Tony Hendra

Tony Hendra (born 1941) is an English satirist, actor and writer who has worked mostly in the United States. Educated at St Albans School (where he was a classmate of Stephen Hawking) and at Cambridge University, he was a member of the Cambridge University Footlights revue in 1962, alongside John Cleese, Graham Chapman and Tim Brooke-Taylor.

Hendra is probably best known for being the writer for the first six shows of the British television series Spitting Image, and for playing Ian Faith, the band's manager, in the film This Is Spinal Tap.

Early career

In 1964 Hendra moved to America, where he worked as a comedian. He sometimes teamed with comic actor Nick Ullett as "Hendra and Ullett," appearing on the Merv Griffin Show multiple times and six times on The Ed Sullivan Show. Hendra wrote for National Lampoon magazine from its beginning in 1970. In 1971 he became the first editor hired by founders Doug Kenney and Henry Beard.

In 1972, Hendra co-created National Lampoon's first album Radio Dinner with Michael O'Donoghue, on which Hendra performed a parody of John Lennon entitled Magical Misery Tour. In 1973 Hendra produced, directed and co-wrote (with Sean Kelly), the Lampoon's off-Broadway revue Lemmings in which Hendra cast John Belushi, Chevy Chase and Christopher Guest in their first starring roles. He was an editor of the Lampoon until 1974, and was co-editor-in-chief with Kelly from 1975-78.