He and Therese clicked and Porter became a frequent visitor.
His favourite role was when he guested on Morecambe And Wise.
She came to Britain in 1960 on a scholarship and will be best remembered playing Irene in the 1967 television phenomenon The Forsyte Saga.
He was a shy man who found it difficult to relate to the opposite sex and was previously understood by many including Sir Ian McKellen to be secretly gay.
Porter turned down the chance to take over from Honor Blackman in The Avengers, opting for a part in the less popular series The Protectors with Robert Vaughn.
The tension between Eric Porter, as Soames Forsyte, and Nyree Dawn Porter as his beautiful but estranged wife, was the emotional crux of the drama.