Comedian and actor Felix Dexter, best known for his roles in The Real McCoy, Absolutely Fabulous and The Lenny Henry Show, has died of cancer.
Dexter, who was reported to be 52 years old, had been battling multiple myeloma, a form of cancer which affects bone marrow.
The London-based comic - who was originally from St Kitts in the Caribbean - first came to prominence as a cast member of 1990s sketch show The Real McCoy, which featured an exclusively black and Asian cast.
The show, which ran from 1991-1996, also featured Meera Syal and Sanjeev Bhaskar among its performers.
Dexter, who was the first black comedian ever to be given a regular slot at London's Comedy Store, also appeared in The Lenny Henry Show, The Fast Show and Absolutely Fabulous - in which he played Saffron's boyfriend John Johnston.
More recently he starred in the 2010 sketch show Bellamy's People, and was seen in the BBC One sitcom Citizen Khan as the over-friendly Somalian Muslin Omar.
He was also an accomplished actor, spending a season with the Royal Shakespeare Company in the 1990s as well as appearing in a West End production of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest alongside Christian Slater in 2006.
Tributes have been paid to Dexter on Twitter, with Bill Bailey and David Baddiel among the first to pay their respects.
"Very sad news about my old friend Felix Dexter," Bailey wrote. "A brilliant comedian, a superb comic actor, a lovely man I feel privileged to have known.
Baddiel, meanwhile, called his death 'a real loss to comedy'.
*VOTE NOW for your most-loved stars and shows in the TV Times 2013 Awards and enter a draw for 47in LED TVs, YouView boxes and John Lewis vouchers.
