News
Jewish star famed as Yiddishe doc on EastEnders dies at 95
Leonard Fenton's beloved character confronted antisemitism on screen
February 3, 2022 10:28
Leonard Fenton's beloved character confronted antisemitism on screen
February 3, 2022 10:28Leonard Fenton, the actor who played the iconic Jewish character Dr Harold Legg in EastEnders for 34 years, died on Saturday aged 95.
Dr Legg was the kindly GP and much-loved member of the community who met his wife while fighting fascists in the Battle of Cable Street.
Like his soap character, Mr Fenton — also from the East End — recalled marches by Oswald Mosley and his Blackshirts in east London in the 1930s.
He was born Leonard Finestein in Stepney to Fanny (nee Goldberg), of Latvian descent, and Morris Finestein, a garment-maker whose parents came to Britain from Lithuania.
During the Second World War his family changed their name to Fenton.
He appeared in the first episode of EastEnders in February 1985, with his last scenes airing in 2019.
One of his final storylines was about rising hatred towards Jews in the UK and in one episode he learns that his parents’ graves had been vandalised with antisemitic graffiti.
In Dr Legg’s deathbed scene, his friend Dot Cotton attempted to cheer him up by showing him a DVD of the Battle of Cable Street.
Trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, Mr Fenton got his big break in 1960 when he was cast by Orson Welles as Bardolph in the film Chimes at Midnight.
In 1967, Fenton married the cellist Madeline Thorner. They later separated and he is survived by their three sons, Daniel, Sam and Toby, and daughter, Nina.