After graduating from CSSD, and taking the stage name Maurice Colbourne from the obituary of a Shakespearian actorin The Stage, he worked first in repertory, then in alternative theatre, helping to found the Half Moon Theatre (now sadly defunct) in a disused synagogue in the East End of London, where, along with Michael Irving, Guy Sprung and others, he was an actor, director, set constructor, fundraiser, and occasional tenant.
Colbourne shifted his focus to filmand televisionin the mid-70s, after achieving recognition for his performance as John Kline in the Play for Today "Gangsters"(1975). He is probably best remembered today for his TV work, which included roles in such diverse series as "The Oneidin Line,""Doctor Who" and "Van der Valk,"not to mention his reprisal of the role of Kline when "Gangsters" was developed into a twelve-part series. Less well-known are his appearances in homegrown and Hollywood films, including Ridley Scott's "The Duelists" (1977) and the Disney period piece"Escape from the Dark" (released in the USA as "The Littlest Horse Thieves"; 1975/1977). His most extensive role was that of Tom in "Howard's Way," and it was while working on this series that he died, of a tragically premature heart attack while mending the roof of his new holiday home in Brittany in 1989.
Colbourne had been married to former nursing sister Chan Lian Si for over ten years at the time of his death, and the couple had one daughter. Colbourne also had another daughter by a previous marriage in the mid-1960s to an Icelandic writer.
