Frederick John Inman (28 June 1935 - 8 March 2007) was an English actor best known for his role as Mr Humphries in the British sitcom Are You Being Served?.

Inman achieved considerable fame in the 1970s as the camp Mr. Humphries in Are You Being Served?, who had the catchphrase "I'm free!". Humphries was widely criticised as a homosexual parody ^[1]; Inman and the show's creators point out that while the character had camp mannerisms, Humphries' sexual orientation was never explicitly stated ^[2]

He continued his role in the Australian version, also titled Are You Being Served?, and in the sequel Grace and Favour (shown as Are You Being Served — Again in the United States).

Other television series in which he appeared include Take a Letter, Mr. Jones, a role reversal comedy in which Inman played opposite Rula Lenska. The series played to moderate success.

Inman was also a theatre actor, particularly known as a pantomime performer, and more notably as a pantomime dame. John Inman also reprised his role for an Are You Being Served? stage play at the Twelfth Night Theatre in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

Inman suffered from the disease hepatitis A, for which he was first hospitalised in an intensive care unit in 2001^[3]. It was publicly revealed he had the disease after it forced him to cancel the opening of a pantomime in London on 9 December, 2004.

In 2004 he appeared in the BBC comedy show Revolver.

Inman was from Preston, Lancashire, England, and was a cousin to the actress Josephine Tewson. For many years his partner was the actor Barry Howard, best known from the BBC TV comedy Hi-de-Hi!. On 27 December 2005, Inman entered into a civil partnership with his partner of 33 years Ron Lynch in Westminster.^[4]

On March 8 2007, John Inman died, aged 71. The actor died in St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, west London, at 4am after battling illness for some time.^{[5] [6]}