John Inman was an English actor best known for his role as Mr. Humphries in the long-running sitcom Are You Being Served? He was also popular in theater, especially as a pantomime dame.

Frederick John Inman was born on May 28, 1935, in Preston, England, where his family owned a chain of hair salons. When he was twelve years old they decided they wanted to live by the sea, closed the business, and opened up a boarding house in Blackpool. There he was frequently able to attend the theater, particularly enjoying comedy and cabaret. His parents paid for him to have elocution lessons at the local church hall which gave him a route into the theater himself, and he made his stage début at the age of thirteen in a production of Freda in Blackpool Pavilion on the pier. When he finished studying at Claridge House school he took a job on the pier, utilizing his talent for dressmaking to mend costumes as well as running errands and taking on bit-parts in assorted plays. However, he made better money as a window dresser, which led to him to move to London at the age of seventeen.

Inman's break into theater proper arrived three years later when he met actor Kenneth Kendall - then out of work and taking a part time job in the same store - and was persuaded to join his touring company as a set dresser. This soon led to him working as an actor and before long he had established himself as a popular pantomime dame, often appearing as one half of Cinderella's ugly aisters, the other half being Barrie Howard. He made his West End début in 1969 at the Cambridge Theatre, in the musical Ann Veronica, going on to appear in Salad Days, Let's Get Laid, and Charley's Aunt before he found his way into television.

Are You Being Served? began in 1972 and ran continually until 1985, since when repeats have continued to garner high ratings. Set in a department store and starring Mollie Sugden, Frank Thornton, and Wendy Richard, it featured Inman as menswear department manager Mr. Humphries, a role which won him the accolades of BBC Television Personality of the Year in 1976, and Funniest Man on Television. At a time when homosexuality was still a taboo subject in the media, Inman's high camp performance and catchphrase "I'm free!" angered some in the gay rights movement but endeared him to others. Inman himself described the character as "just a mother's boy." Bisexual himself, he lived with his partner, Ron Lynch, for thirty-seven years, the two entering into a civil partnership in 2005.

Besides Are You Being Served?, Inman appeared in his own sitcom, Odd Man Out, and in Take a Letter, Mr Jones, which posited the then unlikely scenario of a woman (Rula Lenska) having a male secretary. He also found his way into film with small roles in The Tall Guy, with Jeff Goldblum, Emma Thompson, and Rowan Atkinson, and The Mumbo Jumbo, with Brian Blessed, Joss Ackland, and Richard O'Brien.

During the latter stages of his career, when he returned to stage work, Inman suffered from a series of health problems. Struggles with bronchitis were followed by a hepatitis-A infection which ended his career. He died on March 8, 2007, at his home in London.

YUDDY