Bond actress drank drain cleaner
Angela Scoular, 65, drank the One Shot Drain Cleaner after battling with alcoholism, manic depression and worries over debts, Westminster Coroner's Court heard.
The actress, who played Ruby Bartlett in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, suffered 40% burns to her body, throat and dietary tract with the cleaner containing 91% sulphuric acid.
Ms Scoular, whose inquest was heard in her married name of Phillips, was pronounced dead at 5.34pm in hospital on April 11, just over two hours after drinking the drain cleaner. Her injuries were non-survivable.
She had battled alcoholism and depression for years and was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2008. She underwent radiotherapy, chemotherapy, had surgery to remove diseased tissue and was given the all-clear, but in the months before her death she feared the cancer would return.
The anxiety was compounded by drinking between 150 and 210 units of alcohol a week and by manic behaviour. She spent money she did not have, incurred parking fines and was convicted of drink-driving. Several weeks before her death, when she was taking too much medication for bipolar disorder, she was arrested for drink-driving while on bail after crashing the couple's car in Wales.
On the morning of her death, Ms Scoular was given breakfast in bed by her husband. Mr Phillips, a star of the Carry On and Doctor films, thought she had stayed there and did not know she had got up.
Unbeknown to him, his wife of 35 years had found the bottle of drain cleaner and swallowed it. She ran outside, poured the acid over herself and slipped down the stairs to their house, fracturing her spine.
Mr Phillips, 87, had heard a noise at the door but thought nothing of it until he heard a passer-by outside and looked out of the window and saw his wife. He ran outside to her aid before returning inside where he phoned an ambulance and got towels and water for her.
The star, who was too ill to attend the inquest, said in a statement that their life together was happy. "The only exception was her alcoholism," he said. "Angela had been an alcoholic since I met her. She did stop drinking from time to time but would return to drinking. She was a nervous type of person, not confident. But she was a kind, generous person who would help me with my work and I would help with hers. She was lovely when she was sober."
