Henri Szeps, the actor best known for his role in the ABC sitcom Mother and Son, has died aged 81.
Szeps’ decline from Alzheimer’s was largely peaceful and “Henri retained his sense of wonder and joie de vivre until the end”, a statement shared by the publicist for Szeps’ son, the broadcaster Josh Szeps, said.
Szeps was the son of Holocaust survivors from Poland. Born in a refugee camp in Switzerland in 1943, he arrived in Australia at the age of eight with his mother and older sister.
Szeps told the Refugee Council of Australia that despite children at his school in the Sydney suburb of Greenwich laughing at his “foreign ways”, it was the recognition he received from appearing – and earning more laughs – in school plays that made him realise he wanted to act.
Szeps studied electrical engineering at the University of Sydney and also trained at Sydney’s Ensemble Theatre in 1962.
He moved to London in his 20s where he starred in I, Claudius alongside David Warner and toured in the Prospect Theatre Company with Derek Jacobi, according to the statement.
On his return to Australia, Szeps took on the role of older brother, Robert, to Garry McDonald’s Arthur Beare in comedy classic Mother and Son. He played the egocentric dentist – in what Guardian Australia described as “the perfect ‘love to hate’ key” – from 1984 to 1994.
He also appeared in the television series A Country Practice, Skippy, All Saints and Palace of Dreams. Szeps played prime minister Harold Holt in the series Vietnam which won a Logie and launched Nicole Kidman’s career.
He also appeared in Mission: Impossible, South Pacific and was Barry Humphries’ choice to play a down-on-his-luck scientist, Charles Herpes, in Les Patterson Saves the World, the statement said.
Szeps also had many significant roles on stage and a long collaboration with the playwright David Williamson.
His wife of 56 years, fellow actor Mary Ann Severne, was by his side when he died, the statement said.
