Tony Hendra

Tony Hendra (1941-2021) was a multimedia humorist and the New York Times bestselling author of the memoir Father Joe: The Man Who Saved My Soul, and the novel The Messiah of Morris Avenue.

Educated at Cambridge in the early 1960s, Hendra developed his satirical style as a writer and performer with the university’s Footlights theatrical group alongside future Monty Pythons John Cleese and Graham Chapman. After stints in a comedy act in New York and as a television writer in Los Angeles, he joined the staff of Harvard’s National Lampoon from its inception in 1970. As a writer and managing editor, Hendra was instrumental in transforming the magazine into a popular media franchise.

In 1984, he wrote for the BAFTA Award-winning Spitting Image television puppet program satirizing politics and pop culture, and portrayed heavy metal band manager Ian Faith in Rob Reiner’s mockumentary This is Spinal Tap. He also appeared on such television shows as Miami Vice and Law and Order: Criminal Intent, and cowrote the film satire The Great White Hype starring Samuel L. Jackson and Jamie Foxx.

A frequent contributor to New York, Harper’s, GQ, Vanity Fair, Men’s Journal, and Esquire, Hendra was the last editor-in-chief of the satirical magazine Spy.