Australian TV actor Henri Szeps dies aged 81

Henri Szeps, award-winning actor and star of ABC’s Mother and Son, has died on the age of 81.

Szeps shot into televised leisure by his function within the iconic sitcom, taking part in dentist Robert Beare alongside Ruth Cracknell and Garry McDonald.

The present’s 10-year run noticed it voted as one of the best Australian tv program, earlier than wrapping up in 1994.

“He died as he lived, loving life, his family, and his audience,” his spouse Mary Ann stated.

A storied profession on display and stage

Born to 2 Polish Holocaust survivors in a Swiss refugee camp in 1943, Szeps moved to Australia on the age of eight and went on to check electrical engineering at Sydney University.

Moving into performing, Szeps loved a storied profession on the stage, that includes within the London manufacturing of I, Cladius in his twenties earlier than transferring again residence within the Seventies.

But it was his first stage manufacturing within the 1968 rendition Boys within the Band that earned him crucial acclaim at residence.

From there, he skilled within the Sydney Ensemble Theatre, the place a inexperienced room is now named after him.

The ultimate years of his performing profession noticed him star in a sequence of 1 man exhibits.

Szeps formally retired on the age of 70 after performing in his final play, citing that his reminiscence was “no longer up to the task”, a press release confirming his passing learn.

In 2021, Szeps revealed he had been identified with Alzheimer’s illness and had been residing in a care facility since 2023.

“He was awarded countless acting prizes, culminating in an Order of Australia Medal in 2001,” Thursday’s assertion stated.

On the stage he performed characters similar to Gandalf in The Hobbit and Sigmund Freud, earlier than incomes a job in struggle drama Vietnam as Harold Holt alongside a younger Nicole Kidman.

The sequence received a Logie and shot Nicole Kidman onto a path of world super-stardom.

He leaves behind his spouse Mary Ann, two sons and 4 grandchildren.

Sons pay tribute to Szeps’s ‘fast wit’

One of the 2 sons, Josh Szeps, paid tribute to the late actor.

“I cannot imagine a father with more passion, more zest for life, more curiosity and ferocious good humour. A room was never the same after dad had walked into it,” he instructed the ABC.

Szeps’s son Amos stated he would keep in mind an essential quote their father lived by.

“He always told Josh and I: ‘Life’s a gift, but only if you receive it’. Dad grabbed life with both hands. Our world will be smaller without him,” he stated.