In 1985, while looking for an actor who could speak Spanish to be in a new play, Hotel Dorado by Peter Terson, which Newcastle Playhouse was to put on, I rang the agent Kate Feast. She didn’t have an actor who spoke Spanish on her books, but she had met one who did, Tony Slattery (Comedian Tony Slattery dies aged 65 after heart attack, 14 January). At the time, he was 25 and already making a name for himself. I asked if he would come and see me. Very quickly he made me laugh, improvising in a Spanish accent, and I knew he would be fine.
Between that day and starting at the Playhouse, he was offered a lucrative television job, but turned it down because he had accepted the Newcastle one. That doesn’t happen often, and I didn’t forget it.
At the time, he had a gloomily romantic nature which came out in him saying he would be dead by 30. Sixty-five is still way too young.
Peter Rankin
London
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