ACTOR Maurice Colbourne, best known for the role of Tom Howard in the
television drama series Howards' Way, has died, aged 49. It is thought
that the cause of his death was a heart attack.
He died on Friday night in his wife's arms at his family's French
holiday home at Dinan, near Rennes, shortly after a sailing trip. He had
been preparing to do some work on the house when his wife Jeany, 35,
found he had collapsed with chest pains. She tried in vain to save him,
said his agent Susan Angel.
Actress Jan Harvey, who plays his wife in the series, said on behalf
of the cast: ''We are devastated by his death. He was a caring and
compassionate man and we will all miss him dreadfully.''
Mr Colbourne had been expected in Guernsey on Tuesday to complete
filming for the latest series, due to be screened in the autumn.
Howards' Way producer Gerard Glaister said: ''He was a first-class actor
and contributed in no small way to the success of Howards' Way.''
Mr Colbourne's TV breakthrough came with the BBC series Gangsters. He
also appeared in The Day of the Triffids, Shoestring, Dr Who, the Onedin
Line, and Take Three Women. Miss Angel said he had been due to appear in
pantomime at the Theatre Royal, Bath, this year.
His passions were horse racing and fishing, and he liked being at sea.
As a youth he left home to go to sea, but was dissuaded by a Liverpool
bus conductor who pointed out a gang of out-of-work seamen.
A BBC spokesman said most of the new series of Howards' Way had
already been shot, but it was too early to say how the programme might
develop following Mr Colbourne's death.
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