EastEnders star Timothy West has died at the age of 90.
The news was confirmed in a joint statement from his children – Juliet, Samuel and Joseph West – who revealed that their father “died peacefully in his sleep” yesterday evening (November 12).
“After a long and extraordinary life on and off the stage, our darling father Timothy West died peacefully in his sleep yesterday evening. He was 90 years old,” their statement read.
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“Tim was with friends and family at the end. He leaves his wife Prunella Scales, to whom he was married for 61 years, a sister, a daughter, two sons, seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. All of us will miss him terribly.
“We would like to thank the incredible NHS staff at St George’s Hospital, Tooting and at Avery Wandsworth for their loving care during his last days.”
With a decades-long career, West performed in a variety of roles on stage and screen.
TV fans may recognize him from his role as Jeremy Lister on Gentleman Jack, as well as his brief stint playing Eric Babbage on Coronation Street in 2013. The actor was cast in EastEnders as Stan Carter the following year.
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Stan passed away in 2015 after a battle with prostate cancer, a storyline that Prostate Cancer UK praised for helping to “break down one of the biggest taboos around men’s health”.
Speaking about his time on EastEnders after his final scenes aired, West revealed that he loved working with Danny Dyer.
“Oh he’s lovely,” he said at the time. “I mean he swears like a trooper, but of course, we don’t swear on EastEnders so he could be doing all the ‘f’ and ‘c’ words and then go (on set and say), ‘Oh, goodness me, that’s a mess, what have you been doing here?'”
EastEnders airs on Mondays-Thursdays at 7.30pm on BBC One. The show also streams on BBC iPlayer, where most episodes drop early at 6am ahead of their TV broadcast.