Shadow off Dr Finlay until death

Press, 24 December 1986, Page 15

Shadow off Dr Finlay until death

NZPA-PA London Bill Simpson, who played the title role in the 8.8. C. television series, “Dr Finlay’s Casebook,” has died in hospital. He was aged 54. A spokesman at Ballochmyle Hospital, near Mauchline, Strathclyde, said that the actor had been in hospital for almost four weeks. “In accordance with his wishes, we are giving no information as to what he was suffering from,” he said. "Dr Finlay’s Casebook” made a star of Simpson, but the actor could never shake off the character. Long after the hugely successful TV series ended, Simpson was still known mainly as “the actor who played Dr Finlay.” Other parts were hard to get, but he admitted grudgingly: “Dr Finlay made me. I’m not ungrateful.” Simpson portrayed the’ doctor in 206 episodes over nine years until 1971. But it was his tangled love life, not his career, which kept him in the headlines after the series finished. His role as the thoughtful, self-analytical country doctor enmeshed in the human dramas of life in Tannochbrae, Perthshire, won him millions of fans and left him a wealthy man. He was born in the Ayrshire fishing village of Dunure and was happy to return to the Scottish countryside when his parents, who had taken him to Birmingham, split up. He was a shy boy, taking a series of menial jobs on his uncle’s farm, in a shoe shop and as an insurance clerk before winning a place at drama college in Glasgow. Two years as a newsreader with Scottish I.T.V. followed — then his first acting break as a thief in “Z Cars.” Then the “big one” — “Dr Finlay’s Casebook” — arrived in 1962. After the series which made him Britain’s favourite family doctor ended, he said: “When the series started, Andrew Cruickshank and Barbara Mullen were already established actors. “I was completely unknown. I had never proved myself at all as far as the great British public was concerned. . They have only known me as Finlay, and this makes escaping from him a much greater challenge than for most actors in a similar situation. “When the series finally ended, one felt slightly disappointed, but at the same time it was a big relief. The series built up my confidence as an actor, but it was also a terrific strain.” The strain told when he collapsed with a mild heart attack on a London stage in 1966. He continued to play the doctor on radio until 1978. But his first attempt to “bury” the television role flopped dismally, when a musical aptly named “Romance” closed the

West End after five days. More successful efforts followed as a secret agent in a five-part 8.8. C. series, “Scotch on the Rocks,” and as a veterinarian in another 8.8. C. . production, “The McKinnons.” He also appeared in the 8.8.C.’s four-part adaption of Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Kidnapped.” Between television parts he toured with various theatre companies and for the l&st two years, before his illness worsened, played Frank in a touring production of "Educating Rita.” In 1969 he was divorced from an actress, Mary Miller, after three years marriage. Another actress, Tracey Reed, who was playing a nurse in the Finlay series, was cited. Simpson married Reed in 1974, having two daughters, Kelly and Kate. But this marriage also ended after Simpson fell for Tracey’s best friend, Gunilia Mitchell. He then moved into Mitchell’s home at East .Hagbourne, Oxfordshire, just 3km from the home he had shared with Reed and their daughters. In spite of getting a divorce in 1982, Simpson said he had no plans to marry Mitchell. They continued to live together until he went to Spain several months ago in a bid to recover from his illness. Asked if he was a romantic, Simpson once replied: “Absolutely. That’s half my trouble. I get carried away.”