Australian TV actor Henri Szeps passes away at 81

Henri Szeps, award-winning actor and star of ABC's Mother and Son, has died at the age of 81. Szeps shot into televised entertainment through his role in the iconic sitcom, playing dentist Robert Beare alongside Ruth Cracknell and Garry McDonald. The show's 10-year run saw it voted as the best Australian television program, before wrapping up in 1994. \"He died as he lived, loving life, his family, and his audience,\" his wife Mary Ann said.

Born to two Polish Holocaust survivors in a Swiss refugee camp in 1943, Szeps moved to Australia at the age of eight and went on to study electrical engineering at Sydney University. Moving into acting, Szeps enjoyed a storied career on the stage, featuring in the London production of I, Cladius in his twenties before moving back home in the 1970s. But it was his first stage production in the 1968 rendition Boys in the Band that earned him critical acclaim at home. From there, he trained in the Sydney Ensemble Theatre, where a green room is now named after him.

The final years of his performing career saw him star in a series of one man shows. Szeps officially retired at the age of 70 after performing in his last play, citing that his memory was \"no longer up to the task\", a statement confirming his passing read. In 2021, Szeps revealed he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and had been living in a care facility since 2023.

\"He was awarded countless acting prizes, culminating in an Order of Australia Medal in 2001,\" Thursday's statement said. \"His decline from Alzheimer's was largely peaceful, and Henri retained his sense of wonder and joie de vivre until the end.\" On the stage he played characters such as Gandalf in The Hobbit and Sigmund Freud, before earning a role in war drama Vietnam as Harold Holt alongside a young Nicole Kidman. The series won a Logie and shot Nicole Kidman onto a path of global super-stardom.

He leaves behind his wife Mary Ann, two sons and four grandchildren. One of the two 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 said. Szeps's son Amos said he would remember an important 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 said.