Line co-star Josie Lawrence and fellow comics Richard K Herring, Al Murray and Absolutely Fabulous actress and comedian Helen Lederer. 

“My best friend in laughter, wit, love, absurdity, being my best man (twice), we adored you - what will we do now,” Lederer said.