Gareth Hunt

Born: 7 February, 1942, in London. Died: 13 March, 2007, in Redhill, Surrey, aged 65.

GARETH Hunt was best-known for his role as the handsome, steely-eyed agent Mike Gambit, who karate-chopped crooks while flirting with Joanna Lumley's character Purdey in the 1970s TV series The New Avengers. After a lull, his career reprised during the following decade when he became the face of Nescaf TV ads, first shaking up in his hand, then sniffing "the finest coffee beans".

Despite massive success and popularity as both "Mr Smoothie" - the way he himself described Gambit - and the suave "Mr Coffee", he surprisingly failed to become an international star, indeed was forced to pick up minor film or TV soap opera roles for the rest of his career.

Tall, lithe, athletic and with a dandy-ish 1970s hairstyle, it could be said that his good looks, and stereotyping, worked against him after The New Avengers, yet he appeared equally at ease as bad guys in countless productions, including as gangland boss Richie Stringer in the "Who shot Phil?" storyline of EastEnders in 2001.

It might also be argued that his image as a dandy, and specifically The New Avengers' insistence on flared-trouser three-piece suits, neatly-knotted wide ties and giant cufflinks for their action man, did his future career little good. Lumley fared much better, her long legs and relatively-unique bobbed haircut becoming the show's star attractions and, some might say, its most memorable images.

Nor was Hunt aided by his scripts. Some blamed his often-wooden appearance on his acting but, in fact, the writers were under pressure to ensure Patrick Macnee's character, secret agent John Steed, remained the star and had the best lines. The original Avengers, starring Macnee as the umbrella-wielding, bowler-hatted Steed, partnered first by Honor Blackman and later Diana Rigg, had been a smash hit in the 1960s, picked up by TV stations worldwide until it was controversially ditched in 1969.

When a French-Canadian production company came up with the idea of a sequel series, and a 50-something Macnee signed up again, it was felt he was too old even to pretend to do the stunts. With Lumley as the sexy Purdey, it was felt a younger man had to be brought in to add "muscle" - and an extra layer of suggestive banter - to the equation. Hunt liked to say of the programme that "its premise was a promise" - an unspoken promise that Gambit and Purdey would "get together".

They never did and The New Avengers was generally seen as a pale imitation of the original, with Hunt appointed much of the blame for his "three's a crowd" role. It has nevertheless gathered a cult following, notably its first-ever episode (partly shot at Eilean Donan Castle), Eagle's Nest (1976), about a group of neo-Nazis posing as monks on a remote Scottish island and planning to reincarnate Hitler. Peter Cushing was the guest star.

Hunt, whose greatest claim to fame previously had been his role as Frederick Norton, footman to the Bellamy family in the hugely-popular Edwardian drama Upstairs, Downstairs (1974-75), landed the part as Gambit, ex-paratrooper and SAS, marksman and martial arts expert, a growing trend at the time.

By the time The New Avengers was pulled, after 26 episodes but little more than a year on the air, Hunt was a household name and face, apparently destined for international success. However, his follow-up films, such as The World is full of Married Men (1979), from a Jackie Collins book, and the uncryptically titled Bloodbath at the House of Death (1984), a spoof horror story starring Vincent Price and Kenny Everett, no less, were panned.

Alan Leonard Hunt, who took on Gareth as his stage name, was born in Battersea, south London, in 1942, to a coalman father who did not return from the war. He left school at 15, joined the Merchant Navy, jumped ship in New Zealand, got caught, was jailed for three months and then deported.

Back in England, he dug roads and worked in a butcher's shop to make ends meet before following in the footsteps of his famous aunt, actress Martita Hunt, and opting to tread the boards. He studied at the renowned Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art (as had Patrick Macnee), toured the regions with various repertory companies and finally joined the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre.

He got his first film role, as a policeman - a part he would often play in later stage and TV productions - in 1972's For the Love of Ada and his first proper TV role in the sitcom Bless This House (1974). The latter year also brought his real breakthrough when he appeared as Arak in the Planet of the Spiders series of stories on Dr Who, playing opposite Jon Pertwee in his final episodes as the Doctor.

Hunt popped up in various soaps and dramas in later years, including Minder, Side by Side, Night and Day and Dickens's The Old Curiosity Shop (1981). Despite failing health, he also continued to tour the country in plays, both thrillers and comedies, as well as pantomimes, appearing with Cilla Black in Aladdin.

Described by his career-long friend Lumley as "hysterically funny", Hunt said some of the greatest applause he ever got was at the Pier Theatre in Bournemouth in 2002, when he collapsed from a heart attack during the comedy Absurd Person Singular with Amanda Barrie. The audience thought it was part of the act until a cast member ran out shouting: "Is there a doctor in the house? I'm serious!"

Friends said he had kept his pancreatic cancer secret to all but close family and friends for the past two years, "having chemo one day, playing golf the next". He is survived by his third wife, Amanda, and by three sons.