 After the war , Allan Webb resumed his stage career with the role of Count Almaviva in the 1946 Sadler 's Wells production of The Marriage of Figaro . In 1947 he appeared in the original run of the Vivian Ellis musical Bless the Bride , and made several further stage appearances in the following two years . During this time he had a brief affair with the actress Sydney Malcolm , a misjudgement for which Gibbons quickly forgave him . He left the theatre in 1949 to become a director of a book club specialising in special editions , and later bought a bookshop in the Archway district of London . His health failed in the late 1950s and in 1958 he was diagnosed with cancer of the liver . He died in July 1959 at Oakshott Avenue . 
