British Actor Simon MacCorkindale Has Died

Sad news today: one of Britain’s most prolific television actors, Simon MacCorkindale, has died at age 58 after a long battle with cancer. His wife, Straw Dogs actress Susan George, was with MacCorkindale when he died, his publicist Max Clifford told The Daily Telegraph.

The handsome MacCorkindale first entered the public consciousness starring as Simon Doyle in the 1978 adaptation of Agatha Christie‘s Death on the Nile, alongside Mia Farrow, David Niven, Peter Ustinov, Angela Lansbury, Bette Davis, and Maggie Smith. That movie’s success led to parts in the U.S., including a lead role as crime-solving English professor Jonathan Chase on the short-lived 1983 action drama Manimal. In the NBC series, MacCorkindale’s hero had the odd ability to shapeshift into animal form. Naturally, the show only lasted eight episodes.

MacCorkindale bounced back from Manimal‘s cancellation to join the primetime soap Falcon Crest, on which he played Angela Channing’s lawyer Greg Reardon from 1984 to 1986. For the next 20 years, MacCorkindale worked steadily in film, TV, and theater. However, the actor’s longest-running and most popular role was on the British primetime medical soap, Casualty, on which he played Dr. Harry Harper from 2002 to 2008.