Actress Eileen Pollock has died at the age of 73, her family has confirmed.
Eileen was best known for playing the character of Lilo Lill in the 1980s BBC sitcom Bread.
Her family confirmed that she died peacefully at home in London on Sunday.
They led tributes to the screen star, saying they’d remember her as a “dear sister, loved aunt and great aunt” and an “actor, writer and storyteller”.
The family added: “Your beauty, laughter and loving eyes gave joy to all.”
Bread aired on BBC One between May 1986 and November 1991, with millions tuning in to watch the antics of the Liverpudlian working-class family.
Eileen has been branded ‘extraordinary’ by a former co-star (Image: Getty Images)
Eileen also had roles in television shows such as Taggart and The Bill, but Bread was the work she was most recognised for.
She told The Northern Echo in 2004 that she loved being recognised from it, saying: “I like it when someone says in a supermarket, ‘You know who you remind me of, don’t take offence, that tart from Bread.'”
Eileen had acted alongside the likes of Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman during her career.
Tributes have already been pouring in for Eileen, with fans and her former colleagues paying their respects.
Eileen had a successful career on stage and screen (Image: Getty Images)
Dan Gordon, who acted alongside Eileen in the play Women On The Verge Of HRT, said: “We used to call her ‘Polly’s People’ because she picked up all the waifs and strays along the way and would never see them stuck.”
He added to the Irish News: “She was great fun and the one thing I remember is that I never saw her angry. I never once saw her cross with anyone.
“She was an extraordinary woman, a beautiful person.”
Eileen was born in Belfast in 1947 and was a technical translator working in London before she broke into acting.
Later in her career she starred in local pantomimes, which had been a childhood ambition of hers.
She said in 2004, amid her role of the wicked witch in Jack and the Beanstalk in Middlesbrough: “The wicked witch is wonderful because I can’t stand children and making them want to cry and scream is a wonderful battle of wits.”
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
