The Vicar of Dibley actress Emma Chambers has died of natural causes aged 53, her agent has confirmed.
Best known for playing Alice Tinker in the BBC sitcom which starred Dawn French, the Doncaster-born star also featured in Notting Hill alongside Julia Roberts.
Her agent said Chambers, who died from natural causes on Wednesday evening, would be ‘greatly missed’.
Actress Emma Chambers has died aged 53. Her agency has confirmed she died from natural causes on Wednesday evening. She was best known for playing Alice Tinker in the BBC sitcom which starred Dawn French (left), the Doncaster-born star also featured in Notting Hill
In Notting Hill, Chambers played Honey, Hugh Grant’s eccetric younger sister and the romantic interest of Rhys Ifans’ character Spike
A statement said: ‘Emma created a wealth of characters and an immense body of work. She brought laughter and joy to many’.
Chambers played alongside Dawn French from 1994 to 2007 in the much loved sitcom and won the British Comedy Award for Best Actress for her performance in 1998.
In Notting Hill, Chambers played Honey, Hugh Grant’s eccentric younger sister and the romantic interest of Rhys Ifans’ character Spike.
Chambers as Alice pictured with James Fleet as Hugo (centre) and Gary Waldhorn as David in a scene from the Vicar of Dibley
While best known for her Vicar of Dibley role (right), Chambers also played Helen Yardley in How Do You Want Me? (left, with Dylan Moran)
A statement from her agency read: ‘Emma created a wealth of characters and an immense body of work. She brought laughter and joy to many.’ She is pictured right with Dawn French on the Vicar of Dibley and right in How Do You Want Me?
Her friend and fellow broadcaster Emma Freud tweeted: ‘Our beautiful friend Emma Chambers has died at the age of 53. We’re very very sad.
‘She was a great, great comedy performer, and a truly fine actress. And a tender, sweet, funny, unusual, loving human being.’
Chambers is survived by her husband, fellow actor Ian Dunn.
Chambers (left, in the Vicar of Dibley) was in the theater for about ten years before her major break in television. She has appeared in some stage productions including Tartuffe and Invisible Friends