Dame Barbara Windsor, best known for her roles in EastEnders and the Carry On films, has died aged 83.
Photo: AFP
Her husband Scott Mitchell said she had died peacefully from Alzheimer's at a London care home on Thursday evening.
She had been diagnosed with the disease in 2014 and had moved to a care home earlier this year.
Mitchell said she would be remembered for the "love, fun, friendship and brightness she brought to all our lives".
Dame Barbara appeared in nine of the 31 films in the comedy series Carry On, and also made appearances in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and On the Fiddle with Sean Connery.
She was well-known for her portrayal of landlady Peggy Mitchell in EastEnders, starring alongside her on-screen children Ross Kemp and Steve McFadden.
As well as her performances on screen Dame Barbara was known for treading the boards and appeared in productions including Oh! What A Lovely War and Fings Ain't Wot They Used to Be.
After her dementia diagnosis Dame Barbara became an ambassador for the Alzheimer's Society and met Prime Minister Boris Johnson to raise awareness about the disease.
Mitchell, who campaigned alongside his wife, 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."
The couple went public with her diagnosis in 2018 and Mitchell had said they had been "really nervous" about revealing she was affected by the condition.
In his statement he thanked the public, family and friends for their support which he said "Barbara deeply appreciated".
Tributes have been paid from across the entertainment world with Danniella Westbrook, who played her on-screen daughter Sam Mitchell in EastEnders, tweeting: "My heart is broken. Bar you will always [be] in my heart forever."
TV presenter Jonathan Ross tweeted: "Barbara Windsor in real life was everything you might have hoped for. So warm, so funny, so kind."
Singer Aled Jones described her as a "true national treasure" while veteran broadcaster Tony Blackburn said she was a "lovely lady who was always such fun".
Like her EastEnders character she was born in east London, in Shoreditch in 1937.
She married three times, including to small-time criminal Ronnie Knight, and also dated both of the Krays.
The actress married Mitchell in 2000, with the pair having fist met in 1992.
- BBC
