Donald Marland Hewlett (born 30th August 1920 in Northenden, Manchester; died 4th June 2011 in Chelsea, London) appeared on Coronation Street in September 1965 as accountant Robert Maxwell, who suffered a fatal heart attack while driving Elsie Tanner back home from the Fox and Hounds pub in Wilmslow.
Educated at Clifton College in Bristol, he then attended St John's College, Cambridge, studying geography and meteorology before serving in the Royal Navy. Stationed at Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands for several years, he was a founding member of the Kirkwall Arts Club.
He was best known for his regular roles in two long-running BBC sitcoms. In 1974, he debuted as Colonel Reynolds in wartime saga It Ain't Half Hot Mum, which followed the exploits of a British concert party in India in 1945, and also featured Windsor Davies, George Layton and Kenneth MacDonald. He appeared in all 56 episodes of the series, concluding in 1981. Then, from 1988 to 1993, he starred as the titular Lord George Meldrum in 26 episodes of You Rang, M'Lord? opposite Angela Scoular and John Horsley.
Other TV credits included The Vise, Probation Officer, Compact, Sergeant Cork, You Can't Win, The Very Merry Widow, Doctor Who, Now Look Here, Warship, Crown Court, Rogue's Rock, Come Back Mrs. Noah with Mollie Sugden, The Ruth Rendell Mysteries, Pulaski and The Upper Hand.
Film roles include Adolf Hitler - My Part in His Downfall, Carry on Behind and Confessions of a Driving Instructor.
On stage, he appeared in productions of The Girl Who Couldn't Quite, Fresh Fields, The Provok'd Wife, Home at Seven, Point of Departure, Home and Beauty, Peril at End House and Misalliance for the Oxford Playhouse Company. Other works include Getting Married, Grab Me a Gondola, A Woman Named Anne, Two Into One and The Wind in the Willows.
He retired from performing after developing epilepsy, caused by a damaged heart valve, and later suffered from Alzheimer's disease. He died from pneumonia at the age of 90. His first two marriages ended in divorce and in 1979, he wed his third wife, actress Therese McMurray, who survived him.
