The last Legg

Death of much-loved character who was in original Albert Square line-up

Leonard, a dad of four, once remarked: “He would have been a great family man.” The actor’s career has landed him on screen and stage, working at the Royal Shakespeare Company and National Theatre, and with Orson Welles and Samuel Beckett.

But Leonard laughed: “People still request my advice when they get ill.

“There was one amazing case of a woman who went to a friend of mine, who was in group practice, and asked them if she could change to me, and was told, ‘No, he’s an actor’. She got very shirty with him.”

Dr Legg would have known exactly how to deal with her.

LOYAL PALS Dot Branning and Dr Legg HATE Fascist Oswald Moseley in East End of London, where Leonard Fenton, right, grew up STALWART Leonard, circled, with the early cast line-up on BBC1 soap Eastenders