Lennard Pearce(1915-1984)

Filming on the fourth series of Only Fools and Horses (1981) began in February, 1984. David Jason and Nicholas Lyndhurst were in makeup when a distraught Ray Butt came in to tell them Pearce had died over the weekend of a heart attack; his body at the foot of a flight of stairs. Jason and Lyndhurst were shocked and speechless and filming was canceled. Pearce had not been a well man, he was a heavy smoker even on the job. Pearce's funeral was several days later; a small and humble affair. Pearce didn't have much in the way of family; his landlady and her daughter were the closest people to him, but the cast mourned him like losing a family member.