Gordon Reid, the Scottish character actor, has died after collapsing on stage during a production of Waiting for Godot.

Reid was born in Hamilton and trained for the theatre in Glasgow, but spent most of his career in London. He was much in demand and travelled all over the United Kingdom in both leading and character roles that varied from Macbeth, Lear, Falstaff and Polonius

in Shakespeare to plays by

J M Barrie, Alan Acykbourn,

Ibsen and Beckett, among very

many others.

It was while playing Beckett's Vladimir in Waiting for Godot in London that he collapsed on stage during the second act. It was a role to which he was particularly suited with its Hamlet-like philosophising about the meaning of life, solicitous tenderness to a companion in

distress and outbursts of emotional release. Although, on that night, the theatre was suffering from technical problems with the lighting, the audience was electrified by a stunningly moving rendition of the play

by the Godot Company, a

co-operative of actors of which Gordon was a founder-member. Those present left the unfinished play and the theatre in shocked silence.

Gordon Reid was educated at Hamilton Academy and trained to be an accountant before realising that his true vocation was to be an actor. He then went to the Royal Scottish College of Drama. He was soon playing in Scottish theatres and then in London ones.

Having a fine singing voice, he was in many West End musicals, but his Scottish accent led to his being cast in suitable roles in films, and television and radio plays, as well as such popular serials as Doctor Finlay's Casebook and Taggart. He played many parts in BBC's Wednesday Play series, Thames Television's Armchair Theatre, Granada Television's The Lady Killers, and in recent years his voice was heard on many radio plays.

He could bring a wide range of theatrical emphases to the many parts in which he was cast: he could be a hard man or a tender one, loving or hateful, funny or tragic, as much at home in a music hall act as in a major classic.

But above all, he had the affection and admiration of all with whom he worked as well as a wide circle of friends outside the theatre. A convivial personality, a sparkling conversational presence, he bubbled over with joie de vivre, and

tragic though his death has been, his colleagues all knew that he would not have wanted to die any other way.

He was a total man of the theatre, indifferent to success or financial reward, only interested in bringing his talent to give his public the best possible interpretation of the role he was playing. He will be much missed.

Gordon Reid is survived in Scotland by two sisters,

Marjory Heck and Alison Reid. He never married.

Gordon Reid, actor; born September 6 1939, died November 26 2003.