Summer Wine's Wesley dies

May 22 2002 By The Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Actor Gordon Wharmby, known to millions of viewers as Wesley Pegden in Last Of The Summer Wine, has died aged 68.

He starred in 11 series of the long-running comedy, which is filmed in the Holme Valley, and appeared in many of the top hits of British TV, including All Creatures Great And Small and Edge Of Darkness.

Dame Thora Hird plays Edie, his on-screen wife in Last of the Summer Wine.

Mr Wharmby died on Saturday after a short illness at Abergele Hospital in north Wales. He had recently been diagnosed with lung cancer and was taken to hospital on Friday with an infection.

His agent Barbara Pemberton said: "He was still leading a full life and had been due to begin filming a new series of Last Of The Summer Wine at the weekend."

She added: "I represented him for a long time and he was always a very down to earth man. He was as mild a man as you could ever meet."

Mr Wharmby, who lived near Rhyl, had been a decorator before turning his hand to acting.

Among his many TV appearances were Hetty Wainthropp Investigates, Heartbeat, Brookside, Coronation Street and The Liver Birds.

Mr Wharmby leaves his wife Muriel.