Frederick John Inman (28 June 1935 – 8 March 2007) was an English actor and singer best known for his role as Mr. Humphries in Are You Being Served?, a British sitcom between 1972 and 1985, and the spin-off series Grace and Favour (also titled Are You Being Served? Again!). He was the only actor from those series to reprise the role when an Australian version was launched.
In 1976, Inman was named both BBC TV Personality of the Year and TV Times readers' Funniest Man on Television. He was also a well-known character actor in the United Kingdom as a pantomime dame.
Early life
Frederick John Inman was born on 28 June 1935 in Preston, Lancashire, and was often said to be a cousin of actress Josephine Tewson, though she denied they were related. (They did, however, play half-siblings in the 1977 sitcom Odd Man Out.) At the age of 12, Inman moved with his parents to Blackpool where his mother ran a boarding house, while his father owned a hairdressing business. He was educated at Cambridge House in Preston, and then a secondary modern school.
Theatre career
Inman made his West End debut in the 1960s when he appeared in Ann Veronica at the Cambridge Theatre. He appeared as the pop singer Willie in Dennis Spencer's What a Racket at Manchester's Palace Theatre in December 1963 and appeared in Paula Stone's How Now Brown Cow at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, in late 1965. By 1975, his television fame was such that he was also a starring attraction in the long-running Let's Get Laid at London's Windmill Theatre. The same year he appeared in Salad Days at the Windmill, and as Lord Fancourt Babberley in Charley's Aunt at the Adelphi Theatre in 1979.
During the sixties, Inman won a reputation alongside Barry Howard as one of the most celebrated Ugly Sister acts in pantomime His other stage appearances included many summer shows and his own show, Fancy Free, and Pyjama Tops, My Fat Friend and Bedside Manners.
Television and film career
Inman made his television debut in 1965 in the sitcom A Slight Case Of... titled The Enemy Within. In 1966, he appeared in two episodes of the BBC sitcom Hugh and I. In 1970, he acted in one episode of the ITV sitcom Two in Clover. In 1972 - as a theatre job ended and he prepared to return to work in a department store - David Croft asked Inman to play a part in a Comedy Playhouse pilot called Are You Being Served?. Inman reported that four or five members of the group Campaign for Homosexual Equality picketed one of his shows in protest as they believed his persona did not help their cause. Inman said: "They thought I was over exaggerating the gay character. But I don't think I do. In fact there are people far more camp than Mr. Humphries walking around this country. Anyway, I know for a fact that an enormous number of viewers like Mr. Humphries and don't really care whether he's camp or not. So far from doing harm to the homosexual image, I feel I might be doing some good."
Are You Being Served? ran for ten series until 1985. At its peak in 1979 it attracted British audiences of 22 million viewers "Are You Being Served, Sir?" reached number 39 in the UK singles chart. He released an LP of the same name, and two further albums: I'm Free in 1977 and With a Bit of Brass in 1978. His single "Teddy Bears' Picnic" was regularly playlisted on BBC Radio 1/2 Saturday morning children's show Ed Stewart's Junior Choice in the late 1970s and included on the show's official BBC soundtrack album.
From 1980 to 1981, Inman also played Mr Humphries in the Australian version of Are You Being Served?, the only cast member of the original British series to do so. He made many appearances on BBC TV's long-running television show, The Good Old Days. During the 69-episode, 13-year run of Are You Being Served?, Inman also appeared in the 1977 film of the series, in which the characters visited the fictional Spanish holiday resort of "Costa Plonka." In Odd Man Out (1977), his own sitcom, Inman played the owner of a fish and chip shop who inherits half of a rock factory; and Take a Letter, Mr. Jones (1981), a sitcom in which Inman played Graham Jones, who is secretary to Rula Lenska's character Joan Warner.
He made a cameo appearance in the film The Tall Guy (1989), and was one of five of the Are You Being Served? cast to be reunited in character for the sitcom Grace & Favour (titled Are You Being Served? Again! in the United States), which ran for twelve episodes in 1992 and 1993. Inman had a small part as Lady Capulet in the film Shakespeare in Love (1998) and appeared in the 1999 French and Saunders Christmas special. He appeared as Father Chinwag in the film The Mumbo Jumbo (2000).
Later years, illness and death
thumb|A [[blue plaque commemorates John Inman on his former home]]
thumb|John Inman's former house in [[Little Venice, London]]
Inman toured Australia, starring in a number of productions including Bedside Manners (2003) and a revival of Are You Being Served? (2001) as a stage show at Twelfth Night Theatre, Brisbane. In 2004, he made additional television appearances in Doctors and Revolver.
Inman suffered from poor health in his later years. He was hospitalised with bronchitis in 1993, and collapsed on stage in 1995. He was admitted to Paddington's St Mary's Hospital in 2001 after suffering breathing difficulties and spent three days in intensive care.
In December 2004, Inman was forced to cancel an appearance in a pantomime as he was suffering from a hepatitis A infection, contracted from contaminated food.
Inman died early in the morning of 8 March 2007, aged 71, at St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, London, of an infection. His body was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium after a funeral on 23 March 2007.
Personal life
For some thirty years, Inman lived in a mews house in Little Venice, Paddington. On 23 December 2005, at the Westminster register office, he entered into a civil partnership with his partner of 33 years, Ron Lynch.