Bruce Montague obituary

The actor Bruce Montague, who has died of cancer aged 83, will be best remembered by TV viewers for his role in Butterflies as the divorced business executive Leonard Dunn in a “will they, won’t they?” relationship with Ria Parkinson, played by Wendy Craig.

The sitcom’s writer, Carla Lane, described Butterflies as a “situation tragedy”. In her 40s and going through a mid-life crisis, Craig’s stay-at-home wife feels unappreciated and bored with her dull dentist husband, Ben (played by Geoffrey Palmer), whose hobby is collecting butterflies.

This tale from middle-class suburbia was a slow-burner, starting quietly on BBC Two with Ria meeting the well-groomed Leonard in a restaurant and seeing a possible route out of two decades of marriage. The comedy lies in the fact that over four series (1978-83) she never takes the plunge as she wistfully continues life with her husband and two teenage sons while dreaming of what could happen.

Repeats on BBC One attracted audiences of up to 15 million, ensuring that the programme kept going. It drew reactions that were both complimentary and derogatory towards Montague.

“I received hundreds of letters from viewers – even marriage proposals, particularly from America,” he told the journalist Richard Webber in 2014. “The sitcom was so popular in New York that my character had his own fan club … but, because of Leonard’s relationship with Ria, I also experienced people saying, ‘How dare you do that to another man’s wife?’ Some people took the series too seriously!”

Bruce was born in Deal, Kent, and left school in 1954, aged 15, to go to Rada. He graduated five years later, completing his training following national service as an aerial photographer with the RAF’s 656 squadron in Malaya (Malaysia).

He gained repertory theatre experience in Birmingham (1959-60) and Colchester (1961-62), then joined the Old Vic theatre company in London for a world tour (1961-62). He particularly enjoyed acting alongside Vivien Leigh in Duel of Angels, Twelfth Night and other plays. “She was a perfectionist,” he said. “A woman to give you standards.”

Montague made his first impression on television as Inspector Larbi throughout the first series of Crane (1963), starring Patrick Allen as a cafe owner and smuggler on the coast of Morocco.

Then, between 1967 and 1971, he directed and acted in stage productions in New Zealand, where he was co-founder of the Mercury theatre in Auckland (1968), and Australia, where he wrote the festive musical Skippy Saves Christmas (1970-71).

While there, he also landed two starring television roles, as Stanton, the English professor among a group of Mensa members, in the thriller series The Alpha Plan (1969) and Detective Sergeant Harry Sutton in the crime drama The Link Men (1970). Back in Britain, Montague was prolific on stage during the 1970s, his roles including the assistant hotel manager in A Touch of Spring at the Comedy (now Harold Pinter) theatre in 1975 and 1976.

Television viewers then began to see more of him. He played the doctor, Michael Pearson, tending Nyree Dawn Porter’s terminally ill character in the afternoon serial For Maddie With Love (1980).

Making his mark in screen comedy for the first time, in the doomsday satire Whoops Apocalypse (1982), written by Andrew Marshall and David Renwick, Montague acted the deposed Shah of Iran, Mashiq Rassim, shunted around the world looking for refuge.

After Butterflies, he had a regular supporting role in another popular sitcom, Sharon and Elsie (1984-85), as Roland Beecroft, husband of Brigit Forsyth’s snobbish middle-aged, middle-class office administrator who surprises herself by befriending Janette Beverley’s young, working-class secretary.

Montague kept popping up in comedies and dramas, and, later, in 2015, had a run in the teen soap Hollyoaks as Derek Clough, a character far removed from his Butterflies persona. Derek was the abusive former boyfriend of Marlena “Nana” McQueen (Diane Langton), who allowed him to spend his final days in her home when he was dying. But she was shocked when her daughter Reenie (Zöe Lucker) came round to reveal that he had raped her and was the father of her daughter Porsche (Twinnie-Lee Moore) – telling her just as Derek was having a heart attack. They left him to die.

In 2019, he was reunited with his fellow Butterflies star Craig in an episode of the daytime serial Doctors when they were cast as married pensioners, Connie and Clyde, suspected of stealing the GP surgery’s charity tin.

On stage, Montague had a starring role as Barney Cashman, the middle-aged fish restaurateur making a belated attempt to join the sexual revolution, in Neil Simon’s comedy Last of the Red Hot Lovers at the Strand (now Novello) theatre in 1989.

But the second half of his West End career was dominated by roles in musicals: the constable in Fiddler on the Roof (London Palladium, 1993-94); Mr Brownlow in Oliver! (London Palladium, 1997-98); Monsieur Firmin in The Phantom of the Opera (Her Majesty’s theatre, 2001-02); and Florenz Ziegfeld in Funny Girl (Savoy theatre, 2016-17).

His last major musical role was a beautiful comic turn as the Broadway musical financier Abner Dillon in 42nd Street (Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, 2017-19), alongside Sheena Easton’s fading star, Dorothy Brock.

In 1962, Montague married the novelist Barbara Latham; she died in April this year. Their children, Sam and Kate, survive him.

• Bruce Alexander Montague, actor and director, born 24 March 1939; died 16 August 2022