A respected British actor will forever be remembered for his generous and loving nature, after his death at the age of 66.

Richard Morant, who lived in Richmond for 30 years, died unexpectedly on Wednesday, November 9, after suffering an aneurysm. He left behind a wife and four children.

Morant’s wife of 30 years, Valerie, said many people knew her husband for his kind spirit and described him as the kind of man who would go out of his way to help others.

She said: “Richard was an incredibly generous person with his friends.

“He was very kind and the sort of person that you could always talk to. He always wanted to help other people and he was a terribly generous man who could never see people wanting for anything, even if he had nothing himself.”

Morant, a familiar face in area, grew up in a thespian family, following his aunt and uncle Linden and Bill Travers into the world of stage and television performances.

The confident actor starred in a range of productions throughout his career, including a stint playing school bully Flashman in a TV adaptation of Tom Brown’s Schooldays in the 1970s, a role as Prince Charles in a series called Woodstock and taking on the character of Mr Lenoir in a Famous Five adaptation.

In the past two years Morant had also made guest appearances on television shows New Tricks and Midsummer Murders.

Mrs Morant said: “He was, in his early days, very gregarious but he was much more meditative as he got older.

“Richard was a very spiritual man and very interested in things like Buddhism and did a lot of meditation.

“We were married for 30-odd years and we lived in Richmond for all that time and had a lot of happy memories here.”

Richard Morant’s funeral will take place at St John’s Wood Church, London, on Thursday, November 24.