EastEnders actor Nicholas Ball dies aged 78 after ‘short illness’

Actor Nicholas Ball has died aged 78, his agent has announced. The star played gang lord Terry Bates in BBC soap EastEnders, who attacked Peggy Mitchell (Barbara Windsor) as she trashed the Queen Victoria pub, and in drama Footballers’ Wives he took on the role of club chairman and ex-rock star . Garry Ryan.

In a statement, Ball’s agent said he “died following a short illness” and that his “successful acting career on stage and screen spanned an impressive six decades.” He starred in the private detective series Hazell as the title character, James “Jim” Hazell, who is an ex-Cockney policeman originally created by Gordon Williams and footballer Terry Venables, who wrote books under the name PB Yuill.

Ball has also appeared in episodes of crime shows Jonathan Creek, Hustle, Heartbeat and Bergerac, along with comedies Red Dwarf and The Young Ones and drama The Crezz. He has also had roles in films for the small and big screen, including the war drama Overlord, the thriller Rogue Male, the crime drama The Krays: Dead Man Walking and the Jilly Cooper adaptation The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous.

Ball recently filmed the 2024 drama The Kingdom By The Sea alongside Coronation Street actress Rula Lenska. He is survived by his widow Ayda.

Ball was previously married to comedian Sir Billy Connolly’s second wife, comedienne-turned-therapist Pamela Stephenson, after they met on the set of Not The Nine O’Clock News.

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