Francis Matthews

Francis Matthews (2 September 1927 – 14 June 2014) was an English actor, best known for playing Paul Temple in the BBC television series of the same name and for voicing Captain Scarlet in Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons.

Early life Matthews was born in York on 2 September 1927, to Henry and Kathleen Matthews. His father was a shop steward at the Rowntree's chocolate factory near York. then St Michael's Jesuit College in Leeds. On television, from 1969 to 1971, he played Francis Durbridge's amateur private detective Paul Temple in the BBC series of the same name.

Matthews starred opposite Morecambe and Wise in the films The Intelligence Men (1965) and That Riviera Touch (1966), which led to a close friendship with Eric Morecambe. (He divided his time, during the recording sessions, between his work there and his stage appearances in Noël Coward's play Private Lives.) Also in 1967 he appeared in The Avengers episode entitled "Mission ... Highly Improbable".

In the late 1970s, he served as narrator and host for Follow Me!, a BBC educational programme that offered a "crash course" in the English language to foreign viewers. In 1986, Matthews and his wife, Angela Browne, appeared together in the BBC adaptation of the Josephine Tey novel Brat Farrar. .

Matthews was married to actress Angela Browne from 1963 until her death in 2001; the couple had three sons. Two, Damien Matthews and Paul Rattigan, are actors; the other, Dominic, is an artist and musician.

Death Matthews died at the age of 86 on 14 June 2014, following a short illness. He was survived by his three sons, seven grandchildren, and his two siblings.

Filmography

Television

Theatre Help Stamp Out Marriage! (1966) – Stuart Wheeler Middle Age Spread (1980-1981) - Reg

Radio Radio version of the mostly erased tv series Not in Front of the Children - Henry Corner (BBC Radio 2, 1968-1969) Saturday-Night Theatre: Bonecrack by Dick Francis - Neil Griffon (BBC Radio 4FM, 1976) Cast, In Order of Disappearance – Charles Paris (BBC Radio 2, June 1984) So Much Blood – Charles Paris (BBC Radio 2, August 1985) The Case of the Cool Canary - Dick George (BBC Radio 4, 1986) More Work for the Undertaker - Albert Campion (BBC Radio 4, 1986) The Case of the Substitute Spouse - Dick George (BBC Radio 4, 1989) The Case of the Vanishing Vamp - Dick (BBC Radio 4, 1992) Murder at the Vicarage - Rev Leonard Clement (BBC Radio 4, 1993)