Tony Slattery was rushed to hospital by medics with his partner holding his hand after he suffered a fatal heart attack, friends have told MailOnline.
The troubled comedian, 65, had been enjoying a quiet Sunday night at his modest terraced home in Edgware, north London which he shared with his partner of 40 years, Mark Michael Hutchinson.
After falling to the floor soon after 8pm, Mark frantically called for an ambulance with paramedics arriving within minutes.
They first treated the Channel 4 star at his home before whisking him away in an ambulance to the nearby Northwick Park Hospital, where he died on Tuesday.
A friend and neighbour told MailOnline: ‘I saw flashing blue lights outside Tony’s house and came out to see what was going on.
‘Soon after he was brought out by paramedics. Mark got in the back of the ambulance with him.’
Another friend had seen the Whose Line Is It Anyway? star just 24 hours before hours his collapse, divulging Slattery was ‘upbeat about the future’.
Tony Slattery was rushed to hospital by medics with his sobbing and devastated partner Mark Michael Hutchinson (pictured) holding his hand after he suffered a fatal heart attack
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?
‘Things were really looking up for him. He had a tour coming up, was doing a podcast and said that he felt that at last, he was getting his life back together,’ he said.
‘It’s really sad because we all thought that Tony was doing so well.’
Another friend revealed that the comedian had complained about ongoing health problems linked to his £4,000 a week cocaine and alcohol addiction.
He added: ‘All his health problems were linked to his past, but he said he was dealing with them. He was very positive about life and the future and actually seemed very happy, which makes his sudden death even sadder.’
The London Ambulance Service confirmed in a statement to MailOnline: ‘We were called at 8.21pm on Sunday 12 January to reports of a person unwell at (address withheld), Edgware.
‘We sent ambulance crews, a paramedic in a fast response car and a clinical team manager to the scene. We treated a patient at the scene and took them to hospital.’
The 65-year-old had previously opened up about his harrowing battle with addiction in a TV interview in 2019.
Slattery revealed that during low points he would take up to 10 grams of cocaine and down two bottles of vodka each day.
An alumnus of the world famous Cambridge Footlights set alongside Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie and Emma Thompson, Slattery cemented himself as one of the most gifted TV comedians of his time.
The actor and comedian was one of the biggest names on TV and radio
His last public appearance was in an Instagram post on Christmas Day, wearing a festive scarf
Tony Slattery previously spoke out about his struggles with bipolar, drink and drugs addiction and bankruptcy
In many UK homes during the 80s and 90s, the comedian’s stardom was only growing but behind closed doors he confessed that he was taking ‘too much booze, too much drugs’.
The comic, who was born in November 1959, disappeared from the public eye shortly after becoming a well-known figure in UK homes.
‘The overwork, no holidays, no taking a break, eventually you snap, you try to replace it with something. In my case, it was cocaine,’ he said on This Morning in 2019.
‘Then the booze came along, then the depression set in… I was drinking two bottles of vodka a day and doing 10 grams of coke.’
In 2020, the comic also heartbreakingly revealed that he had suffered sexual abuse at the hands of a priest when he was eight.
He also spoke candidly about experiencing paranoia, including how he was driven to throwing electrical devices into the River Thames from his luxury warehouse because he thought he was being spied on.
His death was also followed by a lengthy battled with depression and bipolar disorder.
In his BBC Two Horizon documentary What’s The Matter With Tony Slattery? in 2020, the comic told Fry: ‘No one in their right mind chooses to be depressed.’
The comedian, who has died at the age of 65 following a heart attack, now leaves behind his bereft other half, Mark Michael Hutchinson (pictured together in 2020)
Tony Slattery, pictured performing at the Queen’s Theatre in London in May 1993,also opened up about his battle with bipolar disorder
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 also opened up during the documentary, sharing that he would often have to ‘talk [Slatter] down’.
‘He kept mentioning he was being spied on, people were breaking into the apartment, people were destroying things’ Mark said.
‘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 had received
Stephen Fry, a lifelong friend of the fellow comedian, said Slattery had been ‘snatched’ from us after finally recovering and finding himself in a good place in life.
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
Partner Mark Michael Hutchinson said in a documentary he had witnessed ‘dozens’ of versions of Slattery over the years
The actor previously recalled: ‘I once said to Mark, “I would leap in front of a flying bullet for you”
Paying tribute to the star this week, Fry shared a photo of the pair alongside Laurie, Emma Freud and Jennifer Saunders.
He described Slattery as ‘wonderful’ and ‘just about the gentlest, sweetest soul I ever knew. Not to mention a screamingly funny and deeply talented wit and clown’.
He added: ‘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’.
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.
It was Mr Hutchinson, who met his late partner while starring in the musical Me and My Girl in the West End in 1986, who revealed his death last Sunday.
In a statement, he 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.’
The son of an Irish Heinz factory worker, who grew up as the youngest of five on a Willesden council estate, Slattery became a household name and appeared on comedy shows including Whose Line Is It Anyway, Just A Minute and Have I Got News For You.
Slattery had just started to emerge from his ‘lifelong battle with dark demons’ before his death his close friend Stephen Fry revealed
Slattery, second from left, with members of the 1981 Cambridge University Footlights Revue including Stephen Fry, Emma Thompson, Paul Shearer, Penny Dwyer and Hugh Laurie (left to right)
Comedian and founder of the Hysteria Trust, Stephen Fry (bottom of pic) with (from left, Jennifer Saunders, Hugh Laurie, Emma Freud and Tony Slattery) in London to launch the third Hysteria comedy and music gala for Aids Charities in 1991
Tony with his friend Stephen Fry when he was installed as Rector of Dundee University
Tony (pictured second from right) was probably best known for his role on improv show Whose Line Is It Anyway?, which also starred Ryan Stiles,Mike McShane, Richard Vranch, Greg Proops and Clive Anderson
Terry Christian, Clive Anderson, Jonathan Ross, Tony Slattery and Norman Beaton at BBC radio in 1992
Tony Slattery and Rowena King in ‘Just a Gigolo’ in 1993
Michael Parkinson (right) for the re-launch of the antiques quiz show Going for a Song. Two teams, lead by Tony Slattery (left) and Leslie Ash, with Eric Knowles as the expert in 1995
Slattery was one of the most academic state school students in the 1970s, winning a prestigious scholarship to the University of Cambridge to read medieval languages.
He was the contemporary of Dame Emma Thompson, Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie – where he was president of the improvisation group The Cambridge Footlights in the early 1980s.
Alongside Sir Stephen and Dame Emma, he was the winner of the first Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Fringe.
Tony was last seen on TV five years ago in a documentary about the link between depression and addiction.
However he had recently been touring a comedy show in England and launched a podcast, Tony Slattery’s Rambling Club, in October.
Tony said in 2017 that he thought it was a ‘miracle’ he lived as long as he did due to his addiction but admitted his partner Mark had kept him ‘alive’ during their relationship of almost 40 years.
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.
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, which was later made into a film starring Timothy Spall, and starring in Second World War-set production Privates On Parade, based on the film of the same name, as ace impersonator Captain Terri Dennis.
Mr Slattery with Nicholas Parsons in 1994 for the launch of the Just a Minute TV show
Tony Slattery as Marlene Dietrich in the stage play ‘Privates on Parade’, at the Sheffield Lyceum in 1996
Up ‘N’ Under stars (from left) Samantha Janus, Gary Olsen, Neil Morrissey and Tony Slattery at the Odeon in London’s Leicester Square for the world premiere of the movie in 1998
His 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.
Slattery – who regularly spoke openly about his bipolar disorder – revealed he went bankrupt following a battle with substance abuse and mental health issues.
He previously credited his partner Mark for keeping him ‘alive’. The pair first met when they starred on a West End stage together in 1986 in London.
Tony recalled: ‘I met him in a musical, Me and My Girl, we were both very shy and didn’t speak to each for six months.
‘Our eyes lingered just a bit too long [on one occasion] – without him I’d be dead no question about that!’
Speaking to The Mirror in 2019, the comedian added: ‘I’ve been with Marky for 32 years. Oh god, it’s still going well. Damn him, he’s two months older than I am but looks half my age.’
He shared how the couple had no plans to marry but tearfully added that Mark is ‘hugely supportive – he’s authentic, real. He means everything to me.’
The actor recalled: ‘I once said to Mark, “I would leap in front of a flying bullet for you,” and he replied, “That’s lovely, Tony, but no one is shooting at me. Would you mind doing the dishes instead?”‘
