Is hardman Ray Winstone on his way to Albert Square? The Hollywood star is lining up to replace Danny Dyer on EastEnders and could even become the landlord of the Queen Vic pub
He is the East End actor who took Hollywood by storm with his tough image.
Now Ray Winstone could go back to his roots – with a role in TV’s Albert Square.
The Mail on Sunday has been told he is in line to replace him Danny Dyer as the hardman in East Enders and it has even been speculated by some close to the BBC soap opera that he can become the landlord of the Queen Vic pub.
The character he would potentially play would be the patriarch of a family with new characters as well.
Yesterday, sources at the BBC insisted there were no plans for 66-year-old Winstone to appear. However, they have dampened such rumors about other big names before, only to officially announce them soon after.
Ray Winstone could go back to his roots – with a role in TV’s Albert Square on EastEnders
Winstone, who starred in the gangster movie Sexy Beast, almost joined EastEnders in 2008 as Billy Mitchell’s long-running brother, but turned it down after accepting a role in Indiana Jones And The Crystal Skull. At the time, soap executives said they were desperate to get him on the show.
The actor later said, “That thing of showing up five times a week, these guys work really hard, it’s just not for me.” I wondered if I’d probably be the only East End on the show.’
The London Borough of Bromley-by-Bow, where the fictional Albert Square is supposed to stand, is just two miles from Hackney Hospital, where Winstone was born. He lived in Plaistow, in the East End, until he was seven, when the family moved to North London.
Winstone, who starred in the gangster film Sexy Beast (pictured), almost joined EastEnders in 2008 as Billy Mitchell’s long-running brother, but turned it down after accepting a role in Indiana Jones And The Crystal Skull
Winstone’s daughter Jaime, 37, received credit last September for playing a young Peggy Mitchell in a flashback episode as she struggled to make ends meet in the 1970s.
Today, Winstone and his wife, Elaine, divide their time between their five-bedroom home in Essex and a converted farmhouse near the Sicilian town of Cianciana.
In December, Dyer left EastEnders after nine years starring as Queen Vic boss Mick Carter.
In the Christmas Day episode, he appeared to die after jumping into the English Channel in an attempt to save his wife Linda, played by Kellie Bright.
Winstone made an instant impact with his big-screen breakthrough in 1979’s Scum and worked with Hollywood’s top directors, including Martin Scorsese in The Departed.
A BBC spokeswoman said there are currently no plans for Winstone to join EastEnders.