Actor Leslie Grantham, best known as soap villain 'Dirty' Den Watts in BBC's Eastenders, has died aged 71.
His agent said he died on Friday morning and that a private funeral will be held.
The announcement of his death comes after it was revealed earlier this week that the actor had flown back to the UK from Bulgaria - where he penned his debut children's book Jack Bates and The Wizard's Spell - to receive medical attention.
The actor, who played soap villain Den Watts, had been surrounded by friends and co-stars and earlier reports said he was being monitored by doctors in a UK hospital.
Before he passed away, he was filming The Krays: Dead Man Walking, a film inspired by real events based on London's most feared and notorious brothers Reggie and Ronnie Kray.
Tributes have already been paid by his EastEnders co-stars.
Anita Dobson, who played Den's first wife Angie, said she was "deeply shocked and saddened".
READ MORE: Obituary of Leslie Grantham
In a statement, Leslie's family said: "We formally announce the loss of Leslie Grantham, who passed away at 10.20am on the morning of Friday 15th June 2018.
"His ex-wife and sons have asked for their privacy to be respected at this difficult time. There will be a private funeral which will be attended by close family and friends only."
Prior to moving back to south west London he had been living in Bulgaria after splitting from his wife Jane Laurie in 2013.
The actor had three children - Spike, 31, Jake, 29 and Daniel, 23 - with Jane, who he was married to for 31 years.
A former soldier with the Royal Fusiliers, his acting career began relatively late in life.
He enjoyed two popular spells in the BBC soap, with more than 30 million viewers tuning in to watch a 1986 Christmas Day episode in which his character served divorce papers to his onscreen wife, Angie.
He was killed off in 1988 only to be resurrected in 2003 to the surprise of his adopted daughter Sharon (Letitia Dean). He would reach his ultimate demise in 2005 at the hands of new wife, Chrissie (Tracy Ann Oberman).
EastEnders's executive consultant John Yorke paid tribute on behalf of the BBC soap, saying: "Everyone at EastEnders is deeply saddened to hear that Leslie has passed away.
"We extend our deepest sympathies and condolences to his family and friends at this extremely difficult time."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel