Norman Eshley, of George and Mildred fame, has died at the age of 80.
His agent said the actor died on 2 August at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital with his wife Rachel Eshley by his side.
He had been living with cancer.
“It is with great sadness that I have to announce the death of our client actor Norman Eshley,” agent Thomas Bowington said.
“[He was] a warm, kind and grounded man with a great voice that I will miss not hearing over the phone again.”
Rachel said the couple’s time together “wasn’t long enough”.
However, “I will be forever grateful for the wonderful times we shared”, she said.
“He was my husband and best friend and my heart will always be with him.”
Eshley was born in Bristol on 30 May 1945.
He was educated at Bristol Grammar School and completed his training as an actor at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.
Eshley began his career in Shakespearean plays, later performing in West End productions.
He made his film debut in Orson Welles’ 1968 drama The Immortal Story and featured in TV shows such as Canterbury Tales, an adaptation of Chaucer’s famous stories, and Warship, which followed life in the Royal Navy aboard the fictional ship HMS Hero.
He became best known, however, for playing snobbish neighbour Jeffrey Fourmile, a real estate agent, in the popular ITV sitcom George And Mildred.
He starred opposite Brian Murphy and Yootha Joyce in the sitcom, which ran from 1976-79.
The show was a spin-off of Man About The House, which he also appeared in as two different characters.
In later years, he turned his hand to writing and co-authored a sequel to Charles Dickens’ classic Oliver Twist, called The Dreamtime Of The Artful Dodger, which re-imagined the life of the character after his transportation to Australia as a convict.
