Tony Buffery

Tony Buffery
Tony Buffery (2005)
Tony Buffery (2005)
BornAnthony Walter Harold Buffery
(1939-09-09)9 September 1939
Birmingham, Warwickshire, England
Died26 December 2015(2015-12-26) (aged 76)
OccupationActor, Comedian, Educator, Psychologist

Anthony Walter Harold Buffery (9 September 1939 – 26 December 2015) was a British actor, comedian, and writer who also had a career in academic psychology.[1]

Career

Buffery studied at the University of Hull before undertaking a PhD at University of Cambridge.[2] He got his start in the Cambridge Footlights, but his place in the London Footlights Revue was taken over by Graham Chapman (later of Monty Python) when Buffery chose an academic career over one in entertainment.[3][4]

I do remember that in one year – probably 1967 – Clive [James] did a two-man show with Tony Buffery... who had been part of the 1963 Footlights show Cambridge Circus which featured John Cleese, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Bill Oddie, and David Hatch, but who as a committed graduate student had not gone with it on its professional tour to the West End and elsewhere. He was – probably still is – an astonishingly funny man not least physically, and I know that Clive always admired him no end.

— Pete Atkin, 03 Sep 2006[5][unreliable source?]

As a member of the Footlights, Buffery contributed to the writing, music, and/or performance of many of the troupe's productions in the 1960s, including:

  • "This Way Out" (1965–66)
  • "My Girl Herbert" (1964–65)
  • "Stuff What Dreams are Made Of" (1963–64)
  • "A Clump of Plinths" (1962–63)
  • "Double Take" (1961–62)[6]

Buffery also appeared in the 1967 Comedy series Twice a Fortnight along with Terry Jones, Michael Palin, Graeme Garden, Bill Oddie, and Jonathan Lynn.[7]

In the late 1960s, Buffery was a fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.[8] He was a senior research officer at Oxford University between 1970 and 1974, and then held lectureships at the University of London and the University of Melbourne, and in hospitals and units in the United States, through the 1970s and 1980s. His academic work as a neuropsychologist included developing computer programs to assist people's recoveries from strokes and brain injuries.[2]

Buffery married Maria Kowalska in 2006, and the couple moved to Kowalska's homeland of Poland, where Buffery spent some time teaching English. He died in December 2015 at the age of 76.[2]

Bibliography

  • Cambridge Circus. EMI. 1993. ISBN 978-0-901401-36-6. (with John Cleese)

References

  1. ^ Robson, Peter (20 July 1983). "Game for a Laugh". Evening Times. Retrieved 24 October 2013.
  2. ^ a b c Ferguson, Joanna (26 January 2016). "Tony Buffery obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 July 2020.
  3. ^ Morgan (1 June 1999). "1: Pre-Phython". Monty Python Speaks!: The Complete Oral History of Monty Python. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-380-80479-5.
  4. ^ "Monty Python Speaks!". New York Times. Retrieved 24 October 2013.
  5. ^ "Midnight Voices". Peteatkin.com. Retrieved 24 October 2013.
  6. ^ [1] Archived April 17, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  7. ^ Wilmut (1980). From fringe to flying circus: celebrating a unique generation of comedy, 1960-1980. Eyre Methuen. ISBN 978-0-413-46950-2.
  8. ^ James, Clive (30 September 2009). May Week Was In June: More Unreliable Memoirs. Pan Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-330-47434-4.