Michael Byrne has died at the age of 82, it has been confirmed.
The actor, who was familiar to fans of Coronation Street, Indiana Jones and Harry Potter, passed away on 20 June, according to The Guardian. No cause of death was disclosed.
Born 7 November, 1943, Byrne grew up in Hampstead, London, and attended the Central School of Speech and Drama, before embarking on a remarkable career spanning almost 60 years.
He began working with the touring Arena theatre company in the 1960s, as well as Laurence Olivier’s National Theatre Company at the Old Vic, playing small roles in productions such as George Farquhar’s The Recruiting Officer and Peter Shaffer’s The Royal Hunt of the Sun.
He went on to bag larger parts at the Royal Court and West End throughout the 1970s and 80s.
He also transitioned to the big screen in the 1970s, appearing in numerous notable Second World War movies such as 1976’s The Eagle Has Landed, 1977’s A Bridge Too Far and 1978’s Force 10 from Navarone.
Over the next decade he appeared in movies such as The Good Father (1985) and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), where he played the evil Colonel Vogel.
Other notable film roles included his part as a solider in Mel Gibson’s best picture Oscar winner Braveheart (1995) and as the elderly dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010).
He also reached TV audiences in ITV soap Coronation Street, in which he appeared as Ted Page, the long-lost father of Gail Platt (Helen Worth), between 2008 and 2010, and in the miniseries Lightfields (2013).
The actor is survived by his ex-wife Carole Nimmons, whom The Guardian reports “cared for him towards the end of his life”.
He is also survived his daughters Tara and Bryony, and grandchildren Tom, Chloe and Jasmine.
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Molly Moss is a Trends Writer for Radio Times, covering the latest trends across TV, film and more. She has an MA in Newspaper Journalism and has previously written for publications including The Guardian, The Times and The Sun Online.
