The New Avenger Gareth Hunt dies of cancer at 65

The actress Joanna Lumley led tributes yesterday to the actor Gareth Hunt, her co-star in the 1970s fantasy adventure series The New Avengers, who has died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 65.

Ms Lumley, who played Purdey opposite Hunt's secret agent, Mike Gambit, in the sequel to The Avengers, recalled the hysterics she and Hunt shared in far-fetched scenes where they were "driving or fighting people" together.

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Hunt, whose character was drafted in because producers feared 53-year-old Patrick Macnee, the ubiquitous Steed, might not handle the stuntwork, made it one of his defining roles in a long and varied television career. Playing a former mercenary and kung fu expert, his verbal sparring with Purdey became legendary.

Hunt will also be remembered by many as being the man with the handful of coffee beans in the 1980s Nescafé ad.

Hunt, who grew up in Battersea, south London, joined the Merchant Navy when he was 15 to satisfy an ambition to travel. It didn't suit him: he ended up in a military prison for three months after jumping ship in New Zealand. He also worked as a road digger and a door-to-door salesman, but acting was in Hunt's blood - he was the nephew of the Hollywood actress Martia Hunt - and he won a place at London's Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art. He went on to join the Royal Shakespeare Company.

He had appeared in television shows including Doctor Who and Bless This House, when he got his big break in 1975 playing the footman Frederick Norton in Upstairs, Downstairs. It was that role which won him his part in The New Avengers in 1976, which ran for just a year. Later roles included the crime boss Ritchie Stringer, who was a suspect in the "who shot Phil Mitchell?" EastEnders storyline in 2001.

Though diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2004, he worked to the end of his life. He acted in the BBC series Doctors and New Tricks, and in the movie The Riddle with Vanessa Redgrave and Vinnie Jones last year.

In 2002 Hunt collapsed on stage at the Bourne-mouth Pier Theatre with a suspected heart attack, to the bewilderment of an audience which assumed his agony was part of the drama and continued clapping. His co-star, Robert Beck, the former Emmerdale actor, eventually dashed from the wings shouting: "Is there a doctor in the house? I'm serious." The curtain came down and nurses rushed to his aid.

Lumley said: "We started off as friends in The New Avengers and remained that way for more than 30 years. I loved him so much. Gareth was also a very good actor, which was often overlooked. He started life in the RSC and he was just terrific. He kept his illness quiet; only his family and a few close friends knew. I went out with him for his birthday in February and he was pretty frail, but still hysterically funny. I always looked forward to seeing him. He was loved by everyone who knew him."

Hunt's agent, Alexandra McLean-Williams, said: "Hardly anybody knew he was ill. He continued to work and up until new year. You would never have realised anything was wrong. This will have come as a huge shock to Gareth's colleagues and admirers as he fought this dreadful disease privately and bravely."

Hunt leaves his wife, Amanda, and three sons.

Tracing the Avengers

Patrick Macnee; Steed

Patrick Macnee created the role of the urbane Steed in the original Avengers series. As well as The New Avengers, he starred as the boss man in The Return of The Man from U.N.C.L.E in 1983 and Hungerford in the 1990s series Superforce. But he has profited most from his role as Steed, which earned him a part in The Pretenders' video "Don't Get Me Wrong", and Oasis' "Don't Look Back in Anger". Lives quietly with third wife, Baba, and his dogs in southern California.

Joanna Lumley; Purdey

The New Avengers was the series that made Lumley a star - her trademark pageboy bob launched a thousand imitations. Among many television roles, her performance as the Bollinger-swigging fashion editor Patsy Stone alongside Jennifer Saunders and Julia Sawalha in Absolutely Fabulous ranks as one of the most memorable. Lumley went on to star in another French and Saunders collaboration, the 2006 sitcom Jam and Jerusalem.