Daily Mail article on Simon MacCorkindale’s memorial
He made thousands of fans over an acting career which spanned three decades, and it seemed his closest friends were keen to show the actor was still not far from their minds on Wednesday.
Friends and family of the late actor Simon MacCorkindale gathered at a remembrance service at the Actors Church, otherwise known as St Paul’s in Covent Garden to pay their respects to the talented actor.
Susan speaks again about loosing Simon and how she is coping with the loss
Everywhere around the house there are framed photos of her and Simon entwined in each other’s arms.
‘I feel as if it were only yesterday that he and I were sitting here together,’ she says. She stops and turns her head to gaze out of the window as her large blue eyes start to fill with tears.
Then, recovering her composure, she continues to talk about the loss of the love of her life. ‘I know Simon lives on with me in everything I do. I also know he’d never want it to be too much for me, because he had so much belief in me. Now my whole purpose in life is to follow the dream we both had. A lot of people expected I wouldn’t carry on with the horses after what happened. But I couldn’t stop.’
Simon, star of Casualty, dies in arms of his wife Susan George
SIMON MacCorkindale, the film star who became a stalwart of the BBC drama Casualty, has died after a four-year battle with cancer.
The 58-year-old died in the arms of his wife, Susan George, at a clinic in Harley Street.
In a statement released last night, the actress said: ‘No one could have fought this disease any harder than he did since being diagnosed four years ago.
‘He fought it with such strength, courage and belief. Last night, he lost this battle, and he died peacefully in my arms.
When Simon MacCorkindale suddenly left TV’s Casualty no one suspected that he was keeping a tragic secret: he had cancer and had been given just five years to live. Now, in this raw and inspiring interview, he and his wife Susan George reveal their daily battle to be strong – and prove doctors wrong
FOR more than three years, he kept it a secret even from his closest friends. Former Casualty star Simon MacCorkindale, who played handsome consultant Harry Harper in the popular BBC series, told very few he was battling cancer. Even after the disease had spread to his lungs and doctors gave him just five years to live, he and his wife, the iconic Seventies actress Susan George, decided they did not want everyone to know.
‘I didn’t want to make a fuss,’ says Simon. ‘We are very private people and wanted to deal with it on our own.’
Simon and Susan speak with the News of the World and Daily Mail about his brave continuing battle with cancer. Beautifully dignified interviews about this three year struggle. Brilliant man describing his inspirational journey over the past three years.
A message of support has already been sent to Simon from the site. We obviously will continue sending our devoted love and support to both Simon & Susan for the future & believe one hundred percent he will get through this.
They are both in our thoughts and prayers at this difficult time.
So What’s It like Being Married to The World’s Sexiest Woman?
Friends with Prince Charles. Wed to Susan George. New Star of The Sound Of Music . . . it’s not easy being Simon MacCorkindale
Simon MacCorkindale will, I suspect, make a rather good Captain Von Trapp; not least because he appears to share some of the characteristics of The Sound Of Music’s famously stern Austrian paterfamilias.
There’s the brisk, martial manner for starters, a certain lack of levity and an absolute absence of sentimentality.
Simon, who takes over the captain’s role in the hit West End musical on Monday, is rehearsing the part with his habitual fastidious attention to detail when I arrive at the London Palladium to meet him.
Casualty star Simon MacCorkindale has spoken for the first time about the moment he became a hit-and-run driver, abandoning a seriously injured cyclist in a remote country lane.
The 55-year-old actor, who plays consultant Harry Harper in the BBC hospital drama, hit John Lilley in a narrow lane near Taunton, Somerset, in 2005.
But instead of stopping to help, he made the split-second decision to continue on to Casualty rehearsals in Bristol.
Half an hour later, his conscience got the better of him and he called an ambulance to the scene.
MacCorkindale then drove to a police station to report the accident.
Simon MacCorkindale:
Why I need time away from Susan
This site looks like it’s no longer online, so here is the full article.
Simon MacCorkindale is convinced he would have become the Army’s youngest general. He feels his dogged determination, dashing looks and slavish adherence to discipline would have sent him hurtling up the ranks. Indeed, thanks to his father’s contacts, a glittering military career was once guaranteed; instead, he chose to become the nearly man of British cinema, a decision he puts down to an in-built self-destruct button which he presses whenever his life is running smoothly.
To the horror of his family, Simon put showbusiness before the Army, and his role opposite Mia Farrow in Agatha Christie’s Death On The Nile in 1978 won him the Most Promising Film Actor award when he was 26. From there, anything seemed possible. Only now, years later, after disappearing from the movie actor radar, is he acting again, this time as Harry Harper, a dashing doctor in the BBC’s hospital drama, Casualty. He is expected to cause a stir with his character, who is married but has a penchant for sexy girls; a natural extension to the love-rat image from his TV heyday in the 1980s, when he played Greg Reardon in Falcon Crest.
