Francis Bell (1944 - May 1994) was a UK-born Australian-based character actor who achieved international stardom playing the part of Max Ramsay in the early years of the popular soap opera, Neighbours. Soon after the serial switched to Channel Ten in early 1986 Bell abruptly went on sick leave. To accommodate the loss the new character of Max's brother Tom was hastily introduced. In the story Tom arrived to take the reigns of Max's plumbing business while Max was away; behind the scenes the scriptwriters went through the scripts replacing "Max" with "Tom", with Tom speaking the dialogue written for Max. Bell's Neighbours contract expired during his period of sick leave and he never returned to the series, meaning that Max never had a farewell scene. 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1944 calendar). ... Look up May in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated as the International Year of the Family and the International Year of the Sport and the Olympic Ideal by United Nations. ... Neighbours is a long-running Australian soap opera, which began on-air in March 1985. ...

He died after falling from a building in Auckland, New Zealand. The Auckland Metropolitan Area, or Greater Auckland, in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest urban area in New Zealand. ...