Mike Reid – known to millions as Frank Butcher from EastEnders - has died of a heart attack in Marbella aged 67; already friends are calling him 'the finest actor of his generation to do a nude scene on a family soap opera with a skinny bow-tie on'.

Mike Reid, of course, had many strings to his bow. Not only was he cockney wheeler-dealer Frank Butcher in EastEnders, but he was also the confusingly aggressive host of children's TV show Runaround and – first and foremost – a foul-mouthed, working men's club-style stand-up comedian. And now that Mike Reid's dead, we'll no longer be able to see him pop up on EastEnders once every two years for a series of extended cameos that mainly involve him kissing Pat Butcher with tongues. It's small thoughts like that that'll help us through this difficult time.

First Bernard Manning dies and now Mike Reid has died too – Roy Chubby Brown and Jethro had better watch their backs, because now that Mike Reid has died, they're the only old-school racist, sexist, homophobic comedians left around. And neither of them have ever made their fortune by running Martine McCutcheon over to death, so they hardly compare.

It's been reported that a suspected heart attack killed Mike Reid, 67. The Times rounds up the reaction of the showbusiness community:

His friend and fellow comedian Frank Carson said that it was absolutely devastating, coming so soon after the death of their friend Bernard Manning. David Hahn, Mr Reid’s agent, paid tribute to the actor last night, describing him as a “very, very, very funny man” who would see the funny side in every situation, no matter how bad. “Even now I am sure he is laughing,” he said.

Although Mike Reid will go down in history as being cheeky murdering alcoholic Frank Butcher in endlessly depressing baby-kidnapping soap opera EastEnders, there was more to Mike Reid than meets the eye. He was a stuntman in Spartacus, a stunt driver in the original Casino Royale, an original member of thuddingly unfashionable TV show The Comedians and the presenter of children's TV show Runaround, most famous for Mike Reid's 'belligerent hungover tramp' presenting style.

But it's Frank Butcher that'll make Mike Reid live on forever because he is, to date, the most unlikely human ever to kick-start a fight between a burly lesbian and her out of the Carry On films. And that's probably the way it'll stay until Wee Jimmy Krankie gets cast as the car-lot owner on EastEnders.

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Mike Reid, Cockney Comedian And EastEnder, Dies Age 67 - The Times