Vale: Jean Boht

UK actor Jean Boht, best known for 1980s sitcom Bread, has died aged 91.

She had been living at Denville Hall in London, a care home for actors and other members of the entertainment industry.

A statement from her family said: “It is with overwhelming sadness that we must announce that Jean Boht passed away yesterday, Tuesday September 12.

“Jean had been battling vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s disease with the indefatigable spirit for which she was both beloved and renowned.”

Boht played matriarch Nellie Boswell in the sitcom Bread from 1986 – 1991, who was constantly attempting to keep her large Liverpool family in check.

The show was a big hit, with 21 million viewers tuning in to watch a wedding episode in 1988 – making it the second most popular show of that year. It screened in Australia on ABC.

“I never watched it at the time, it’s too horrendous for actors to see themselves on screen so I had no idea what it looked like,” she said in 2012.

“But now when I catch it I am just astounded at how good it was and how very funny.

Boht also appeared in sitcoms

The news comes a month after the death of her husband, composer Carl Davis.

Other credits include Sons and Lovers, Boys From the Blackstuff, I Woke Up One Morning and Brighton Belles, the British remake of The Golden Girls, alongside Sheila Hancock, Wendy Craig and Sheila Gish. Boht played Josephine, the new version of Estelle Getty’s Sophia, however, the remake failed to take off.

She also appeared in 1988 movie Distant Voices, Still Lives and in Embers with Jeremy Irons in London’s West End in 2006.

Alzheimer’s Australia

Source: BBC