Simon MacCorkindale, the beloved star of stage and screen who won a legion of new fans as Harry Harper in the BBC's Casualty, died in 2010 aged 58 after a private battle with cancer that he kept from his co-stars.
Career highlights and Casualty role
MacCorkindale first appeared on television in 1974 in I Claudius and Jesus of Nazareth, before his breakthrough lead role in the film Death on the Nile in 1978. He went on to feature in Quartermass, The Riddle of the Sands, The Sword and the Sorcerer and Jaws 3-D.
Transatlantic opportunities followed, with lead roles in the short-lived series Manimal, which he later reprised in Night Man, and as lawyer Greg Reardon in a popular American prime time soap opera. In the 1980s and 1990s, he also directed and produced stage and television productions, including Stealing Heaven.
After a move to Canada, where he starred as Peter Sinclair in Counterstrike for three years, he returned to the UK and joined Casualty as Harry Harper in 2002. He ran the emergency department at Holby City Hospital until his character was forced to resign in 2008.
Private cancer battle
In 2006, MacCorkindale was diagnosed with bowel cancer. He underwent surgery to remove the tumours during a fortnight's break from filming Casualty, and was told the cancer had gone into remission. He and his wife, actress and producer Susan George, were overjoyed, with MacCorkindale saying at the time: "It came as a complete bombshell."
Just 12 months later, he was informed the cancer had spread to his lungs. He kept the diagnosis from his colleagues, later admitting it felt "surreal" to deliver similar news to patients on the show.
Final years and legacy
In 2009, he said: "The doctor said I had lung cancer – me, who never smoked a cigarette and always tried to live a healthy lifestyle. He said it was incurable. It was such a body blow my mind went numb." He added: "I don't want people to think that I'm pale, losing my hair, losing weight and on the way out. I'm not. I'm as active as I've ever been."
He and his wife were "very private people" and wanted to deal with it on their own, he said. He travelled to the United States for experimental treatments, which had limited success. In November 2009, he publicly announced his cancer was terminal, and he passed away on October 14, 2010.
