Professionals star Lewis Collins - the man who was 'too aggressive' to be James Bond - dies after five-year battle with cancer
Actor played Bodie in the crime drama
Collins auditioned for James Bond, but rejected for being 'too aggressive'
Father-of-three Collins, 67, died in Los Angeles yesterday, agent says
Star was surrounded by his family
By Lucy Crossley
Published: | Updated:
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Professional: Lewis Collins as tough guy Bodie in the 1970s show
Actor Lewis Collins, star of the cult television show The Professionals, has died at the age of 67.
Collins, who played taciturn tough guy Bodie alongside Martin Shaw, had fought a five-year battle with cancer.
'He died peacefully at his Los Angeles home surrounded by his family. Privacy is asked for at this very sad time,' his agent said in a statement.
Speaking yesterday, Shaw paid tribute to his co-star.
'I was very sad to hear today that Lewis has died,' he said.
'We spent a very tough four years together in making The Professionals, and shared in the production of what has become an icon of British Television.
'He will be remembered as part of the childhood of so many people, and mourned by his fans. I send my love and condolences to his family, and the great many who will miss him.'
Father-of-three Collins, who was born in Merseyside, lived with his wife Michelle and sons Oliver, Elliot, and Cameron in Los Angeles in the years before his death.
Known for his role as tough-guy Bodie, Collins was a popular character in The Professionals, which was famed for its Ford Capris, tight trousers, and 1970s rule-free approach to policing.
The Professionals made stars of Collins and Shaw, was based around the adventures of a fictional crime fighting unit called CI5, which had been instructed by the Home Secretary to use any means necessary to deal with serious crime.
Former paratrooper and SAS solider William Bodie, played by Collins, was a keen partier and ladies man, more relaxed than his on-screen partner Raymond Doyle, who was brought to life by Shaw.
The duo answered to George Cowley, the founder and head of CI5 played by Gordon Jackson, who would tell his agents to 'fight fire with fire' in order to get their targets.
Father: Collins had three sons, Oliver, Elliot and Cameron and was photographed picking one of his children up from a sports event in Los Angeles in 2011
Icon: The actor died peacefully surrounded by his family, according to his agent
The show's memorable theme tune and action-packed plots made it a huge hit on ITV in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Initially, Anthony Andrews, best known for Brideshead Revisted, was contracted to play Bodie, but he and Shaw did not have the chemistry that producers were looking for.
STARS PAY TRIBUTE TO COLLINS
Michael Grade: 'He was Bodie. A big hunky macho character with a lovely innocence about him.'
Piers Morgan: 'Sad news about Lewis Collins. Terrifically cool actor. Loved watching The Professionals as a kid. RIP.'
Colin Baker: 'He was the year below me at drama school. Had style!'
Born in Birkenhead, Wirral, Collins started out as a hairdresser before he started playing drums and guitar in pop groups, and had a number of other jobs before he decided to become an actor.
After training at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and performing on numerous theatre tours, he won the role that would make him famous in 1977, continuing until the series ended in 1981.
Explosive; Collins (right) with co-stars Martin Shaw (left) and Gordon Jackson (centre) on the set of The Professionals in 1978
Action hero: Collins's character William Bodie was a ruthless former paratrooper who was not afraid to take on criminals including terrorists, hit-men and spies
In 1982 he auditioned for the role of James Bond but his audition was deemed 'too aggressive'.
'I was in Albert R Broccoli's office for five minutes, but it was really over for me in seconds,' he reportedly said.
'He's expecting another Connery to walk through the door and there are few of them around.'
Outside of The Professionals, which is currently being re-shown on ITV Four, his best known role came playing SAS officer Captain Peter Skellen in the 1982 film Who Dares Wins.
He subsequently applied to join the Territorial SAS, a unit open to part-time reservists but was rejected because of his fame, despite passing the entrance tests.
He also appeared in 1970s sitcom The Cuckoo Waltz, which dealt with the comic complications that ensue when impoverished newlyweds Chris and Fliss Hawthorne, played by David Roper and Diane Keen, take in a lodger, Gavin Rumsey (Collins) to ease their financial problems.
Family man: Collins with wife Michelle Larrett and their 19-month old son Oliver at their wedding in 1992. The couple had three sons
Hollywood calling: The actor was born in the Wirral but relocated to Los Angeles where he lived in this low-key house with his family
Collins had another taste of on-screen policing when he played Dr Peter Alan, a research scientist in need of police protection, in a 2002 episode of The Bill.
In early 2012, Collins was cast to play Earl Godwin in the historically based feature film production of 1066, although in June 2013 it was reported that he had withdrawn from the production.
He married teacher Michelle Larrett in 1992, and the couple went on to have their three sons.
Daredevil: Collins vaulting a railing above the streets of London in 1981. He auditioned for James Bond, but was told he was 'too aggressive' for the part
Soldier: Outside of The Professionals, his best known role came playing SAS officer Captain Peter Skellen in the 1982 film Who Dares Wins, alongside Ingrid Pitt (centre) and Mark Ryan (right)
Return to screens: Lewis Collins in ITV police drama The Bill
Many of Collins's friends and former colleagues were quick to pay tribute to the actor.
Former BBC chairman, and ITV executive chairman Michael Grade said of the actor: 'He was Bodie.
'A big hunky macho character with a lovely innocence about him.'
Creator of The Professionals Brian Clemens told the BBC: 'I thought he would have made a marvellous Bond.
'He was tough and he could fight, he looked good, he was handsome and he had this nice sense of humour.'
Sensitive side: Bodie often hid his intelligent side behind his macho image, enjoying English literature and playing the piano
Doctor Who star Colin Baker tweeted: 'Sad to hear that Lewis Collins has died. He was the year below me at drama school. Had style!'
Brian Conley, who played Collins's son in 1999 series The Grimleys wrote: 'God bless lewis Collins, my dad in The Grimleys. A great actor and a lovely man.'
Actress Daniella Westbrook also paid tribute to Collins on Twitter saying: 'So sad to hear the handsome & talented Lewis Collins has lost his battle to cancer today. He was a true gent. Sending love to his family.'
ALL ACTION HERO: FROM DETECTIVES TO SAS SOLDIERS, LEWIS COLLINS'S GREATEST ON-SCREEN MOMENTS
Collins made his on-screen debut in 1974 in an episode of another famous police show, Z-Cars. He enjoyed bit-parts in a number of popular programmes, including The New Avengers, and played lodger Gavin Rumsey in comedy The Cuckoo Waltz.
It was in 1977 when he got his big break, winning the role of former SAS man William Bodie in hit show The Professionals, starring alongside Martin Shaw and Gordon Jackson.
The series ended in 1981, and the year after viewers were treated to another famous Collins role - Captain Peter Skellen - in Who Dares Wins, which was loosely based on the Iranian Embassy siege in 1980.
In 1988 Collins played Sergeant George Godley in the miniseries Jack The Ripper, which also starred Michael Caine as Chief Inspector Frederick Abberline.
Collins returned to television screens in 2002, when he appeared in an episode of The Bill.
After The Professionals concluded, Collins went on to play several relatively minor TV roles – including a sheriff of Nottingham in Robin of Sherwood (1986), and Colonel Mustard in six episodes of a British TV game-show adaptation of Cluedo (1991-92).
It was. Lewis's main co-star in this episode was Martin Shaw, and the two reputedly did not get on well together. This was noted by the production team, who remembered it just a few weeks later when they had to replace an actor in their latest venture, a new T.V. series called The Professionals.
The scar on Martin's right cheek was the result of a vicious attack by muggers. His cheekbone had to be replaced by a plastic plate. He gave up alcohol after this attack and is also a strict vegetarian and a non-smoker. Martin has a private pilot's licence and owns a Boeing Stearman, a vintage bi-plane.
The show was discontinued in 1981 (although the last episode wasn't shown until 1983 because of a backlog) when Collins and Shaw chose not to renew their contracts. The ending was an explosive crash between an inflatable dinghy carrying Bodie and Doyle and the launch they were chasing.
So unhappy was Shaw, he made it clear to Lewis Collins that he resented his being cast. Unlike the on screen camaraderie between Doyle and Bodie, Martin Shaw and Lewis Collins had little time for each other. According to Shaw, both men were quite abrasive toward one another.
The sixth and last series concluded on 18 January 2007. The programme then went on an indefinite break after Shaw became involved in another television programme (Inspector George Gently), and he and Seagrove expressed a wish for the format of the series to change before they filmed new episodes.
Martin has appeared in a series of well-loved roles, mainly in crime dramas and detective series. In 2021, it was announced that he'd be joining the cast of ITV detective drama The Long Call as Dennis Stephenson, a spiritual brethren leader.
"The writers thought George needed another challenge, so we're exploring Multiple Sclerosis. It's a disease that comes and goes, but is present in the whole of the new four-part series."
Over the years the car naturally deteriorated and was taken off the road in 1995, the owner at that time intending to restore it. For whatever reason this didn't happen and the chap decided to sell the car "as is" in Novemebr 2003... ...
The good news is, the first season of "Professionals" has already been shot and is ready to go whenever The CW bosses want, with cast and crew completing production in late 2019, so it's definitely coming.
Inglis Hi-Power. Inglis Hi-Power is used by Bodie (Lewis Collins) and Doyle (Martin Shaw) as their standard weapon for the first two seasons of the show. This particular version of the Hi-Power was manufactured during WWII in Canada.
Criminal Intelligence 5 (also known as CI5) is a fictional national law enforcement agency featured in the ITV1-Sky1 crime action series The Professionals and CI5:The New Professionals.
Filming. The movie, which was shot in Technicolor, was filmed in Death Valley, Valley of Fire and around Coachella Valley in California. The rail scenes were filmed on Kaiser Steel's Eagle Mountain Railroad. The steam locomotive seen in the movie currently resides on the Heber Valley Railroad.
Raymond Doyle (Martin Shaw) (born c. 1949), a former police detective constable, who originated in Derby but later lived in an unspecified "city" with parallels to Birmingham. He was working the seedier parts of east London when recruited into CI5.
Collins was super-fit, a part-time paratrooper from the docks of Birkenhead. After the show ended, he applied to join the Special Air Service, and passed the initial selection stages for the territorial unit 21 SAS, before senior officers ruled that his celebrity status made him a security risk.
A young Lewis Collins who was in a band called the mojos then he went on to become famous in an acting career, he is probably best known for playing William Bodie in The Professionals.
Martin Shaw Net Worth: Martin Shaw is an English actor who has a net worth of $25 million. Martin Shaw is best-known for his roles in television series "The Chief", "Judge John Deed", "Inspector George Gently" and "The Professionals".
The final series sees Bacchus, now a Detective Inspector, in a very low place. Heartbroken after a failed relationship, he is doing everything in his power to ignore his pain, numbing himself with drink, which causes him to act more unprofessionally than usual.
Ingleby's next role is in Netflix's ambitious new crime drama Criminal, a series comprising 12 different stories set across four countries – and filmed in four languages.
I especially like filming in Durham. As a non-smoker, how did you cope with all the smoking? I do it because it makes it more authentic and just sets the period so well, as in those days everyone did smoke.
He now resides in Norfolk and is the patron of the Hillside Animal Sanctuary in Frettenham and in 2006 he presented a six-part Discovery Real Time series Martin Shaw: Aviators which followed the restoration of his plane at Old Buckenham Airfield.
Collins was super-fit, a part-time paratrooper from the docks of Birkenhead. After the show ended, he applied to join the Special Air Service, and passed the initial selection stages for the territorial unit 21 SAS, before senior officers ruled that his celebrity status made him a security risk.
A young Lewis Collins who was in a band called the mojos then he went on to become famous in an acting career, he is probably best known for playing William Bodie in The Professionals.
According to his official character history, Bodie's full name is William Andrew Phillip Bodie, and he is originally from Liverpool, and of Irish descent. His mother was a royalist, and named him after various Princes.
Introduction: My name is The Hon. Margery Christiansen, I am a bright, adorable, precious, inexpensive, gorgeous, comfortable, happy person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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