Angela Scoular - a former 'James Bond' film actress and wife of the comic actor Leslie Phillips - died last April after drinking a corrosive cleaning liquid and pouring it over herself, Westminster Coroner's Court has heard. The 65-year-old actress, who had been suffering from bowel cancer, drank the liquid after battling with alcoholism, manic depression and worries over debts, reports the BBC.Scoular, who played Buttercup in the 1966 spoof 'Casino Royale' and Ruby Bartlett in 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service' in 1969, lived in Maida Vale, west London.
Coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox recorded a verdict that she killed herself 'while the balance of her mind was disturbed'.Scoular's death was not suicide, the coroner ruled.
The court heard Scoular suffered non-survivable 40 percent burns to her throat, body and dietary tract.The cause of death was ingestion of a corrosive substance and multiple fractures, said Wilcox.The coroner heard the actress died two hours after drinking the liquid, containing 91 percent sulphuric acid, and pouring it over her body.
The inquest was told Scoular had been diagnosed with cancer in 2008 and was given the all clear after treatment and surgery.But months before her death she began to fear the return of the disease.Scoular, who had battled alcoholism for years, used to drink between 150 and 210 units of alcohol a week.
Weeks before her death she was arrested for drink-driving while on bail after crashing her car in Wales.At the time she was on medication for bipolar disorder, the coroner heard.Phillips, 87, was too ill to attend the hearing but said in a statement read to the court that their life together was happy.
'The only exception was her alcoholism. But she was a kind, generous person who would help me with my work and I would help with hers,' he said.Scoular had made at least one previous attempt to kill herself in 1992 when she cut her wrists with a knife.
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