DENNIS WATERMAN: R.I.P.

Sad news. Actor Dennis Waterman, known for his roles in TV shows including New Tricks, Minder, and The Sweeney, died Sunday at the age of 74. I loved him in New Tricks with his retro attitude and ways.

From the BBC: 

Actor Dennis Waterman, known for his roles in TV shows including Minder, The Sweeney and New Tricks, has died, his family have said. He was 74.

A statement said: "We are deeply saddened to announce that our beloved Dennis passed away very peacefully in hospital in Spain."

Born in London and educated at the Corona Theatre School, Waterman began his career in a role for the Children's Film Foundation, after which, at the age of 12, he was invited to join Stratford's Royal Shakespeare Company.

He went on to find fame in his teens in William, the BBC's adaptation of Just William.

He became one of the best-known faces on British television in the 1970s when he played Det Sgt George Carter opposite John Thaw in ITV's police drama The Sweeney.

Waterman went on to star in the comedies On the Up and Stay Lucky, before another popular and long-running role as another Cockney detective in New Tricks, which ran from 2003 to 2015.

As Gerry Standing, he starred alongside fellow acting stalwarts James Bolam and Alun Armstrong.

In 2009, he starred in the BBC's hard-hitting drama Moses Jones, a role he said at the time he relished because it cast him in a different light. "I really enjoyed it, because it was a very different kind of character - and that's important," he explained. "On television in Britain, I'm sort of the cheeky chappie, everybody's mate, but I've never played anything like that in the theatre. "It's strange that you get cast as different things in different parts of the media."

His last film role was in Never Too Late in 2020, which was filmed in Australia.