George Cole leaves £700k to Er Indoors and the kids (but nothing to children from first marriage)
ACTOR George Cole, who played wheeler-dealer Arthur Daley in the TV series Minder, left nothing in his will to his estranged daughter or son from his first marriage.
Cole, who died aged 90 in August, left the bulk of his £688,993 estate to second wife Penny, in addition to legacies for their two children, Tara and Toby. But the actor – famous for referring to his never-seen wife in Minder as ‘Er Indoors’ – made no mention in his will of his two older children, Harriet Angell and Crispin Cole, from his first marriage to actress Eileen Moore.
They married in 1954 but divorced eight years later after she ran off with her hairdresser. Cole won custody of the children and raised them alone until 1967 when he married actress Penny Morrell.
Harriet and Crispin returned to live with their mother and Cole had no more contact with his daughter.
He claimed he had repeatedly attempted a reconciliation but had been rebuffed.
Harriet, 58, a fitness instructor in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, told The Mail on Sunday: ‘I know nothing about his will or anything. I have no idea. Sorry, I am not going to talk to you.’ When told she did not feature in the will, she added: ‘No, of course, that’s fine. Thank you.’
Crispin, 55, a scriptwriter, was said to have been reconciled with his father many years before his death.
Cole, who lived with Penny near Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, left £10,000 in his will to Tara, 46, and £5,000 to Toby, 44. All three could also benefit from another £325,000 left in trust. The will gave power to Penny and Cole’s accountant to decide how to split the money.
Cole played a number of loveable rogues over a 70-year career, including spiv Flash Harry in the St Trinian’s comedy films. But his greatest success came when he was cast as shifty second-hand car salesman Arthur Daley in
Minder in 1979, with Dennis Waterman playing his sidekick and bodyguard Terry McCann. The original series ran for 15 years.
Cole’s role as cigar-smoking Daley landed him Bafta nominations in 1983 and 1985. He was also awarded the OBE in 1992.
The star was born in Tooting, South London, and was adopted when he was ten days old after being abandoned by his mother.
He got his first big break as an actor with a role in the 1941 film Cottage To Let, starring Alastair Sim, who with his wife unofficially adopted Cole.
Sim and Cole went on to appear in several of the St Trinian’s films about uncontrollable pupils at a girls’ school.
In 2013 the actor published his autobiography, The World Was My Lobster – a reference to one of Arthur Daley’s many malapropisms.