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EastEnders' Mike Reid had £900k debt

Mike Reid, the actor who played EastEnders' wheeler-dealer Frank Butcher, died with debts of nearly £900,000.

The star died of a heart attack in July last year, but hadn't made a will. Accountants who subsequently checked his accounts found him to be worth £881,381 and after Mike's debts were settled, the final value of his estate was put at… £0.00.

Thankfully, it's thought that the 67-year-old's wife Shirley, who is the mother of their two sons, is surviving just fine. "She is very comfortably off and living in their Spanish villa where she and Mike spent their last few years very happily together," said a source.

A family friend confirmed this – but expressed surprise at the financial revelations. “Mike appears on paper to have died potless, which is incredible to me," said the friend. "He never seemed to be short of money but I don’t know what sorts of debts he had. It seems his financial affairs in UK were disorganised and took a lot of sorting out.”

Even the star's agent David Hahn was taken aback. "I was completely unaware he had any debts," he said.

In the kind of weird art-reflecting-life twist that would probably have had sometime stand-up comedian Mike chuckling, Frank Butcher's will is set to be read to his screen family in this Friday's edition of EastEnders, so we may all be in for a second surprise…

by Will Parkhouse, Wednesday 2 April 2008

Source: The Sun
Picture: PA

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