FINAL MONTHS OF ENDERS STAR LESLIE
The source added: “He knew his time was up and he didn’t want to leave anyone in the lurch. He mended a lot of old wounds before he died.”
Leslie was made a director of publishing firm Cambridge Academic Ltd in December 2016, the same year he embarked on a new career as a children’s author.
Three years earlier he revealed he was homeless and staying in a pal’s spare room in the wake of divorce from Jane Laurie, mother of his three sons, after 31 years of marriage. He moved to a cheap flat in Bulgaria and found love with a local woman.
But he was forced to return for treatment when cancer started to ravage his body. His girlfriend was too distraught to travel with him to the UK. Months before his death, despite his failing health, Leslie took a role as police detective Leonard “Nipper” Read in film The Krays: Dead Man Walking.
Producer Jonathan Sothcott revealed how the frail star had to be shuttled around on set in a car because he struggled to walk.
“We knew he was ill when we were making the film but he was determined to do it,” he said. “He never complained.”
Leslie’s life was like a plot from a soap. Following his death it was revealed police had probed claims he sexually assaulted a schoolgirl but decided not to pursue a prosecution.
Aged 19 in 1966 he killed a cabbie in a bungled robbery while posted with the Army in Bielefeld, Germany. He served 11 years in jail, during which he rekindled his love of acting. He starred as rogue Den Watts from 1985 but was killed off for a second time in 2005 after being caught up in a sleazy webcam sex scandal.
But Jonathan said: “His achievements as an actor will live on beyond the mistakes he made. After all he was only human.”