Stephen Lewis, a British actor best known for his role in the sitcom On the Buses, has passed away at the age of 88, his family confirms.
The star died peacefully on Wednesday in the Cambridge Nursing Home, in Wanstead, East London, where he lived out his final days.
He was “in high spirits” right until the end, his niece Rebecca Lewis said, adding that he had been in the home for around three years.
“He was always singing and joking,” she said.
His nephew, Peter Lewis, said he had "terrible arthritis in one knee which really badly affected him, and many years ago he had prostate cancer."
"Whether that had come back we don’t know.”
He said his uncle’s health had gradually declined over the past couple of years, but said he died “quite peacefully" in spite of those issues.
Mr Lewis said his 84-year-old mother Connie – Stephen’s sister – was in the same care home with him, having moved in at the same time.
“They looked after each other,” he said.
Lewis, born in Poplar in E. London, played Inspector Cyril “Blakey” Blake in On the Buses, and also starred in Last of the Summer Wine.