Tony Hendra

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Tony Hendra
Hertfordshire, England, UK
Died4 March 2021(2021-03-04) (aged 79)
Yonkers, New York, US
OccupationSatirist, author
GenreFiction, non-fiction, satire, social commentary
Years active1961–2018
Spouse
Judith H. Christmas
​
​
(m. 1964; div. 1985)​

Carla Hendra
​
(m. 1986)​
Children5

Anthony Christopher Hendra (10 July 1941 – 4 March 2021) was an English satirist 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 series Spitting Image and for starring in the film This Is Spinal Tap as the band's manager Ian Faith.

Early life and education

Hendra was born in Hertfordshire. His surname is

St Albans School (where he was a classmate of Stephen Hawking) and at St John's College, Cambridge, he was a member of the Cambridge University Footlights revue in 1962, alongside John Cleese, Graham Chapman and Tim Brooke-Taylor
.

Comedy performer

In 1964, Hendra moved to America, with actor and comedian

Doug Kenney and Henry Beard
.

In 1972, Hendra co-created National Lampoon's first album

Lemmings, in which Hendra cast John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Rhonda Coullet, Christopher Guest and Alice Playten
in their first starring roles. Hendra continued as an editor of the Lampoon until 1975, when he became co-editor-in-chief with Kelly until 1978.

Freelance editor

After leaving the Lampoon 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 parody

Christopher Cerf, and George 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 edited The Sayings of Ayatollah Khomeini aka The Little Green Book of Ayatollah Khomeini, a collection of the Ayatollah's actual teachings with an introduction by Clive Irving, which was regularly featured on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show.

In 1982 he was editor-in-chief of Off the Wall Street Journal and Off 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 included The Irrational Inquirer, Playboy: the Parody and Not 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 of

Spy Magazine from 1993–94.[citation needed
]

In the mid-1980s, he decided to devote himself exclusively to writing and in 1987 published Going 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.

Television and films

In 1984, Hendra co-created, co-wrote, and co-produced the British television satirical show

Ian Faith in This Is Spinal Tap
.

He appeared in several other films and television programs, including

The Big Bang (1987), and Snow White: The Sequel
(2007).

Family life and child sexual abuse allegations

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.[3]

In 2004, at the time that his memoir Father Joe was achieving best-seller status, Jessica Hendra, the younger of Hendra's two daughters from his first marriage, submitted an op-ed piece to The 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,[4] 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 never spoke of it during their years together, that she was "very unstable emotionally" and that "I can't believe it happened."[5]

Hendra responded, "I can only just categorically deny this. It's not a new allegation. It's simply not true, I'm afraid."

New York Times ombudsman Daniel 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 of The Times (or of Father 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 of The Times. As an editor, the verities of the profession might have led me to publish this article. But as a reader, I wish The Times hadn't.[7]

In 2005, Jessica Hendra wrote a memoir with USA Today journalist Blake Morrison, How to Cook Your Daughter, in which she repeated her accusations.[8]

Death

Hendra died of

amyotrophic lateral sclerosis on 4 March 2021.[1]

Books

References

  1. ^ a b Genzlinger, Neil (5 March 2021). "Tony Hendra, a Multiplatform Humorist, Is Dead at 79". The New York Times. Retrieved 5 March 2021.
  2. ^ "An Interview with Tony Hendra (Part One)". In-sightjournal.com. 1 December 2016. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
  3. ^ a b "Daughter Says Father's Confessional Book Didn't Confess His Molestation of Her", nytimes.com, 1 July 2004.
  4. ^ Kleinfield, N. R. (2014). "Daughter Says Father's Confessional Book Didn't Confess His Molestation of Her". Archived from the original on 27 April 2014.
  5. ^ Coscarelli, Joe (10 May 2011). "Tony Hendra, Satirist Behind New York Times Spoof Site, Molested His Daughter, New York Times Reported". Village Voice Blogs. Archived from the original on 26 April 2014. Retrieved 16 June 2014.
  6. ^ Not Fit to Print, column in The Washington Post by Richard Cohen, 20 July 2004.
  7. ^ When the Right to Know Confronts the Need to Know – New York Times ombudsman comments on the publication of Jessica Hendra's allegations, nytimes.com; accessed 7 December 2015.
  8. ISBN 0060820993
    .

External links
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