Nose on my Face was filmed as Girl in the Headlines (1963). By 1993, he had published 11 novels, and he has been called "one of the great humorists of the world of crime fiction". Personal life and death Payne was an enthusiastic oil painter, a self-taught pianist and an excellent fight director. In later years he worked regularly on radio, but in the 1990s he contracted septicaemia and there was subsequent brain damage. Suffering from vascular dementia, he spent the last three years of his life in a nursing home near Berwick-upon-Tweed. He was married twice. Selected filmography A Matter of Life and Death (1946) - Prosecuting Counsel (uncredited) Train of Events (1949) - Richard (segment "The Prisoner-of-War") Glad Tidings (1953) - Clive Askham The Face of Love (1954), BBC TV movie adaption of Troilus and Cressida in the leading role as Troilus Ill Met by Moonlight (1957) - Manoli Dangerous Exile (1957) - Lautrec A Tale of Two Cities (1958) - President of Tribunal (uncredited) The Trollenberg Terror (1958) - Philip Truscott Ben-Hur (1959) - Joseph (uncredited) The Tell-Tale Heart (1960) - Edgar Marsh The Singer Not the Song (1961) - Pablo The Third Alibi (1961) - Norman Martell The Queen's Guards (1961) - Farinda The Court Martial of Major Keller (1961) - Major Keller Barabbas (1961) - Disciple Crosstrap (1962) - Duke Mystery Submarine (1963) - Lt. Seaton Vampire Circus (1972) - Mueller The Message (1976) - Of one major role (voice) Romeo and Juliet (1976) (TV) - Capulet References External links The Stage website Obituary in The Guardian Obituary in The Daily Telegraph Obituary in The Times Obituary in The Independent English conscientious objectors English male film actors English Methodists English male stage actors English male television actors People educated at Tottenham Grammar School People from Wood Green English male Shakespearean actors 1919 births 2009 deaths English male novelists 20th-century English novelists Deaths from vascular dementia