Anyone else genuinely saddened by Barbara Windsor death?

[Mally2020]

I just feel a genuine sadness almost like actual grief for her death. I was old enough to see her carry ons at the time or her start on eastenders but having watched all of her stuff over the years it does feel like a loss, I also have a personal connection so I think that's why it affected me more.

I'm very sad, I was a bit teary when the news come in, she's been part of my life, on film, since I was a small child.

Sorry OP, I don't think nice people have gangster friends. You didn't choose your family members. She chose to join that world. It's terribly sad she had Alzheimers, she entertained a lot of people, but no, I'm not sorry to see another part of that 'glamorised' east end thuggery go.

She chose to join that world

I don't think it's as simple as that. It's more that the gangsters chose to join her world - they were very much part of the show business scene at the time Barbara was making a name for herself. She was very young when she got together with Ronnie Knight, and looking for a father figure to compensate for her own adored father having abandoned her. She is hardly the only woman to have made some unwise choices in her youth. That doesn't negate her professionalism and talent as an actor and the sheer hard work that went into earning her celebrity status.

No

You are asking people to relate you a situation that the majority won't be able to OP. We don't have a personal connections.

I’ve heard so many interviews with her husband for Alzheimer’s Research UK who I have fundraiser for too that it was clear she’d reached a point where death was a mercy.

I don’t think anyone is calling your family member a criminal? I don’t see anyone saying that EVERYONE she ever associated with was a criminal?

But yes as a lot of PP.. I don’t find anyone’s death sad when it follows a long period of dementia. I wouldn’t wish them to live a day longer like that.

I was far more sad to hear of her Alzheimer’s diagnosis and consequent decline. Her death was a release for her and her family who sadly lost her a long while ago now.

Ronnie Knight "a father figure"? He was just three years older than her.

No , obviously it's very sad for her husband and family ,but Alzheimer's is an awful illness .

I met her in the 80s at a charity event. It was probably a fallow period for her - no films and not yet on EastEnders. She was friendly to everyone, warm and bubbly. A very special person.
She had a long and full life and I imagine that she was blessed with lots of friends and love.

Two famous people passing have genuinely made me cry, Jade goodie and Chadwick Boseman.

@lunar1 I can understand Jade Goode making you feel upset, not cry though! Don't know who Chad is.

Ironically enough someone famous passed away after this thread started who I do have a connection with, and it made me feel a pang. It made me do something nostalgic though.

[quote Frownette]@lunar1 I can understand Jade Goode making you feel upset, not cry though! Don't know who Chad is.

Ironically enough someone famous passed away after this thread started who I do have a connection with, and it made me feel a pang. It made me do something nostalgic though.[/quote]
Chadwick was the lead in black panther, it was just so sudden-from our perspective, he'd fought it for 4 years apparently.

People had trolled him online accusing him of being on drugs earlier this year. Doing comparisons of him from when they made the film and looking at his weight loss.

All the wile he was fighting terminal cancer.

It is sad bless her a lovely lady. Another icon of my childhood gone. X

I was dad when Geoffrey Palmer died. As really liked him. But always found BW's characters and sexy blond image annoying. And agree about the gangster connections. But I suspect they were difficult to avoid in that era.

As others have said, her illness is what saddened me more then her actual death. I lost my mum at 65 and that was way too young. Baba had a long and varied life, good on her.
I was also genuinely saddened at the news of Chadeock Boseman's death, probably because his illness wasn't public knowledge.
Other than that, the only other celeb death that has hurt was Rik Mayall's as I absolutely adored him and he died a day before my mum so was a double whammy.

Re the gangster connections , there is a massive difference between not being able to avoid them and actually ‘celebrating’ them , which is IMO what BW did .I feel sorry for anyone who has advanced dementia but I don’t watch Eastenders so my only real experience of her as an actress was the Carry on films and I can’t honestly say her acting in those was very good . Obviously OP , if you have a personal connection you will be sad , on the whole celebrity deaths don’t affect me in the slightest although like the pp I did feel quite sad about Geoffrey Palmer

No and PP are correct she was involved with criminals. Whether they are/were members of your family or not doesn't make them less so.

They repeated Piers Morgan Life Stories last night. She used to go out with Charlie Kray and slept with one of the other Krays, don't remember which. Her husband Ronnie also hired a hitman to kill somebody - this was her saying all this on the Morgan show. She glossed over sleeping with Kray - said she was drunk and got herself in a situation she could not get out of and she regretted it. She was a bit of a goer and sleeping around despite being married and against her husband's wishes. She had a long affair with Sid James (definitely father figure vibes there, so much older than her). Had several abortions, no judgement on that other than she seem to use it as child protection rather than using contraception. So, in that respect, although she was warm and engaging there were certain unpalatable things that would not be my cup of tea.

However, I was sad at her passing. The Morgan show was recorded 4 years before her diagnosis, and she was so vivacious and sparkly and switched on - inconceivable to think that a few years later she would be in such a sad decline. I saw her a few times in Marylebone where she lived, never spoke to her, but she was always chatting and laughing with somebody when I saw her. She was very friendly and liked people speaking to her. I am glad she had Scott in her later years, an odd pairing not just because of age difference, but a relationship that worked for them.

The showbiz world has taken a hit this year - Vera Lynn, Bobby Ball, Eddie Large, Des O'Connor, Geoffrey Palmer.

I went off her when I read she used abortion as birth control.

Her husband is as camp as Christmas too.

@lalafafa, your point being?

I lost a family member to this disease. I’ll be honest, it was a relief at the end. They had gone years ago, we did all our grieving then. The last years were terribly sad, but my relative was no longer there.
I wouldn’t wish it on anyone though, very sad she had it.

Can't say I warmed to her, I heard a few stories from people who met her that probably influenced that. I'm a bit puzzled by all the gushing tributes, if I'm honest as I just remember her being in Carry On films and Eastenders and not much else. But she had a good life despite the end, and not everyone gets that.

I was saddened by the death of Bobby Ball as he was genuinely funny and talented and don't remember any TV tributes to him.