Veteran British actor Murray Melvin who’s best known for his role in “The Phantom of the Opera,” “A Taste of Honey” and the “Doctor Who” spin-off “Torchwood,” died April 14 at St Thomas’ hospital in London. He was 90.
London-based creative director Kerry Kyriacos Michael made the announcement on Twitter and said Melvin died after taking a bad fall in December “from which he never fully recovered.”
“He was one of my closest friends and will be missed by so many of us who had the privilege to know him,” Michael wrote.
Melvin got his start in a 1957 production of “Macbeth” at the Theatre Royal in Stratford and rose to fame in 1961 as Geoffrey, the gay art student, in Shelagh Delaney’s “A Taste of Honey.” He later went on to star in films such as “Alfie” with Michael Caine, “Start the Revolution Without Me” starring Gene Wilder and Donald Sutherland, “The Boy Friend” starring Twiggy, Stanley Kubrick’s “Barry Lyndon” starring Ryan O’Neal, “Princess Caraboo” starring Phoebe Cates and Kevin Kline and Joel Schumacher’s “The Phantom of the Opera.”
Although he starred in dozens of television shows in Britain — including the first episode of the series “The Avengers” in 1960 — Melvin most recently he was seen in the “Doctor Who” spin-off, “Torchwood.”
In addition, Melvin wrote two books, “The Art of Theatre Workshop” and “The Theatre Royal, A History of the Building” and won a BAFTA for the Most Promising Newcomer and Canne Film Festival Best Actor award for his role in “A Taste of Honey.”
