Ross Kemp had planned to film a television show involving a dive at the Titanic wreck site in the OceanGate submersible, but it was canceled due to safety concerns.
The actor, known for playing Grant Mitchell in EastEnders, was going to visit the wreck on the submarine last year.
But the Atlantic Productions television company deemed the Titan “unfit for purpose.”
OceanGate’s Titan submarine imploded, killing all five passengers, during a trip to the wreck this week.
Kemp’s agent at InterTalent, Professor Jonathan Shalit, said the production company had carried out checks on the OceanGate submersible but deemed it unsafe.
“They found other dives that have been safe and successful, but at the time, Ross was so busy with all his TV shows that he couldn’t make the time,” he said.
“I’m relieved I didn’t have my release note on the story as the agent who killed Ross Kemp.”
BBC News has contacted Atlantic Productions for comment.
Kemp previously participated in Sky History shows that involved him in deep sea diving, including Shipwreck Treasure Hunter and Deep Sea Treasure Hunter.
The US Coast Guard confirmed that all five men aboard OceanGate’s Titan submarine were killed instantly in a “catastrophic implosion,” a violent collapse inward, with parts of the ship found near the Titanic’s wreckage.
The five people on board were OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, British billionaire explorer Hamish Harding, French diver Paul-Henry Nargeolet, and father and son Shahzada Dawood and Suleman Dawood.
Leading deep-sea exploration specialist Rob McCallum told BBC News that he had warned Rush in 2018 that he was potentially putting his clients at risk and urged him to stop using the sub until it was certified by an independent agency. .
In a tense email exchange seen by the BBC, Rush dismissed safety concerns about the Titan as “unfounded cries of ‘you’re going to kill someone'”, saying he took them “as a serious personal insult”.