I'd like to thank the many people who have contributed to this page of the site.  I've decided to split it up into different sections relating to different parts of Tony's life....
 
 

TONY'S CHILDHOOD

Anthony Declan James Slattery was born in London, England in 1959.  The fifth and youngest son of  Irish working-class parents, Tony had a very happy childhood.  The family, Tony, his parents, his sister Marlene and his brothers, Michael, Stephen and Christopher (triplets) lived in a housing estate in Northern London called Stonebridge.

A content loner, Tony deliberately chose to attend a different school to his brothers: Gunnersbury boy's grammar school in West London.  The school, which was at the time run by Jesuits, was where Tony learned to question the sheeplike following of Irish Catholicism.
 

TONY AT CAMBRIDGE

At 14, Tony went on a school trip to Cambridge University, where he later received a scholarship to study medieval and modern languages.  For a short time, he debated becoming an academic, studying the religious ecstasy of Spanish poetry in the early 16th century, until he became a member of the Footlights Dramatic Club.

As a member of the Footlights, Tony met a lot of future stars including Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry, Emma Thompson, Richard Vranch, Neil Mullarkey, Sandi Toksvig, Jan Ravens and Morwenna Banks.  In 1982, he was elected President of the club, a position held in other years by such luminaries as Eric Idle, Clive James, Graeme Garden and Peter Cook.
 

TONY ON STAGE AND SCREEN

Since cutting his teeth as a member of the Footlights, Tony has appeared in a numerous television series, films, musicals, and plays, including "Privates on Parade, where he played Acting Captain Terri Dennis.  About this performance, on reviewer said: "Even when he's not the character in focus it is advisable to keep at least one eye on Tony when he's on stage so that you don't miss the weird and wonderful facial expressions that he acquires in reaction to the script. Theatre reviewers at the start of the play's run gave a "thumbs up" to "Privates on Parade" itself but a "thumbs down" to Tony. Now he's had more time as Terri Dennis, immense improvement seems to have taken place. He is now both brilliant and very believable in the role. Nicholas le Prevost (Vicar of Dibley) is also excellent as the out-of-touch Major. This play is well worth seeing, even if it is only to prove to yourself that although Tony Slattery looks nice in his normal attire, he looks just as lovely in a short dress, wig and thick red lipstick. Well, maybe."

For a complete listing of Tony's stage and screen appearances, please follow  this link.
 

TONY'S ACHIEVEMENTS

In the past few years, Tony has done some very notable things, including being a patron to the Leicester Comedy Festival in 1997, and becoming Rector of Dundee College.

In 1997, Tony became a patron of the Leicester Comedy Festival, because he liked the idea of "comedy just coming out of nowhere", compared to the relative snobbery concerning the Edinburgh Festival.  He also appeared with the Comedy Store Players in a 2 hour "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" style show at the Haymarket, and held a question-and-answer session in front of more than 120 people at the Phoenix Arts.  In this press conference of sorts, he discussed his career, his part in "Up and Under" and his self-imposed sabbatical from television due to his dark periods of depression.

Another of Tony's recent achievements was that of being elected to the position of Rector of Dundee University, a position previously held by Stephen Fry.  At his installation, Tony put on an impressive show, exhibiting the many sides of his personality.  For further details, check out the following press release on the ceremony from Dundee University:.

"In a 30 minute one man show he gave the audience a glimpse of the many men who might be Tony Slattery. First we were invited to see Tony the Vulnerable - to an adapted version of ‘Look at me. I’m as helpless as a kitten up a tree’. Then we had the schmaltzy possibility Tony Cabaret American style - ‘I love each and every one of you...’ There was Tony the Entertainer with a wacky selection of slides and a recurring reference to exaggerated transformations on campus wreaked by Wellcome Trust money... transformations which saw the Tower complex metamorphose into New York. Tony the quip merchant ‘When I was introduced to the Principal Dr Ian Graham Bryce I was looking round the room for three other people’ and of University Secretary Bob Seaton - ‘I thought he said I’m above Satan...’ And there was Tony the master of the unconvincing stage faint - ‘now if I could pull that out of the bag at University Court...’

But the Tony he most wanted to present was Tony the Sincere: ‘This is the most important thing I have done professionally in my life and that is just a fact... My father died of throat cancer a couple of months ago. It is uncanny that I should be made rector here - the centre of so much excellent cancer research. I wish he could be here today to hear this rambling address.’

After vowing to represent the students on Court and elsewhere he finished: ‘This is all I offer you as rector - my heart and soul.’
As the song goes - Who could ask for anything more?"
 

TONY'S DEPRESSION AND BREAKDOWN

In early 1998, Tony revealed to the Electronic Telegraph that he suffers from severe endogenous clinical depression, a disease that "comes from nowhere and hits you like a wall of s**t". He told the Telegraph that in his latest period of depression,  "There were narcoleptic episodes - in which there were irresistible days of sleep - followed by phobic episodes, when sleep was utterly impossible. Hyper vigilance, I think it's called. It's ruinous. That was followed by a period of social withdrawal, apathy and self questioning."

He blames this depressed period on exhaustion and stress. He explained this to the Telegraph: "Imagine a box of fireworks; eventually they all burn out. I had been working non-stop since leaving university. After years of being the cheeky, chirpy chappie, light ent., suddenly I became derailed."  For almost a decade, Tony had been on stage and screen almost constantly, before shutting himself up in his home near Tower Bridge, where he would sit in his "own in a dark space, howling at the moon in a pool of self hatred and utter emotional and physical stasis."  He cut himself off from his friends, but continued to visit his parents once a week, to ensure that they wouldn't worry about him.  He became addicted to prescription "slimming drugs", and drank heavily.  He says: "I was taking them at toxic levels, so I was awake night after night. After days of acute sleep deprivation, I was beginning to hallucinate. It wasn't for pleasure or partying, like getting high at Stringfellow's club every night, but to perpetuate a sense of utterly isolated self loathing."

 Looking back on his depressed period, Tony says : "Clinical depression is a cunning little bastard; it's protean and it can change...You think you know where you stand with it, and then the next time you wake up and the clouds are there, it can have a couple of other mood disorders up its sleeve...I am coming through a bleak time and I desperately don't want to do any special pleading. Articles that start 'My brave battle against booze and drugs and depression' make me want to throw up"

Fortunately, Tony is recovering, and beginning to work again, having recently appeared in "Up & Under", a film about a Welsh Rugby team, and believes that the bad times are finally over.

(Thanks to the Electronic Telegraph, which is where the direct quotes are from)
 
 

THE LATEST NEWS ON TONY

In October 1998, Tony was banned from the road for 15 months after being caught driving with almost twice the legal limit of alcohol in his blood. (OK! magazine, October 9, 1998 p. 116)