EastEnders star Leslie Gratham, 71, is fighting for his life, it has been reported.
The actor, who played ‘Dirty’ Den Watts on the BBC soap, is ‘very poorly’ his representative has told The Sun.
Grantham has returned to the UK from Bulgaria where he has been living for a number of years to be under the care of doctors.
EastEnders star Leslie Grantham, 71 ‘fighting for his life’
The legendary actor have received secret visits from his close showbiz pals, with one friend telling The Sun:
‘Leslie is being looked after. Those who are close to him are hugely worried and are praying for his well-being.’
Leslie played the Queen Vic landlord ‘Dirty’ Den Watts from 1985 to 1989.
He helped the soap pull in its biggest ever audience, when 30 million viewers tuned in to see him hand over divorce papers to lying wife Angie on Christmas Day 1986.
In 2003, Den was given a rather dubious resurrection when it was revealed that he had survived the assassination attempt and fled to Spain.
Once back in Walford, Den quickly returned to his villainous ways, spreading mayhem for another two years until new wife Chrissie battered him over the head with an iron doorstop.
She killed him off for good in the very pub he once owned and buried him in the cellar of the Queen Vic.
Leslie revealed in 2015 that he would like to win a role in Coronation Street.
Despite becoming infamous one of Walford’s most notorious residents, he confessed he had been offered a role in the ITV soap before he ever set foot in Walford, but turned it down.
But the actor admitted that his EastEnders fame might make it hard for audiences to accept him in another soap role.
‘It’s difficult to get in now if you are well-known in another soap,’ he said. ‘I know Michelle Collins went into Corrie but I’ll always be known as Dirty Den.’