Comic found dead in his Spanish apartment

Freddie Starr has died at the age of 76,it has been reported

The comedian is said to have been found dead at his Costa Del Sol apartment.

A neighbour, who asked not to be named, told the Mirror: ‘His carer found him dead in his chair at around 3.30pm.’

Another neighbour added: ‘He’s been quite ill ever since he moved in and has barely left his apartment since moving in a couple of years ago.’

Starr became a star from the talent show Opportunity Knocks and went on to star in a number of his own 1990s TV shows. His appearances on An Audience with Freddie Starr in 1996 and Another Audience with Freddie Starr in 1997 were especially heralded.

In 2011 he appeared on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!, just a year after recovering from quadruple bypass surgery, but withdrew for health reasons.

The comic was also the subject of one of the best-known tabloid headlines of all time,  The Sun’s 1986 story 'Freddie Starr ate my hamster’, placed by the now-disgraced PR guru Max Clifford

Starr himself was investigated for historic sex crimes as part of Operation Yewtree, but no charges followed. The investigation took its toll and he said it made him consider suicide.

In an interview with the Daily Mail after that ordeal, he said: ‘I’m not long for this world. I rarely go out because it’s hard to walk....  I’m just going to get on a plane and go to Spain, the place I love, and this is where I’m going to die.’

Published: 9 May 2019