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Maurice Colbourne (24 September 1939 – 4 August 1989) was an English stage and television actor who starred as Tom Howard in the BBC television seriesHowards' Way.^[1] He is also known for roles in other television series such asGangsters,The Onedin Line,The Day of the Triffids andDoctor Who. He was usually cast as a villain in his career.^[2]

Maurice Colbourne was bornRoger Middleton inSheffield, three weeks after Britain and France declared war on Germany upon the outbreak of theSecond World War, and studied acting at theCentral School of Speech and Drama in London. He took hisstage name from that of an earlier film actor called Maurice Colbourne (24 September 1894 – 22 September 1965), who shared the same birthday (in a different year) as his.

In 1972, Colbourne co-founded, together withMichael Irving andGuy Sprung, theHalf Moon Theatre nearAldgate, east London. This was a successful, radical theatre company, performing initially in an 80-seat disused synagogue in Half Moon Passage,E1. In 1985, the company moved to a converted chapel in Mile End Road, near Stepney Green. He performed in many productions at Half Moon Theatre, includingIn the Jungle of the Cities, Will Wat, If Not, What Will?,Heroes of the Iceberg Hotel,Sawdust Caesar,Dan Dare andChaste Maid in Cheapside. He also directed several productions, includingSilver Tassie,Alkestis,The Shoemakers andPig Bank. He returned in 1979 to perform inGuys and Dolls.^[3]

Colbourne first became well known when he played the lead in aBBC drama series,Gangsters, from 1975–78, and afterwards appeared regularly on television. This included a guest appearance in a 1977 episode ofVan der Valk, "Everybody Does It". He played Charles Marston, the love interest of Lady Fogarty, in the seventh series ofThe Onedin Line screened from 22 July to 23 September 1979. He played a mercenary in an episode of theReturn of the Saint called "Duel in Venice". He played the character Jack Coker in the BBC's television miniseries adaptation ofJohn Wyndham'sThe Day of the Triffids (1981). He also twice appeared inDoctor Who as the character Lytton (inResurrection of the Daleks (1984) andAttack of the Cybermen (1985)).

Colbourne played lead character Tom Howard in 61 episodes of the successfulBBC television dramaHowards' Way from 1985 to 1989. During a break in filming of the fifth series, he died aged 49 from aheart attack while renovating a holiday home inDinan,Brittany, France. The programme continued to the end of series five and for a sixth series, to tie up the storylines, with Colbourne's character being written out of the scripts.

• Maurice Colbourne atIMDb 
• Maurice Colbourne onStages of Half Moon

• 1939 births
• 1989 deaths
• 20th-century English male actors
• Alumni of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama
• English male film actors
• English male stage actors
• English male television actors
• Male actors from Sheffield

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