36 Facts About Leslie Grantham

Leslie Michael Grantham was an English actor who played "Dirty" Den Watts in the BBC soap opera EastEnders.

Leslie Grantham enlisted in the Royal Fusiliers regiment of the British Army in 1965, aged 18.

Leslie Grantham was posted to West Germany, where he quickly found himself in debt to army colleagues.

Leslie Grantham resorted to criminal activities in his attempt to clear the debt.

On 3 December 1966, Leslie Grantham attempted to rob a taxi driver, Felix Reese, in Osnabruck, Lower Saxony, by threatening him at gunpoint and demanding money.

Leslie Grantham was paroled in 1977, having served 10 years of his life sentence.

Leslie Grantham was encouraged to get more involved in acting professionally by the disgraced Labour politician T Dan Smith, who was an inmate at Leyhill in the mid-1970s.

Leslie Grantham met actress Louise Jameson during her visit to Leyhill near the end of his imprisonment; she had encouraged him to take up acting, and he became good friends with her.

On release from prison, Leslie Grantham decided to pursue an acting career and trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art.

In 1982, Leslie Grantham made his television debut as Boollie in a BBC2 Playhouse edition called "Jake's End".

Leslie Grantham was then cast by Matthew Robinson as Kiston, the henchman of Davros, in the Doctor Who serial Resurrection of the Daleks.

Leslie Grantham played a signals sergeant in episode 12 of the television mini-series The Jewel in the Crown and wrote a play entitled A Reason To Live, which won the Gloucester Drama Festival award for Best Original Play.

Leslie Grantham made a brief appearance in the Mike Hodges film Morons from Outer Space, but by the time the film was released, Grantham had gained his best known role.

In 1984, Leslie Grantham auditioned with the BBC for a part in its new soap opera EastEnders, which aired in February 1985.

Leslie Grantham was recommended by Matthew Robinson, who was to become a key member of the EastEnders production team.

Leslie Grantham had auditioned for the role of market trader Pete Beale, but he was offered the part of Den Watts.

Leslie Grantham had announced his intention to leave the soap early in 1988, around the same time that it was announced that Dobson would be leaving.

However, the series' bosses had not wanted to suffer the double blow of losing its two biggest characters so close together, and set about an intensive block of filming that would allow Den to remain on screen into 1989, while enabling Leslie Grantham to continue on EastEnders until autumn 1988.

Leslie Grantham played Danny Kane in the crime television series The Paradise Club alongside Don Henderson.

Leslie Grantham went on to appear in the fourth season of Cluedo as Colonel Mustard; he had previously appeared as a contestant on the 1990 Christmas special.

Alongside Melinda Messenger, Leslie Grantham was the co-host of the game show Fort Boyard from 1998 to 2001.

Leslie Grantham reunited with his EastEnders co-star Anita Dobson in the two-part mini-series The Stretch which aired on Sky One in 2000, and in the British gangster film Charlie.

Leslie Grantham had turned down every offer to return until the offer which was made to him in early 2003, feeling that his character did not have adequate links to the show for a comeback to be anything more than an attempt to boost ratings, particularly when Den's daughter Sharon was away from 1995 to 2001, leaving Den without any family in the cast.

On 3 May 2003, it was confirmed that Leslie Grantham would be returning to EastEnders later that year to reprise his role as Den after 14 years.

Leslie Grantham allegedly dressed as Captain Hook whilst pleasuring himself, and insulted several cast members of EastEnders, including Shane Richie, Wendy Richard, Kim Medcalf and Jessie Wallace.

Leslie Grantham attempted suicide three times as a result of the scandal.

In November 2004, it was confirmed that Leslie Grantham would be leaving EastEnders in the New Year.

Leslie Grantham later appeared in two UK tours of Beyond Reasonable Doubt, a stage adaptation of a Jeffrey Archer play, alongside Simon Ward and Alexandra Bastedo, and performed as a Christmas pantomime villain.

Leslie Grantham directed and starred in a pantomime of Peter Pan at the Alban Arena in St Albans during Christmas 2005.

In February 2010, Leslie Grantham appeared in EastEnders: The Aftermath on BBC Three to mark the live episode of the show and its 25th birthday.

Leslie Grantham was interviewed by Kirsten O'Brien from the bar of The Queen Victoria pub which his character had once owned.

Leslie Grantham was cast for the lead role in the UK thriller movie DeadTime.

From 28 November to 11 December 2010, Leslie Grantham appeared as Ebenezer Scrooge in the Lincoln Theatre Royal's production of A Christmas Carol.

Leslie Grantham portrayed the main character John in the Bulgarian TV series The English Neighbour, based on the novel of the same name.

Leslie Grantham's son Daniel Laurie is an actor, and plays Reggie Jackson in Call the Midwife.

In June 2018, it was reported that Leslie Grantham had returned to the United Kingdom from his home in Bulgaria to receive treatment for lung cancer.