EastEnders Star June Brown Dies Aged 95

Actress June Brown, who was well known for her role as Dot Cotton in EastEnders, has passed away at the age of 95; she played her character for more than three decades, which is a huge achievement. In honour of June Brown, read on for an in-depth list of everything else the star had managed to achieve in her lifetime.

June Brown was born in Needham Market, Suffolk, and started off with small roles on television after joining the Old Vic company. She appeared in ‘The Way of the World’, ‘The Cherry Orchard’ and ‘Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus’. “Although she played timid, maternal Mrs Parsons in three episodes of Coronation Street in 1970 and Lady Eleanor in the Time Warrior series of Doctor Who in 1973, it was EastEnders that changed her life and put her name in lights.”

According to The Guardian, June Brown “in the role of Dot Cotton, the chainsmoking, hypochondriac launderette manager of Albert Square, Brown created a great Dickensian character of detail, humanity and colour that enrolled her in the long-running soap’s female pantheon”. The actress joined the cast back in 1985 and played her character for eight consecutive years until taking a break in 1993. She went on to appear in ‘Absolute Hell’ at the National Theatre, before returning to the soap drama as Dot Cotton in 1997 and continuing to play as her for more than 20 years. In 2020, she announced that she had left soap dramas “for good”.

June Brown went on to appear in ‘Calendar Girls’ in the West End in 2009, when she was aged 82. She claimed “she was the only one of the replacement cast who stripped completely naked for the photo call. She simply could not care less about propriety or coy camouflage. She was one of those rare people in life, let alone the theatre, who simply said what she thought, did what she felt like and got away with it”. 

In 2013, the star bonded with Lady Gaga on the Graham Norton television chat show, which became a hot topic on social media. She had appeared as the “more outlandishly eccentric and hilarious of the two”. 

Losing such an icon is a tragedy and it has been reported that her family are “deeply saddened” to announce that their “beloved mother” had died “very peacefully” at her home on Sunday the 3^rd of April 2022.

An EastEnders spokesperson said, “There are not enough words to describe how much June was loved and adored by everyone at EastEnders, her loving warmth, wit and great humour will never be forgotten. June created one of the most iconic characters in Dot Cotton, not just in soap but in British television, and having appeared in 2884 episodes, June’s remarkable performances created some of EastEnders finest moments.”

Many people have taken to social media to pay respects and are also sharing their favourite moments of June Brown, so go ahead and join in as her long life is something to celebrate!