Leonard Fenton, who has died aged 95, was approaching 60 when he joined the unique forged of EastEnders in 1985 as Dr Harold Legg, the pleasant Jewish GP and much-loved pillar of the neighborhood. He continued within the BBC cleaning soap for 34 years, showing in additional than 250 episodes.
The character was six years older than Fenton and widowed through the second world battle when his spouse was killed by a bomb. He was already at retirement age within the first episode, however he continued to serve the fictional Walford’s residents – and luxuriate in reminiscences with Dot Cotton (June Brown), Ethel Skinner (Gretchen Franklin) and Lou Beale (Anna Wing). Within the serial’s early days, he helped Sue Osman (Sandy Ratcliff) come to phrases with the cot dying of her child and humoured the hypochondriacal Dot.
However his judgment was typically introduced into query, corresponding to when he determined to not inform Colin Russell (Michael Cashman) he was displaying early indicators of a number of sclerosis and didn't diagnose Vicki, the daughter of Michelle Fowler (Susan Tully), with meningitis, ensuing within the three-year-old virtually dying and Harold retiring.
Nonetheless, he was again at his Albert Sq. surgical procedure inside months and continued to deal with residents till his official retirement in 1997. Fenton returned within the position on and off, with Harold popping in to meet up with outdated associates. In 2018, when he gave Dot the information that he was dying of most cancers, she insisted that he transfer in along with her.
Fenton and Brown had been collectively for the GP’s closing moments the next 12 months as Harold reminisced about assembly his late spouse within the Nineteen Thirties: “And I kissed her. And he or she kissed me again. Essentially the most excellent kiss ever. What I'd give...” As his eyes closed, Dot advised him: “Go and kiss her. Go and kiss her once more.”
An East Ender himself, Fenton was born Leonard Finestein in Stepney to Fanny (nee Goldberg), of Latvian descent, and Morris Finestein, a ladies’s garment-maker whose mother and father got here to Britain from Lithuania.
Like his cleaning soap character, Leonard remembered marches by Oswald Mosley and his Blackshirts in east London within the Nineteen Thirties, and through the second world battle his Jewish household modified their title to Fenton.
On a happier word, he recalled: “My household’s physician in Bethnal Inexperienced was a form and caring man. Dr Legg is in the identical mould – an clever man who has chosen to stay working within the East Finish neighborhood by which he grew up.”
When battle broke out, Fenton’s college, Raine’s, in Bethnal Inexperienced, was evacuated to Brighton. He then certified as a civil engineer by taking a level at King’s Faculty London, did his nationwide service as an officer with the Royal Engineers and spent 5 years with a agency of consulting engineers.
Night artwork and music lessons at Toynbee Corridor in east London led to a starring position in a Christmas efficiency and a spot to coach as an actor on the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Artwork. Fenton gave up his job, supporting himself by instructing maths at Westminster Polytechnic, and graduated in 1955, profitable the Highlight prize.
Appearing in repertory theatre on the Sheffield Playhouse, then with different corporations, was adopted by his massive break when Orson Welles auditioned him for his play Chimes at Midnight, that includes Shakespeare’s character Falstaff, and forged him because the thieving Bardolph, one of many knight’s entourage – however voiced in a cockney accent. The manufacturing ran in Belfast and Dublin in 1960.
Later, Fenton starred as Willie, taciturn husband of Billie Whitelaw’s Winnie, in Samuel Beckett’s Joyful Days, directed by the author on the Royal Courtroom theatre (1979). There have been additionally stints with the Royal Shakespeare Firm (1970, 1980-83 and 2008-09), together with his closing stage position, Vincentio, in The Taming of the Shrew.
On tv, he had bit elements as cops, jail warders, taxi drivers, accountants, Jews and Germans, in addition to extra substantial roles: Friedrich Merz, a member of a rich Jewish household in A Legacy (1975), primarily based on Sybille Bedford’s novel set within the many years main as much as the primary world battle; Corporal “Miff” Moffat in The Fourth Arm (1983), about secret brokers parachuted into occupied Europe; and Erich Gottlieb, a baker, in two collection (1984-85) of Shine on Harvey Moon, set within the post-second world battle East Finish.
As a eager artist portray landscapes in watercolour, he had exhibitions on the Nationwide Theatre, when it showcased works by actors, and the Primrose Hill gallery.
In 1967, Fenton married the cellist Madeline Thorner. They later separated and he's survived by their three sons, Daniel, Sam and Toby, and daughter, Nina.
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