Tony Hendra is a British-born actor and writer.
Educated at St Albans School and Cambridge University, he appeared in the Cambridge University Footlights revue in 1962, alongside John Cleese, Graham Chapman and Tim Brooke-Taylor.
In 1964 he moved to America, where he worked as a comedian (appearing frequently on the Merv Griffin Show and the Ed Sullivan Show). He was an original editor of National Lampoon co-creating its first album Radio Dinner 1972 with Michael O’Donoghue on which he performed a parody of John Lennon entitled “Magical Misery Tour.”
Tony Hendra’s Professional Career:
Partnered with Nick Ullett in 1963 (after Chapman began training as doctor) appearing in West End nightclubs e.g. The Blue Angel, The Establishment and many other UK venues.
1963: Contributing writer That Was The Week That Was. 1964 moved to New York with Ullett, appearing with Lenny Bruce at Café A Go Go Bruce was busted twice by the NYPD during this run, his last major booking before his death (in 1966).
1963-69: Multiple bookings with Ullett at major US nightclubs, e.g. hungry I, The Shadows, Mr. Kelly’s, Blue Angel, Village Vanguard, appearing with such jazz greats as Gerry Mulligan the MJQ, Miles Davis and Nina Simone; multiple appearances with Ullett on every major US variety show e.g. Hollywood Palace, Dean Martin Show, Kraft Music Hall, Ed Sullivan etc.; regulars on Merv Griffin Show with George Carlin, Richie Pryor and Lily Tomlin; also the Tonight Show, the Joey Bishop Show and many others. 1964/65 played major Catskills hotels with headliners ranging from Mel Torme to Tony Bennett to Carmen McCrae; 1966-7 18-month run as headliners at Julius Monk’s Plaza 9. 1968 signed to exclusive sitcom development deal with NBC with Oscar winning director Ernie Pintoff.
1970-78: Edited and wrote National Lampoon; 1972 co-produced and co-wrote (with Michael O’Donoghue) first Lampoon album Radio Dinner performing several key cuts (one with Christopher Guest) including a John Lennon parody called Magical Misery Tour aka Genius Is Pain.
1973: Produced directed and co-wrote Lemmings long-running off-Broadway rock musical hit parodying Woodstock and starring John Belushi, Chevy Chase and Christopher Guest in their first major acting roles. Produced and co-wrote album of Lemmings. Both Radio Dinner and Lemmings were nominated for Grammy’s. For remaining Lampoon years wrote and edited numerous articles, issues, books and special editions, seeing magazine hit circulation of a million copies a month (October 1974) and becoming co-Editor(in-Chief) in 1975.
1978-1982: Freelance editor and writer: during the 1978 newspaper strike co-edited (with George Plimpton) and co-wrote with star-studded literary cast the legendary parody Not The New York Times which sold 300,000 copies in less than 3 weeks; 1979 co-edited and co-wrote the best-selling The 80s – A Look Back with many of the same contributors; book stayed in the NYT Top Ten Best Sellers for two months.
1982-1983: Edited and co-wrote celebrated parodies of Wall Street Journal Off The Wall Street Journal I & II (700,000 total copies sold) followed by other best-selling parodies e.g. The Irrational Enquirer, Playboy (The Parody) and Not The Bible (with Sean Kelly). The success of these parodies put him on the cover of Newsweek (April 25th 1983).
1982: (Rreleased 1984) Starred as Ian Faith in This Is Spinal Tap.
1980-84: Producer, co-creator and head-writer of Spitting Image (Central TV UK) which debuted in early 1984 and ran for ten years in the UK.
1986: Featured in Jumpin Jack Flash with Whoopi Goldberg, her debut film.
1985-1987: Wrote Going Too Far an account of modern American satire from the mid 50s to the 80s which has been described as ‘a magnificent history of subversive humor’ and is used as a definitive text in many college courses.
1988-1993: Freelance actor/writer/editor. Numerous TV/film appearances e.g. Miami Vice (2 episodes 1988), Life with Mikey (1993) with Michael J Fox. Numerous magazine articles and columns. Books: The 90s – A Look Back (1989) Tales from the Crib (with Bob Saget) (1991), Born to Run Things (An Utterly UnAuthorized Biography of George HW Bush (1992) Brad 61, (with Roy Lichtenstein) (1993). The Book of Bad Virtues (1994) The Gigawit Dictionary of the E-nglish Language (2000).
1993-94: Editor-in-Chief Spy Magazine.
1994-2001: Freelance writer/screenwriter/actor. Numerous TV appearances; on-air correspondent/commentator FX and TVFN, Wine Columnist for New York Magazine, New York Observer and Forbes FYI; magazine articles Harpers, GQ, the NYT Book Review, Men’s Journal, Esquire (columnist) Vogue and many others; anthologized in 1997 and 1998 editions of Best Sports Stories.
1996: Co-wrote (with Ron Shelton) The Great White Hype starring Samuel Jackson, Jeff Goldblum, Damon Wayans and Peter Berg.
2001: Edited and wrote Brotherhood (introductions by Mayor Giuliani and Frank McCourt) a photographic tribute to the 343 firefighters who fell at the WTC, massive best-seller, two months in Top Ten of the NYTimes BR best-seller list.
2001-2004: Regular contributor: Details, Forbes FYI, New York, Harpers, American Prospect.
2004: Wrote Father Joe another massive best-seller (over 500,000 copies sold to date) three months on NYTBR best seller list, translated into fifteen languages.
2006: Wrote The Messiah of Morris Avenue (published April 06).
Tony Hendra was recently described by Robert Chalmers of The Independent of London as “British comedy’s great unsung talent…one of the most brilliant comic talents of the post-war period”.
He is married to Carla Hendra, co-CEO Ogilvy North America; they have three children and homes in New York City, New Jersey and South-West France.
