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British satirist and comic Tony Hendra, best known for his role as the bumbling band manager in rock cult classic This Is Spinal Tap, has died, aged 79.
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According to the New York Times, Hendra died on Thursday March 4 in Yonkers, New York. Speaking to the newspaper, his wife, Carla Mesiner, said the actor and writer had died from Lou Gehrig’s disease, which he was diagnosed with just two years ago.
In the 1984 mockumentary, This Is Spinal Tap, Hendra is famed for being the incompetent manager of a heavy metal band struggling to draw an audience on tour. Sharing unfiltered quips with the band on-screen, fans of the film remember Hendra’s performance for such unfiltered scenes as Ian Faith telling actor Michael McKean’s character, upon the band’s gig cancellation in Boston, that it wasn’t a big deal as it’s “not a big college town”.
Hendra began comedic performance and writing while studying at Cambridge University, where he would work alongside future members of the Monty Python clan.
As a humorist writer, Kendra’s résumé boasted a coveted position at National Lampoon magazine, where he was made managing editor in 1971. Hendra made the next decade a fruitful period for the publication, helping turn its name into a franchise consisting of books, albums, films and more.
In 1972, Hendra produced, directed and co-wrote National Lampoon’s Lemmings, a review of rock parodies that boasted Chevy Chase and John Belushi among its cast, the actors still three years away from becoming household names as part of the original Saturday Night Live ensemble.
Another Lemmings cast member was Christopher Guest, who in 1984, would evolve rock parody into a new realm when he wrote and starred in This Is Spinal Tap.
Hendra is survived by his wife, five children, three siblings, and four grandchildren.
