Downton Abbey and House of the Dragon actor Simon Russell Beale made a devastating end of life admission after being diagnosed with colon cancer. The Shakespearean legend, 65, starred as Sir Hector Moreland in the Grand Finale feature film based on the period drama, as well as appearing in everything from Blackadder to the Marvel universe over the years.

In a new interview with The Telegraph, he admitted: “I’ve been ill recently and lost a bit of weight. So I no longer have all my padding,” explaining that it’s “not very comfortable” to sit down nowadays. The actor revealed he had been diagnosed with colon cancer in April 2026, and he is still undergoing chemotherapy treatment.

He said: “They had discovered a blockage in my gut and that made me very ill.” He was taken to intensive care and eventually told it was cancer after a PET scan.

Simon asked the consultant bluntly: “Am I going to die?” and was told “Nonsense” – so now he “refuses to acknowledge that possibility”.

He added: “I mean, for all of us there will be a time when we do have to, but I’m not quite ready. They said they could cure it, and I thought, ‘Great.’”

Thankfully he has had “very few side effects” from treatment, other than losing weight and some of his voice, which he admits has gone “foggy”.

Simon lost his mother to pancreatic cancer in 2000, and when he was just 11 years old his four-year-old sister Lucy died from a missing chamber in her heart.

For Simon, it was being away from his “endlessly stimulating” job that was the “worst part” about being ill. He moved to a grand house in the country to recuperate, but said: “I realised there was absolutely nothing to do, which I hated.”