Actor Nicholas Ball has died at the age of 78, his agent announced on Thursday.
The star played gang lord Terry Bates in the BBC soap EastEnders, who attacked Peggy Mitchell (Barbara Windsor) as she smashed up the Queen Victoria pub, and in the drama Footballers’ Wives took on the role of the club’s chairman and ex- rock star. Gary Ryan.
In a statement, Ball’s agent said he had “passed away following a brief illness” and that his “successful acting career on stage and screen spanned an impressive six decades.”
He starred in the private detective show Hazell as the main character, James ‘Jim’ Hazell, a former cockney police officer, originally created by Gordon Williams and footballer Terry Venables, who wrote books under the name PB Yuill.
Actor Nicholas Ball has died at the age of 78, his agent announced on Thursday. The star played gang lord Terry Bates in the BBC soap EastEnders
In a statement, Ball’s agent said he had “passed away following a brief illness” and that his “successful acting career on stage and screen spanned an impressive six decades.”
Ball also appeared in episodes of crime shows Jonathan Creek, Hustle, Heartbeat and Bergerac, along with comedies Red Dwarf and The Young Ones and drama The Crezz.
He also had roles in small and big screen films including war drama Overlord, thriller Rogue Male, crime drama The Krays: Dead Man Walking and Jilly Cooper adaptation The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous.
Ball recently filmed the 2024 rural drama The Kingdom By The Sea, opposite Coronation Street actress Rula Lenska.
He is survived by his widow Ayda.
Ball was previously married to the second wife of comedian Sir Billy Connolly, the comedy actress turned therapist Pamela Stephenson after they met on the set of Not The Nine O’Clock News.
He starred in the private detective show Hazell as the main character, James ‘Jim’ Hazell, a former cockney police officer, originally created by Gordon Williams and Terry Venables.
Ball was previously married to the second wife of comedian Sir Billy Connolly, the comedy actress turned therapist Pamela Stephenson after they met on Not The Nine O’Clock News