Roger Tonge - Sudden Death

Sudden Death

In 1981, after a long fight with Hodgkin's Disease - a cancer of the Lymph Glands - Tonge died aged only 35. He had caught chicken pox and died of heart failure, his system unable to cope with the infection. A constant companion at his side was his girlfriend, actress Sonia Fox who played Sheila Harvey in Crossroads. By the time of his death, she had already left the series and the couple had kept their romance secret from the press. Noele Gordon, who played Tonge's on-screen mother, paid tribute to him as the son she had never had in real life.