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Leslie Grantham

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Actor

The Resume

    (April 30, 1947-June 15, 2018)
    Born in London, United Kingdom
    Portrayed Dennis Watts (‘Dirty Den’) in ‘EastEnders’ (1985-89,2003-05), Danny Kane in ‘The Paradise Club’ (1989-90), Mick Raynor in ’99-1’ (1994-95), and Philip Gates in ‘The Uninvited’ (1997)
    Co-hosted the game show ‘Fort Boyard’ (1998-2001)
    Wrote the children’s book ‘Jack Bates and the Wizard’s Spell’ (2016)

Why he might be annoying:

    According to his sister, he was burglarizing neighborhood houses in his teens.
    While serving with the British army in West Germany, he fatally shot a taxi driver during a bungled robbery (December 3, 1966).
    He was sentenced to life in prison, but only served a decade (1967-77).
    He sent webcam footage of himself masturbating in his dressing room to a woman who turned out to be an undercover reporter (2004).
    He was also recorded kvetching about his ‘EastEnders’ co-stars, calling Jessie Wallace ‘a vile dog,’ Kim Medcalf ‘a block of wood… thick,’ Shane Richie ‘big headed and self-infatuated’ and Wendy Richards ‘a wanker.’
    He claimed he attempted suicide three times as a result of the scandal.
    After he left EastEnders for the second time, he complained about how far-fetched the storylines had become, saying ‘There was a murder every week. That’s not real life.’
    Oddly, he had not felt the need to point out how unrealistic Den returning from the dead was. (We are sure the £500,000 annual salary he was paid to return to the show had nothing to do with it.)
    He complained that whenever he was interviewed, he was always asked two questions: ‘What about the murder conviction’ and ‘What did you do after EastEnders?’
    One critic noted that most of his post-EastEnders roles were ‘pale imitations of Den Watts.’

Why he might not be annoying:

    He claimed that he did not know the gun was loaded and that it went off accidentally during a struggle with the cab driver.
    While in jail, he began acting in plays for inmates.
    The episode where his character serves his wife with divorce papers was the highest rated ‘EastEnders’ ever, attracting 30 million viewers – half the nation’s population (December 25, 1986).
    He created the sci-fi miniseries ‘The Uninvited’ as well as starring in it.
    His phone was hacked by the tabloid ‘News of the World.’
    He turned down several offers to be in realty TV series, calling the genre ‘humiliation TV.’
    He said, ‘Of course I have regrets, but you can’t go round wearing a hair shirt all your life. Otherwise, you’ll never get out of bed in the morning.’

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 7 Votes: 57.14% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 5 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 13 Votes: 69.23% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 10 Votes: 30.0% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 103 Votes: 49.51% Annoying