Name |
Barbara Windsor |
Height |
4'11" |
Naionality |
British |
Date of Birth |
6 August 1937 |
Place of Birth |
London, England |
Famous for |
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Barbara discovered her love for singing and dancing at an early age, after a visit to the theatre with her grandfather.
In 1952 she landed a part in the chorus of ’Love From Lucy’, and stayed in the show for two years. A couple of minor films roles led to her break in ’Fings Ain't What they Used to Be’, and her career took off with her first ’Carry On’ film, ’Carry On Spying’.
Babs became known as the eternal ‘dolly bird’, going on to appear in nine early ’Carry On’ films. Her absence from the later films was due to her belief that they had gone beyond their “innocent sauciness”.
In 1992 she returned to the genre in the stage production, ’Wot a Carry On’.
Barbara’s off-screen life has attracted as much attention as her on-screen roles. Her famed romances with the likes of gangster Ronnie Knight and 'Carry On' colleague Sid James, did little to keep her out of the tabloids.
Following a career low in the 1990s, she made a comeback in the long-running BBC soap 'Eastenders', playing Peggy Mitchell, mother of the Mitchell brothers. The role cast her back into the spotlight and, despite taking a recent break due to illness, she vows to return once more to Albert Square.
In 1999, she released a duet with Mike Reid called The More I See You. This reached number 44 in the UK Singles Charts. In 2000, she was awarded an MBE in the Queen's New Year's Honours List.
A debilitating case of the Epstein-Barr virus forced her to take a two-year long absence from EastEnders in 2003. She rejoined the cast on a full-time basis in the summer of 2005 and signed a one-year contract.
Barbara has married three times. She married Ronnie Knight in 1964 and they divorced in 1985. A year later she married Stephen Hollings, with the marriage lasting just under a decade. Her current spouse is Scott Mitchell. They were married in 2000.
During her first marriage, she had an affair with her Carry On co-star, Sid James. She was also romantically linked to the gangster Reggie Kray in the 1960s. In her autobiography, All of Me, Windsor openly talks about her four abortions. The first three of which took place before the age of 21, and the last occurring when she was 42.