John Inman
John Inman (born 28 June 1935, in Preston, Lancashire, England) is a British actor. He is a cousin to the actress Josephine Tewson.
He achieved enormous fame in the 1970s as the camp Mr. Humphries in the British sitcom Are You Being Served? (1972-1985), with the catchphrase "I'm free!". Humphries was widely criticised as a homosexual parody; Inman and the show's creators point out that while the character had camp mannerisms, Humphries' sexual orientation was never explicitly stated.
He continued his role in the Australian version, also titled Are You Being Served?, and in the sequel Grace and Favour (shown as Are You Being Served--Again in the United States).
Other television series in which John Inman has appeared include Take a Letter, Mr. Jones, a role reversal comedy in which Inman played opposite Rula Lenska - she was the boss of a company and he was her secretary. The series played to moderate success.
Inman was, for many years, partner to the actor Barry Howard, best known from the BBC TV comedy Hi-de-Hi!. Inman's co-star Wendy Richard said that they were the best ugly sisters ever to have appeared in pantomime. Later they parted.
Inman is also a theatre actor, particularly known as a pantomime performer, and more notably as a pantomime dame. John Inman also reprised his role for an Are You Being Served? stage play at the Twelfth Night Theatre in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
In 2004 he appeared in the BBC comedy show Revolver. In December of the same year it was reported that he was suffering from the liver infection Hepatitis A.
On 27 December 2005, Inman entered into a civil partnership with his partner of 33 years Ron Lynch in Westminster under a new British law giving official recognition to same sex relationships, which had come into effect the week before.[1]
References
- ^ "Inman no longer 'free'". The Sun. 27 December 2005.
External links
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