Actor who starred as Rupert Campbell-Black in the TV series Riders in the 1990s and in the Rambo and Evil Dead film franchises
The actor Marcus Gilbert, who has died of throat cancer aged 67, attained sex-symbol status in two television adaptations of Barbara Cartland novels, and then the raunchy drama Riders, based on Jilly Cooper’s Rutshire Chronicles series of books.
As the bed-hopping Rupert Campbell-Black in Riders (1993), and featuring in around 20 candid sex scenes in the mini-series, Gilbert was portraying a cad very different from the dashing heroes of Cartland’s hearts-and-flowers stories. The character was a ruthless rival in both the equestrian and romantic stakes to Jake Lovell (played by Michael Praed), Rupert’s fellow showjumper and the boarding school contemporary he bullied.
