Barbara Windsor | Image: BBC/PA Media
Actress Barbara Windsor, best known as the buxom, blonde-haired star of Britain’s hit “Carry On” film franchise, has died at the age of 83, her husband said Friday.
Windsor made nine appearances in the innuendo-laden comedy films and later became a mainstay as pub landlady Peggy Mitchell in the popular television soap opera “EastEnders”.
She was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2014 and campaigned for better care for those suffering from dementia and associated diseases.
Her husband, Scott Mitchell, who was at her side in the London care home when she died, said Windsor’s
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National treasure Dame Barbara Windsor died on Thursday night, aged 83. This was long-expected, but it is still a shock she was indestructible showbiz royalty. As Joan Collins rightly says: Showbusiness has lost a legend.
Her final years were clouded by Alzheimer s disease, which first became apparent in 2014 when she could no longer learn her lines and she d always been what is called in the profession a quick study .
Through sheer persistence, Babs managed to keep playing Peggy Mitchell in EastEnders for a further two years. Once she could no longer perform, she channelled her energy into the Alzheimer s Society. In an open letter to the Government, she wrote: My heart goes out to the many, many people who are really struggling to get the care they so desperately need.
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Dame Barbara Windsor, who has died at the age of 83, became the nation s favourite pin-up, the bubbly blonde who packed a lot of personality into her 4ft 10in frame.
Her journey from saucy minx in the Carry On films to the matriarch of the Queen Vic in EastEnders made her a national treasure.
Her teenage life was troubled. She was rejected by her father, something that drove her into a string of stormy personal relationships.
But she went on to be a consummate actress who carved out a successful career on both stage and screen.
Barbara Ann Deeks was born in Shoreditch, east London, on 6 August 1937, the daughter of a fruit and veg street seller and a dressmaker.