Legendary EastEnders star Leslie Grantham has died at the age of 71.
Grantham appeared in the soap’s very first episode in 1985 introduced as the landlord of the Queen Vic pub.
Grantham, born in Camberwell in 1947, was convicted of murdering a German taxi driver in 1966 during an attempted robbery gone wrong.
The actor, who played soap villain Den Watts, had been surrounded by friends and co-stars with earlier reports revealing he was being monitored by doctors in a UK hospital.