Actress Wendy Richard died today after a battle with cancer, her agent said.
The former EastEnder died in the Harley Street Clinic in London with her husband John Burns by her side. She was 65.
Her agent Kevin Francis said: "She was incredibly brave and retained her sense of humour right to the end."
Wendy Richard, one of the most popular TV actresses of her generation, starred in the BBC soap EastEnders for more than 20 years, but became a household name before that in department store sitcom Are You Being Served?.
She endured two battles with breast cancer in the mid-1990s and then in 2002. The cancer went into remission after years of treatment, but last year it was discovered that the disease had returned in an aggressive form, attacking her kidneys, bones and spine.
Last October, she disclosed in a newspaper interview that the cancer was terminal and that she was dying.
Wendy Richard was born Wendy Emerton on July 20 1943. She was educated at the Royal Masonic School for Girls in Rickmansworth, Herts, and then at the Italia Conti Academy stage school in London.
She first became familiar to TV audiences playing Joyce Harker, a regular in the BBC's 1960s soap The Newcomers. She also had roles in Dad's Army, Up Pompeii! and The Likely Lads.
Richard also appeared in Carry On films, alongside Barbara Windsor, who also, ultimately, became an EastEnders star.
But she became famous in the 1970s sitcom Are You Being Served?. She played a Cockney shop assistant, Shirley Brahms, a role she continued to play in the sequel, Grace And Favour, in 1992 and 1993.
She joined EastEnders as matriarch Pauline Fowler when the programme began in 1985 and remained in it until 2006, when her character died.
The reason she gave for her departure was an objection to certain parts of the storyline.
At one stage, Richard was reportedly given a script which included a vicious tirade against Margaret Thatcher. She refused to perform this sequence, accusing the scriptwriters of using the series as a soapbox for their political opinions.
In late 2006, she was a guest presenter on the BBC's City Hospital series and the following year she presented the documentary A Tribute To John Inman, a fellow actor in Are You Being Served?.
Early last year, she landed the role of Mrs Crump in the episode A Pocket Full Of Rye of the Miss Marple series.
Richard was awarded the MBE for services to television in 2000 and in 2007 she was awarded a British Soap Award for Lifetime Achievement for her role in EastEnders.
All her first three marriages ended in divorce. She lived with her partner of 12 years, John Burns and the two married on October 10 last year.
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