Tony Hendra | |
|---|---|
 Hendra in 2015 | |
| Born | Anthony Christopher Hendra[1] 10 July 1941 Hertfordshire, England, UK |
| Died | 4 March 2021(2021-03-04) (aged 79) |
| Occupation | Satirist, author |
| Genre | Fiction, non-fiction, satire,social commentary |
| Years active | 1961–2018 |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 5 |
Anthony Christopher Hendra (10 July 1941 – 4 March 2021) was an Englishsatirist and writer who worked mostly in the United States. He was probably best known for being the head writer and co-producer in 1984 of the first six shows of the long-running British satirical television seriesSpitting Image and for starring in the filmThis Is Spinal Tap as the titular band's manager Ian Faith.
Hendra was born in Hertfordshire. His surname isCornish, and he also had Irish ancestry.[2] Educated atSt Albans School (where he was a classmate ofStephen Hawking) and atSt John's College, Cambridge, he was a member of the Cambridge UniversityFootlights revue in 1962, alongsideJohn Cleese,Graham Chapman andTim Brooke-Taylor.
In 1964, Hendra moved to America, with actor and comedianNick Ullett. For the next five years they worked successfully as a comedy team, appearing at theCafe Au Go Go in New York withLenny Bruce, at thehungry i in San Francisco withNina Simone and atthe Shadows in Washington, DC, with various headliners, includingWoody Allen. They were regular guests onThe Merv Griffin Show and appeared six times onThe Ed Sullivan Show. In 1969 Hendra broke up the comedy team and in 1970 began writing forNational Lampoon magazine, from its inception. In 1971 he became the first editor hired by foundersDoug Kenney andHenry Beard.
In 1972, Hendra co-createdNational Lampoon's first albumRadio Dinner, withMichael O'Donoghue, on which Hendra performed a parody ofJohn Lennon, titled "Magical Misery Tour". In 1973, Hendra produced, directed and co-wrote (withSean Kelly) theLampoon'soff-Broadway revueLemmings, in which Hendra castJohn Belushi,Chevy Chase,Rhonda Coullet,Christopher Guest andAlice Playten in their first starring roles. Hendra continued as an editor of theLampoon until 1975, when he became co-editor-in-chief with Kelly until 1978.
After leaving theLampoon in 1978, Hendra began working as a freelance editor, writer and actor. During the New York newspaper strike of 1978, he edited and co-created the parodyNot The New York Times with Rusty Unger,Christopher Cerf, andGeorge Plimpton, and published by Larry Durocher and Josh Feigenbaum.
In 1979 he co-edited (with Cerf and actor Peter Elbling)The 80s—A Look Back. In 1980 he packaged and editedThe Sayings of Ayatollah Khomeini akaThe Little Green Book of Ayatollah Khomeini, a collection of the Ayatollah's actual teachings with an introduction by Clive Irving, which was regularly featured onJohnny Carson's Tonight Show.
In 1982 he was editor-in-chief ofOff the Wall Street Journal andOff the Wall Street Journal II, which between them sold almost a million copies and featured such contributors as Kurt Andersen. Other parodies Hendra created and edited includedThe Irrational Inquirer,Playboy: the Parody andNot the Bible (1983). He was featured on the cover of Newsweek (25 April 1983) with Sean Kelly and Alfred Gingold. Hendra was a writer for and became editor-in-chief ofSpy Magazine in the 1990s.[3]
In the mid-1980s, he decided to devote himself exclusively to writing and in 1987 publishedGoing Too Far, a history of "sick," "black," "anti-establishment" American satire from the 1950s to the 1980s, which featured interviews of some of the chief satirists.
In 1979, Hendra served as a producer onDisco Beaver from Outer Space, aNational Lampoon TV special forHBO. The special incorporated both the main character and story elements fromDragula: Queen of Darkness, a comic story Hendra had written forNational Lampoon issue #20 (November 1971) that had been illustrated byNeal Adams.
In 1984, Hendra co-created, co-wrote, and co-produced the British television satirical showSpitting Image, for which he, Jon Blair, and John Lloyd were nominated for aBritish Academy Award in 1985. He was ousted from the production after the first six shows, being replaced byRob Grant andDoug Naylor. He playedIan Faith inThis Is Spinal Tap.
He appeared in several other films and television programs, includingMiami Vice,The Cosby Mysteries, andLaw & Order: Criminal Intent. In 1997, Hendra andRon Shelton were credited as screenwriters onThe Great White Hype, a satire of racism in boxing, starringSamuel L. Jackson,Damon Wayans,Jamie Foxx,Jeff Goldblum, andPeter Berg. He co-conceived and wrote the Englishdubs of three of the films created by Belgian animatorPicha, includingThe Missing Link (1980),The Big Bang (1987), andSnow White: The Sequel (2007).
Hendra was married twice. His first marriage, to Judith Christmas in 1964, produced two daughters and ended in an acrimonious divorce in 1985. He and his second wife, Carla, lived in New York City with their three children.[4]
In 2004, at the time that his memoirFather Joe was achieving best-seller status, Jessica Hendra, the younger of Hendra's two daughters from his first marriage, submitted an op-ed piece toThe New York Times in which she asserted that her father failed to include in his narrative of "deliverance through faith and atonement for his failings" that he had sexually abused her as a young child. The newspaper declined to publish the piece but did assign a reporter, N. R. Kleinfield, to investigate her charges.
On 1 July 2004,The New York Times published Kleinfield's story,[5] including details of the alleged acts of molestation and interviews with two of Jessica's therapists, three friends, her mother and her husband. All said that Jessica told them at different times of being molested: in her mother's case, when she was 12. A former boyfriend told Kleinfield, however, that Jessica had never spoken of it during their years together, that she was "very unstable emotionally," and that "I can't believe it happened."[6]
Hendra responded, "I can only just categorically deny this. It's not a new allegation. It's simply not true, I'm afraid."[4] In the wake of criticism of the paper's decision to publish the story in the absence of tangible proof,[7]New York TimesombudsmanDaniel Okrent wrote a detailed examination of the procedures followed by the editorial staff prior to publication. While acknowledging that Kleinfield was convinced, based on information gathered during his reporting, that Jessica Hendra had indeed been molested, Okrent expressed concern over possible consequences should the charges prove to be false:
Even if the preponderant evidence indicates it's true ... doesn't the small chance that it's false outweigh the value of giving readers access to the private miseries of the Hendra family? Either way, Tony Hendra will bear the scars of this article forever. People who did not write a book claiming spiritual salvation will suffer as well: his three young children from his second marriage, for instance. In the face of this risk, what do readers ofThe Times (or ofFather Joe) gain by believing Hendra guilty of abuse? There's a difference between the right to know and the need to know, and in this case, the need escapes me ... I don't mean in any way to diminish the gravity of Jessica Hendra's charges ... I can't imagine an accusation more serious, a transgression more detestable. If her story is true, Tony Hendra deserves punishment far greater than humiliation in the pages ofThe Times. As an editor, the verities of the profession might have led me to publish this article. But as a reader, I wishThe Times hadn't.[8]
In 2005, Jessica Hendra wrote a memoir withUSA Today journalist Blake Morrison,How to Cook Your Daughter, in which she repeated her accusations.[9]
Hendra died ofamyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known asALS, on 4 March 2021.[1]
