Lee Montague

Lee Montague, born Leonard Goldberg on 16 October 1927 in Bow, London, was an English actor whose career spanned stage, film, and television across more than seven decades. He died on 30 March 2025 at the age of 97. His family was Jewish; his father, a tailor, had emigrated from Russia, and his mother was of Lithuanian origin. Montague trained at the Old Vic Theatre School and built a reputation particularly for playing tough, forceful characters.

His Broadway career ran from 1952 to 1965. He made his Broadway debut playing Gregory Hawke in The Climate of Eden in 1952, and returned to Broadway in 1965 to portray Ed in Entertaining Mr. Sloane. Beyond Broadway, his stage work included a 1974 production of Who Saw Him Die by Tudor Gates at London's Theatre Royal Haymarket, in which he played John Rawlings, the nemesis of a former police superintendent portrayed by Stratford Johns. At the Royal Exchange in Manchester, he took on a range of demanding roles: Dr. Prentice in Joe Orton's What the Butler Saw, directed by Braham Murray in 1977; Mr. Antrobus in Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth, directed by Richard Negri and James Maxwell, also in 1977; and Barney Cashman in the British premiere of Neil Simon's Last of the Red Hot Lovers, directed by Eric Thompson in 1979. He continued at the Royal Exchange with the British premiere of Court in the Act by Maurice Hennequin in 1986, directed by Braham Murray, and the British premiere of Doctor Heart by Peter Muller in 1991, again under Murray's direction.

Montague's film work included The Camp on Blood Island, Billy Budd, The Secret of Blood Island, Deadlier Than the Male, Brother Sun Sister Moon, Jesus of Nazareth, Mahler, and The Legacy. His television credits were extensive, encompassing Somerset Maugham TV Theatre, Espionage, The Four Just Men, Danger Man, The Baron, The Troubleshooters, Department S, Dixon of Dock Green, The Sweeney, Holocaust, Space: 1999, Minder, The Chinese Detective, Bergerac, Bird of Prey, Dempsey and Makepeace, Jekyll and Hyde, Casualty, and Waking the Dead. In the sitcom Seconds Out, he held a recurring role as the manager of a boxer played by Robert Lindsay, and in Bergerac he appeared in multiple episodes as Henri Dupont. In 1965, Montague became the first storyteller on the BBC children's programme Jackanory, going on to narrate fifteen episodes between 1965 and 1966.

In his personal life, Montague resided in South End Green, Hampstead, in northwest London for 65 years, and was known locally for his involvement in saving Keats Library. He was married to fellow actor Ruth Goring for 67 years, until her death in 2023, and is survived by two children.