UK actor Bill Pertwee, best known as grumpy ARP Warden Hodges in Dad’s Army, has died at the age of 86.
Pertwee had been ill over Christmas and died peacefully on Monday, surrounded by family.
“He was a really, really nice man. Very bright, very intelligent,” said his agent Meg Poole.
“He came from a big theatrical family, a big show business family, and like all of them it was his life and it was very important to him and he was a hugely professional, very clever man.”
Pertwee appeared in some 60 episodes of the UK comedy from 1968 – 1977, and his other TV credits included Bless This House, Father Dear Father, Love Thy Neighbour, The Dick Emery Show, Sykes, Man About the House, The Dick Emery Hour, It Ain’t Half Hot Mum, and the films Carry on Loving (1970), Carry on at Your Convenience (1971) and Carry On Girls. His final role was in 2012′s Run for Your Wife.
Pertwee’s son Jonathan said: “He would give everything a go. He was very dedicated to the people around him and he was very dedicated to his charity work.
“But also he was very humble about the whole thing … He’d say ‘marvellous, isn’t it, to be in this business’, because he said ‘I’m not really a proper actor’, but he was extraordinarily versatile.”