George and Mildred star Norman Eshley has died aged 80 after he had been living with cancer.
The British sitcom star died on Saturday (August 2) with his wife Rachel by his side at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital, the actor’s agent has confirmed. It is unclear when he was diagnosed with cancer.
Eshley was best known for is role in the 1970s sitcom George and Mildred, in which he played neighbour Jeffrey Fourmile, acting in the show alongside Brian Murphy and Yootha Joyce.
The ITV sitcom was a spin-off of Man About The House, in which Eshley also appeared as two different characters.
Eshley’s agent Thomas Bowington said: ‘It is with great sadness that I have to announce the death of our client actor Norman Eshley.
‘A warm, kind and grounded man with a great voice that I will miss not hearing over the phone again.’
His wife Rachel also said: ‘Although our time together wasn’t long enough I will be forever grateful for the wonderful times we shared.
‘He was my husband and best friend and my heart will always be with him.’
George and Mildred followed the middle-aged Roper couple after they had made the move to middle class suburbia and found it wasn’t what they had expected.
Mildred was often frustrated with her mean and miserable husband George, with the couple often bickering in their up-market housing estate in Hampton Wick, Richmond-upon-Thames.
Born in Bristol on May 30, 1945, Eshley started out in the acting business performing in Shakespearian plays and went on to be cast in West End productions after he had completed his training at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.
He made his film debut in the 1968 Orson Welles drama The Immortal Story and also appeared in TV shows including Canterbury Tales, an adaptation of Chaucer’s classic, and Warship, which followed life in the Royal Navy aboard fictional ship HMS Hero.
He became most known as snobbish neighbour Jeffrey in the popular ITV sitcom.
In later years, he turned his hand to writing and co-authored a sequel to Charles Dickens classic Oliver Twist with Elizabeth Revill.
The book was titled The Dreamtime Of The Artful Dodger and it re-imagined the life of the character after his transportation to Australia.
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