The UK film and television industry was in shock yesterday as news emerged of the brutal murder of one of the country's top literary agents.

Rod Hall, 53, was stabbed to death in a frenzied knife attack in the bathroom of his luxury south London apartment.

Detectives are keeping an open mind about the motive. But a police source said that there was no sign of forced entry to the flat, nor did anything appear to have been stolen.

Mr Hall set up his own agency in 1997, but he spent the previous 13 years working for AP Watt, the world's oldest literary agency.

Over the years, his client list was a Who's Who of British film, and current and former colleagues credited him with nurturing some of the most talented screenwriters of their generation.

Among those he represented were Simon Beaufoy, the writer of one of Britain's most successful films, The Full Monty; Lee Hall, the author of Billy Elliot; Jeremy Brock, writer of Mrs Brown and Casualty; Dick King Smith, writer of The Sheep Pig from which the smash hit Babe was adapted; and Simon Nye, writer of the television sitcom Men Behaving Badly.

Mr Beaufoy said last night: "I last saw Rod abut two weeks ago and he seemed extremely happy. He was really well known in the industry and a much liked person."

Charlotte Mann, Mr Hall's close friend and co-director of the Rod Hall Agency, said: "Rod was a wonderful, amazing man; a dear, loving and very loyal friend and one of the most respected literary agents in the country."

Nick Marston, now head of film and television at the leading London literary agency Curtis Brown, worked with Mr Hall for 10 years at AP Watt.

"He was my mentor," said Mr Marston. "He was a man of great style, fantastic taste and enormous passion about his work. He built up a list of the most extraordinary writers.

"He had a big circle of friends and contacts and everyone is in deep shock."

Mr Hall was single and lived alone in a £500,000 flat in an old converted school building near the Tate Gallery.

Police discovered his body on Sunday night when they went to the flat, after being contacted by one of Mr Hall's friends, who got worried when the agent failed to keep appointments earlier that day.

His body was slumped on the floor of the upstairs bathroom, and he had been stabbed several times in the chest and stomach. A police source said: "It was an extremely vicious killing."

Mr Hall was 6ft tall and very thin. He wore distinctive glasses with thick, clear plastic frames.

Police are not ruling out the possibility that he may have known his attacker.