Maida Vale actor pays tribute to his late wife Angela Scoular after her death on Monday

Former Bond girl Angela Scoular, the wife of actor Leslie Phillips, has died aged 65 after an incident at their Maida Vale home on Monday.

Ms Scoular, who was battling bowel cancer, was rushed by air ambulance from their home at about 1.50pm but was pronounced dead later that afternoon. It has been reported that she downed a quantity of toxic liquid in an apparent suicide.

Speaking from their Maida Vale home, Mr Phillips, 86, told the Wood&Vale: “I am completely stunned and shattered at the moment. I’m trying to get myself together.

“It’s the worst thing I have seen in my life, the story behind it is so ghastly I can’t bring myself to talk about it.

“She’s not been well for ages, she had cancer and they didn’t catch it early. It started to spread and she had been in and out of hospital for ages and had got into a deep depression.”

The couple married in 1982 and, although they didn’t have any children together, Mr Phillips brought up Ms Scoular’s son, Daniel.

A talented actress, she appeared in James Bond films Casino Royale in 1966 and On Her Majesty’s Secret Service in 1969.

Her other film credits include A Countess From Hong Kong alongside Marlon Brando and Sophia Loren in 1967 and Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush in the same year.

She also appeared in many TV series including You Rang M’Lord, As Time Goes By, The Avengers and Coronation Street.

Mr Phillips says he remembers their happiest times spent at their holiday home in Ibiza. “Before we married, she had done some wonderful movies working with Brando and Charlie Chaplin,” he said.

“She was such a gorgeous girl and later she got down to living and life rather than career.”