With his bald head, magnificent moustache and standing 6ft 2in tall, Willie Thorne, who has died aged 66 after suffering from leukaemia, was one of the most instantly recognisable and popular stars of what might be termed a golden age of snooker, when television took up the sport in earnest. But for all his natural brilliance as a player, major tournament successes remained largely elusive, and an addiction to gambling accounted for much of his wealth and contributed to a sometimes chaotic personal life.

To watch Thorne in practice back in the 1980s, a period when he was ranked as one of the world’s best, it was difficult to understand how he ever lost a match. His ability to build breaks with almost nonchalant ease was extraordinary. At a time when registering a 147 maximum clearance was relatively rare, Thorne claimed to have achieved the feat almost 200 times, earning him the nickname in the sport of “Mr Maximum”.

But, by his own admission, he was let down by a fragile temperament in big tournaments and he would readily admit he had “bottled” many chances to have become a serial winner of trophies. His principal rival, Steve Davis, may not have made as many big breaks in matches, but he was ice cool under pressure, while Thorne would frequently unravel at key moments.

His big breakthrough came in 1975, aged 21, when he was included in the field competing in Pot Black, a BBC series featuring matches played over a single frame between the top stars. It had started in 1969, after colour had come to television, attracting millions of new fans.

In little time, Willie was in demand for lucrative appearances on a rapidly expanding snooker exhibition circuit. It was not only his skill at the table that brought a clamour for his services, but also because he found it easy to communicate with people. While some sporting celebrities can be intimidated by an audience, Thorne’s charm made him almost as much a natural with a microphone in his hand as he was with a snooker cue.

Although he never made it past the last four of the World Championship, and his only major title came with the Mercantile Credit Classic of 1985, Thorne enjoyed a celebrity lifestyle. But he would admit in his autobiography, Taking a Punt on My Life (2011), that “snooker had been my profession but gambling had been my downfall”.

He once estimated that he had gone though more than £3.5m in gambling, being declared bankrupt and, at one stage, banned from British racecourses after running up massive gambling debts that he was unable to pay. “Snooker and horse racing had become the twin obsessions of my life. The former helped me make a lot of money, while the latter ensured that an awful lot of it was wasted,” he lamented.

Born in Anstey, a large village near Leicester, Willie was the son of Joseph, also known as Bill, a miner at Desford Colliery, and his wife, Nancy. He had an elder brother, Malcolm, and a younger one, Robert. Bill and Nancy went on to run the village Conservative club and later a large pub in the Braunstone area of Leicester.

Thorne showed talent in several sports, but it was snooker where he shone. His mother bought him a maplewood cue when he was 14 that he used throughout his career. After leaving school at 15 he worked as an estimator for a glass factory while also soon becoming the best player in the area, practising in snooker halls in Loughborough and later in Leicester, where his love of gambling began as he played matches for money and followed the horses.

By 1981, Thorne had enough money to open a plush snooker centre in Leicester city centre, with 28 tables, a bar and a restaurant, which he ran with his two brothers and his mother. And it was there that what was to be a lifelong friendship with the young Leicester City footballer Gary Lineker developed, with Lineker practising for hours with Willie after he finished training.

The club was close to the old BBC Radio Leicester premises, where Thorne and Lineker were frequent guests on programmes I presented there. Both would chat happily, perhaps not remotely contemplating that both would have long media careers, with Thorne as a snooker commentator and Lineker an anchor man.

Lineker was best man at Thorne’s marriage in 1985 to Fiona Walker, whom he met while she was working in one of the city nightclubs. They went on to have twin sons, Tristan and Kieran, and a daughter, Tahli.

Perhaps the marriage was doomed to failure. Thorne admitted: “I’m not proud of the fact I was not the most faithful of husbands. I have to own up to the sort of weakness in my character that allowed me to succumb to temptation on many occasions when it came to women.” His acute financial problems worsened as his playing career declined in the 90s and his gambling addiction took hold. His marriage had broken down and he began dating Jill Saxby, a former Miss Great Britain. They married in 2003; the previous year he had tried to take his own life.

Thorne managed to develop a second career as an event host and after-dinner speaker, and in 2007 was a contestant on Strictly Come Dancing, but his gambling continued. He was reportedly £1m in debt when he tried to take his life again in 2015. By then he had suffered a minor stroke and needed treatment for prostate cancer.

The couple relocated to Spain, but split at the end of 2019. In March 2020 Thorne announced he had been diagnosed with leukaemia, and would be undergoing a course of chemotherapy.

Jill survives him, along with his children and his brothers.

• Willie (William) Joseph Thorne, snooker player, born 4 May 1954; died 17 June 2020