Tributes pour in for beloved actress Barbara Windsor who has died, aged 83
11 December 2020, 01:42 | Updated: 11 December 2020, 12:31
Dame Barbara Windsor, famous for her roles in Eastenders and the Carry On films, has died aged 83.
The news was confirmed by her husband Scott Mitchell who said she died peacefully on Thursday (December 10).
Dame Barbara had been suffering from Alzheimer's after being diagnosed with the disease in 2014 and had moved to a care home earlier this year.
Her husband said she would be remembered for the "love, fun, friendship and brightness she brought to all our lives".
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The national treasure who was best known for playing Peggy Mitchell in Eastenders and her famous roles in the Carry On films, had become an ambassador for the Alzheimer's Society in the years before her death and had even met with Prime Minister Boris Johnson to bring awareness to the disease.
Her husband Scott said: "It was not the ending that Barbara or anyone else living with this very cruel disease deserve. I will always be immensely proud of Barbara's courage, dignity and generosity dealing with her own illness and still trying to help others by raising awareness for as long as she could."
Tributes have poured in from the entertainment world as the UK says good bye to a national treasure.
Jonathan Ross tweeted: "Barbara Windsor in real life was everything you might have hoped for. So warm, so funny, so kind."
Barbara Windor's husband talks about her battle with Alzheimers
Singer Aled Jones described her as a "true national treasure" and Tony Blackburn has said Barbara was a "lovely lady who was always such fun".
Barbara's on-screen Eastenders husband Larry Lamb told the BBC: "The word star gets a little bit over-used, and if you're going to be a star you've kind of got to learn how to be one," he said, "She was like the head girl at EastEnders."
"Everybody [at EastEnders] looked up to her - which physically wasn't the easiest thing to do, she was so tiny!
"But she was an extraordinary extraordinary woman and a great loss, everyone," he added.
