Death on the Pile

Simon MacCorkindale,the dashing British actor who turned heads in the star-studded 1978 film Death on the Nile and went on to play villains and charming Englishmen on numerous television shows in Britain and the United States, died on Thursday in London. He was 58.

His big break came at age 25 when he was cast in Death on the Nile, a big-budget screen adaptation of Agatha Christie’s novel, in which he played the trophy husband of the heiress, played by Lois Chiles, who is murdered aboard a Nile River cruiser. His co-stars included Peter Ustinov, Maggie Smith and Bette Davis.

He later had a recurring role as the conniving lawyer to Jane Wyman’s equally conniving Angela Channing in the prime-time CBS soap opera Falcon Crest. He also appeared on Dynasty, Hart to Hart and The Dukes of Hazzard, on which he played the snobby British cousin to the country bumpkin Duke brothers.

Here is the NY Times obit for Simon Charles Pendered MacCorkindale.