F. Murray Abraham has mined comedic gold by playing characters who don’t know where the line is when it comes to inappropriate behaviour, most notably in recent times as the libidinous grandfather Bert Di Grasso on season two of The White Lotus.

But in real life, such behaviour has apparently cost him his job on the Apple TV+ comedy series Mythic Quest after the 83-year-old actor was reportedly sacked for sexual misconduct on set.

Abraham, who won the best actor Oscar in 1985 for his role as Mozart’s rival composer Salieri in Amadeus, had been a regular on the show about a computer gaming company in its first two seasons.

He played C.W. Longbottom, a fantasy/sci-fi author who was tasked with bringing narrative richness and character complexity – or backstory, to use his favoured term – to the fictional game for which the show is named.

His character was louche, handsy, and given to insensitive and inappropriate comments. He was a throwback and, to many of the people working on the game, an embarrassment. Game developer Poppy Liwang, played by Australian actress Charlotte Nicdao, was one of the many women in the Mythic Quest team who took issue with his character’s behaviour.

But when the show’s third season was announced last April, Abraham was no longer part of the cast.

Lionsgate, the studio that produces the show, said in a statement at that time: “F. Murray Abraham will not be returning to season three of Mythic Quest. Beyond that, we do not comment on matters concerning personnel.”

When the third season premiered in November, Abraham’s character had been written out of the show via a suicide note left behind in his office, explaining that he had been diagnosed with a terminal illness and had decided to write his own ending by driving his car into the Grand Canyon, a scenario clearly inspired by the ending of Thelma & Louise.