Henri Szeps OAM, the award-winning actor best-known for his role in the original ABC TV series Mother and Son (1984-1994), died on Wednesday 23 July. He had lived in a residential care facility since 2023 as his Alzheimer’s progressed.
Szeps publicly disclosed his Alzheimer’s diagnosis in 2021, in an episode of the ABC TV program Just Between Us: ‘Everybody around me might know that … it’s going, the brain’s going, but I don’t,’ he said, smiling.
Broadcast Josh Szeps, one of his two sons, said in a statement shared by Szeps’ publicist yesterday: ‘Henri retained his sense of wonder and joie de vivre until the end.’
Szeps is remembered as a remarkable actor and a generous, kind, energetic and passionate individual – a raconteur happy to meet with his fans at the bar after a show, an actor unusually happy to do one more interview if it helped publicise a production, and a thoughtful, philosophical man with a keen and deeply curious mind.
On stage, Szeps had a long association with Sydney Ensemble Theatre (where a green room is now named in his honour) having trained in Stanislavski technique – ‘the Method’ – under the company’s founding Artistic Director Hayes Gordon in 1962. He made his Ensemble debut in The Physicists in 1963, and went on to work with the company regularly for over five decades until his final appearance in David Williamson’s Cruise Control in 2014.
Szeps’ stage career included five one-man shows produced by Ensemble, the last three of which he wrote himself: The Double Bass (1990), Sky (1992), I’m Not a Dentist (1997), Why Kids (2003), and Wish I’d Said That (2010). The first two scripts were published as a compendium book, One Life, Two Journeys.
Szeps also wrote a book on the craft of acting and the art of good comic timing, entitled All In Good Timing.
Ensemble Artistic Director Mark Kilmurry, who directed Szeps in Halpern and Johnson alongside Garry McDonald, remembers him fondly.
‘Henri was a wonderful actor with impeccable comic timing. He was a great supporter of mine when I was first starting at the Ensemble and his storytelling and love of life was infectious. He was legendary in many ways and the world of theatre will miss a true performer in Henri’s sad passing,’ Kilmurry said.
Szeps: a storied life
The son of Polish Holocaust survivors, Szeps was born in a refugee camp in Lausanne, Switzerland and migrated to Australia with his mother, Rose, and younger sister Maria in 1951, aged eight years old. His father, a fighter with the French Resistance, joined the family in Sydney a year later.
After a state school education, including acting in a Randwick Boys High School production of John Patrick’s The Teahouse of the August Moon, Szeps studied electrical engineering at the University of Sydney before committing himself to acting.
He made his mark early, in a 1968 production of The Boys in the Band at Sydney’s now demolished Playbox Theatre; it was here Szeps met his future wife, the actress Mary Ann Severne, who was by his side when he died.
The pair moved to London in their twenties, where they became popular among Britain’s acting community; Szeps starred in the 1972 stage production of I, Claudius alongside David Warner at the Queen’s Theatre and toured in the Prospect Theatre Company with Derek Jacobi.
Szeps: acclaimed stage and screen career
Returning to Australia for his 30th birthday, Szeps became a fixture of Australian stage and television. From 1984 to 1994, he played Robert (‘the arsehole of the family,’ as Szeps called him) opposite Ruth Cracknell and Garry McDonald in what was voted the best Australian television program ever, Geoffrey Atherden’s Mother and Son.
Other television appearances included roles in Number 96, A Country Practice, Kingswood Country, Carson’s Law, All Saints and Stingers. In 1987, Szeps played Prime Minister Harold Holt in the Logie-winning miniseries Vietnam, which catapulted Nicole Kidman to fame; the arch villain in American TV series Mission: Impossible starring Peter Graves; and a French plantation owner opposite Glenn Close and Harry Connick, Jr in South Pacific, based on the popular stage musical.
In cinema, Barry Humphries chose Szeps to play a down-on-his-luck scientist, Charles Herpes, in Les Patterson Saves the World; he also appeared in films such as Run, Rebecca, Run and Warming Up, and forged a lifelong friendship with British actor Leo McKern (Rumpole of the Bailey) on the set of David Williamson’s Travelling North.
Szeps originated the role of Saul, which he played in the film, in the original stage production at Nimrod Upstairs in 1979, and cherished his long collaboration with Williamson, with whom he also worked on Celluloid Heroes, Dead White Males, Heretic and Cruise Control, his final play.
A committed stage actor, Szeps was popular with audiences and his fellow actors alike. Memorable theatre performances included Gandalf in the touring production The Hobbit in 1999-2000, Sigmund Freud in Freud’s Last Session, and Herr Schultz in Sam Mendes’ revival of Cabaret in 2002-2003 with Tina Arena and Toby Allen, for which Szeps won the 2003 Helpmann Award for Best Male Actor in a Supporting Role in a Musical.
Despite an invitation to join the Royal Shakespeare Company in London, Szeps resisted the temptation to advance his career abroad for the sake of his family.
In 2001, he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to the arts, and to the community through the Australia Day Council and the National Centre for Childhood Grief.
In 2014, aged 70 and after finishing the run of Cruise Control, Szeps concluded that his memory was no longer up to the task and retired from the stage.
‘Zest for life’ remembered
Szeps is survived by his wife of 56 years, Mary Ann, their two sons Amos and Josh, and four grandchildren.
Speaking with the ABC on Thursday 24 July, broadcaster and journalist Josh Szeps paid tribute by saying, ‘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.
‘Part of me is relieved that his sharp mind, his quick wit and his deep love of philosophising, which dementia robbed of him in recent years, is now restored … in our memories, at least.’
Amos Szeps, a psychologist and master coach, added: ‘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.’
Funeral details are yet to be announced.
