Maurice Colbourne

Maurice Colbourne 24 September 1939 4 August 1989 was a British stage and television actor who specialised in playing villains and hard men until 1985 when he took the key role of Tom Howard in the BBC Television serial Howards Way Colbourne was born Roger Middleton but took his stage name after reading about the death of actor Maurice Colbourne who shared the same birthday as he did Colbournes biggest success in the 1970s was as the lead in the crime drama series Gangsters In the 80s he starred in Johnny Jarvis and the acclaimed adaptation of John Wyndhams classic scifi novel The Day of the Triffids Staying with scifi he had a recurring guest role in Doctor Who as the mercenary Lytton playing opposite the fifth and sixth doctors Peter Davison and Colin Baker in adventures featuring the timelords deadliest foes the Daleks and the Cybermen But it was the leading role in Howards Way that he will perhaps best be remembered for He played Tom Howard until 1989 when he died suddenly aged 49 from a heart attack The show ended a year later