The actor and comedian Tony Slattery has died aged 65 following a heart attack, his partner has announced.
Slattery appeared on the Channel 4 comedy improvisation show Whose Line Is It Anyway? and the 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."
Born to Irish parents in London on 9 November 1959, Slattery was a contemporary of Emma Thompson, 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 Neil Jordan's The Crying Game, Peter's Friends with Fry, Laurie, and Thompson, and the black comedy How to Get Ahead in Advertising with Richard E Grant.
Slattery had prominent roles in the theatre. These included receiving a 1995 Olivier Award nomination for Best Comedy Performance for the Tim Firth play Neville's Island, which was later made into a film starring Timothy Spall, and starring in the Second World War-set production Privates on Parade, based on the film of the same name, as ace impersonator Captain Terri Dennis.
His West End debut was in the 1930s-style musical Radio Times, and on television he also played a detective in Tiger Bastable, a gentleman comedy spoof, and the title character in the sitcom Just a Gigolo.
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.
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 his partner visit leading experts on mood disorders and addiction.
He had previously appeared in the 2006 BBC Two programme The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive to speak about his condition.
He said: "I rented a huge warehouse by the River Thames. I just stayed in there on my own, didn't open the mail or answer the phone for months and months and months.
"I was just in a pool of despair and mania."
Slattery also made appearances in the final Carry On film, Carry On Columbus; Robin Hood, Red Dwarf, The English Harem, Cold Blood, The Royal, and Coronation Street.
He won the first Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Fringe along with Fry and Thompson, was one of the original patrons of Leicester Comedy Festival with Norman Wisdom and Sean Hughes, and had been a rector at the University of Dundee.
Slattery is survived by his partner of more than three decades, the actor Mark Michael Hutchinson.
Paying tribute, Stephen Fry hailed Slattery as "the gentlest, sweetest soul".
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Fry, who worked with Slattery on Whose Line Is It Anyway?, said in a post on Instagram: "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. 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.
"Love and condolences to Mark (Hutchinson), his staunch, devoted life partner of almost 40 years."
Source: Press Association
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