SeaChange actor Tom Long dies aged 50

One of Australia’s best-loved actors has paid tribute to SeaChange star Tom Long after his death at the age of 51.

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Australian actor Tom Long has died at the age of 51 after a lengthy battle with cancer.

The star had been diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a cancer of the plasma cells in the bone marrow, in 2012.

David Wenham, Long’s co-star on the hit series SeaChange, paid tribute to the late star, describing him as “a beautiful human being”.

Vale Tom Long A sublime actor and beautiful human being

— David Wenham (@WenhamDavid) January 5, 2020

Award-winning actor Anthony Hayes, who starred in The Slap, posted a moving tribute to Long, describing him as “all heart”.

Tom Long was the most precious human beings. All heart. All kindness. All love and humour. I’ll miss him dearly. What an honour it was to know you and share the world with you. #Vale #heartbroken pic.twitter.com/EzdK23MONx

— Anthony Hayes (@theanthonyhayes) January 5, 2020

Movie site The Curb tweeted early on Sunday that “the great Tom Long has left us”.

Aussie actor Tom Long was diagnosed with cancer in 2012.

Long, who starred in the popular TV series SeaChange and the movie The Dish, last year flew to Seattle with wife Rebecca Fleming to take part in a medical trial with just 17 other participants.

The great Tom Long has left us. One of the finest actors Australia has ever been lucky to see. My heart goes out to his family. pic.twitter.com/MLkmnN7lCk

— The Curb (@TheCurbAU) January 4, 2020

The star opened up to Lisa Wilkinson on Ten’s The Sunday Project last June about how the trial was his only hope after doctors gave him just months to live.

“I thought there’s a big chance I won’t come home, to Australia, to everything I know,” he said.

Tom Long, in a scene from the film Risk, gave up acting after his diagnosis.

Long stopped acting after he collapsed on stage during a performance of the play Coranderrk: We Will Show the Country at the Sydney Opera House in July 2012, just a few months after his diagnosis.

Long grew up in the Victorian town of Benalla and graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art in 1994.