Haydn Gwynne dies aged 66
- Drop The Dead Donkey and The Windsors star Haydn Gwynne has died of cancer
- Her agent says she died in hospital "surrounded by her beloved sons, close family and friends"
Comedy actor Haydn Gwynne has died aged 66.
Her CV includes playing journalist Alex Pates in Drop The Dead Donkey and Camilla in The Windsors.
Her agent announced the news in a statement, saying: "It is with great sadness we are sharing with you that, following her recent diagnosis with cancer, the star of stage and screen Haydn Gwynne died in hospital in the small hours of Friday 20 October, surrounded by her beloved sons, close family and friends.
"We would like to thank the staff and teams at the Royal Marsden and Brompton Hospitals for their wonderful care over the last few weeks."
Gwynne was born in Sussex in October 1957. After studying sociology at the University of Nottingham, she took a five-year lectureship in Italy, where she taught English as a foreign language. She became an actress in her mid-twenties, with her first major role being lecturer Dr Penrose in the 1989 BBC series Nice Work. A year later she joined Drop The Dead Donkey, taking on the role of level-headed GlobeLink News assistant editor Alex Pates across the first two series of the newsroom-based sitcom.
Gwynne's other TV comedy roles include The Midnight Gang, Hospital! and A Loose Canon. She also appeared in several radio comedy, notably as Edith D'Ascoyne in the 1996 version of Kind Hearts And Coronets and leading the 2014 country house sitcom Guests Are Like Fish.
A regular on the stage, she played the dance teacher in the West End and Broadway productions of Billy Elliot The Musical, which won her multiple awards. She also took on the role of Margaret Thatcher in The Audience. She was due to return to the West End, starring in a new production of Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends, but pulled out last month following the cancer diagnosis.
Royal Family spoof The Windsors started on Channel 4 in 2016, with Gwynne on the cast list from the outset as the scheming Camilla. Speaking in a 2017 interview, she talked about her character as follows: "Someone asked me if it is a caricature of Camilla, and I'd say no, it's absolutely not. My model for Camilla, once I'd read the first scripts and seen the costumes, became much more as if she were played by Joan Collins in a soap opera called Balmoral. She is the sort of arch-villainess of the American soap opera."
It was revealed earlier this year that a fourth series of The Windsors had been commissioned by Channel 4, but it is not believed that filming has yet started on the episodes.
The star lived in London with her partner, psychotherapist Jason Phipps, and their two sons.