X
Recipient's email
Your name
Your email
Message (optional)

E-mail to a friend

Actor and writer Al Hunter Ashton dies aged 49

Published Friday 4 May 2007 at 18:10 by Matthew Hemley

London’s Burning actor Al Hunter Ashton has died after suffering heart failure at the age of 49.

The actor, most famous for playing Pitbull in the ITV series, died last Friday at his home in High Wycombe.

Ashton, who also appeared in shows such as Holby City and Crossroads, had just completed filming a new BBC series called Jekyll, due to go out later this year.

He was also a prolific writer, having written for EastEnders, and had a number of new projects in the pipeline.

Tributes have now started pouring in for the actor on an online condolence book set up via his website.

Contributors include fellow EastEnders’ writer Tony Jordan, who described Ashton as “something of a rarity in this industry”.

He said: “He told you what he was thinking. This put people’s noses out of joint sometimes, they just wanted him to do as he was told and stop going on, but he never did, not Al. He was a writer with a voice. There aren’t too many left and I’ll miss him.”

His agent, Richard Ireson, wrote: “We had such great plans for the future - both with Al’s writing and acting. He was literally a one-off. You couldn’t invent a character like him. We’ll talk Al stories long into the night, and quite right too.”

E-mail to a friend

Latest news

ACE grants Leicester’s Curve more than £1m from Sustain
Leicester Curve is the first theatre to be awarded more than £1 million from Art Council England’s recession…
Nash quits Young Vic post after three months
Young Vic executive director Gregory Nash has quit only three months after joining the London producing venue.
Torvill and Dean to star in Dancing on Ice tour
Skating stars Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean are to star in a fourth UK Dancing on Ice live tour starting in April.
Birmingham’s MAC reopens after £15m overhaul
Birmingham’s Midlands Arts Centre will reopen on May 1 following a £15 million redevelopment project.
Pineapple plans dance scheme to teach jazz and hip hop in schools
London dance studios Pineapple is planning a new schools initiative which will see the organisation train up teachers…
Royal Spa Centre given two years to turn itself around
Warwickshire venue the Royal Spa Centre has been given a two-year reprieve to transform itself after the local…

Content is copyright © 2010 The Stage Newspaper Limited unless otherwise stated.

All RSS feeds are published for personal, non-commercial use. (What’s RSS?)