Actress June Brown is nothing short of a national icon for her legendary role as Dot Cotton.
However, many are unaware that the 93-year-old EastEnders star had a busy career before joining the BBC One soap.
Born in 1927 in Needham Market in Suffolk, June went on to serve in the Women's Royal Naval Service in the Second World War.
During her youth, June was also classically trained in the dramatic arts at The Old Vic Theatre School in Lambeth, London.
She told The Independent in 2010: "When I was 17-and-a-half I volunteered for the Wrens. I auditioned for a play and we took it round the Southern Command area and I really enjoyed it. I got laughs and that was when the bug got me.
"I got a grant for the Old Vic Theatre School in London, which had just started. It was only five terms; they used to break you down and never quite put you together again but it was an excellent training."
In 1950, June married actor John Garley and they were together for over seven years.
Tragically, John's struggle with depression ended with him taking his own life in 1957.
Going on to marry Robert Arnold of the Dixon of Dock Green show on the BBC in 1958, Brown went on to have six children in seven years, sadly one of which died in infancy.
The pair would go on to be married for 45 years until Robert's death of Lewy Body dementia in 2003.
Following her marriages, June went on to have notable roles in film, theatre, and television.
In fact, June had a role as on what is now Enders' rival soap opera Coronation Street back in 1970 in one of her earliest TV roles.
She played the character of Mrs Parsons, the mother of young Tony Parsons who received harmonium lessons from Ena Sharples (Violet Carson) and she appeared across three episodes.
She also made a number of television guest appearances such as in long-running BBC sci-fi series Doctor Who, playing Lady Eleanor of Wessex in 1973 serial The Time Warrior opposite Jon Pertwee's Third Doctor.
June also appeared in classic cop show The Sweeney, Minder, The Bill, BBC post-apocalyptic drama Survivors, and the 1985 television adaptation of Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist.
The actress also had her first film role in 1971 playing a female patient in British drama Sunday Bloody Sunday.
This was followed by film roles in Sitting Target, cult film Psychomania, and a role as Jack the Ripper victim Annie Chapman in the film Murder by Decree.
1985 saw her recommended to the BBC by one of EastEnders' original cast members Leslie Grantham who played "Dirty Den" Watts in the soap to play the character of Dot Cotton, the mother of established villain Nick Cotton (John Altman).
Debuting in the 40th episode of EastEnders in July 1985, the character of Dot had been dreamt up by creators Tony Holland and Julia Smith along with the other original characters.
Brown was offered the role for three months initially and joined despite her reservations about the show.
Dot was brought in by producers, as Brown described, because "Nick was coming back again".
Despite the short-term plans for the character, Dot became a fixture of the soap and June stayed on as the character until 1993 when she departed the soap.
June described the reasons for her exit to the Daily Mirror in 1997.
She said: "I always felt Dot was one of those characters who should stay the same. She's a simple creature. There are some people who the same things happen to them again and again.
"They never learn... when I left, there was all that rubbish about it getting too much for me [but] I stopped because I wasn't being used very much.
"I thought, 'It's a part-time job'. It wasn't being written properly."
She added: "They were a bit shocked, because apparently there were some good stories coming up."
June was eventually persuaded to return and she stayed from 1997 until 2020 when it was revealed her final scenes had aired in January.
In an interview with the Distinct Nostalgia Podcast, June said: "I don’t want a retainer for EastEnders, I've left. I've left for good. I've sent her off to Ireland where she’ll stay. I've left EastEnders. "
She added: "I did make up a limerick. It’s a bit dirty. ‘I went back to do a good story. Alas and alack, when I got back it had gone up in smoke. I got a small part, a very small part. And that ended up as a big wet fart. Alas and alack, I will never go back."
This means her final episode aired on January 21, 2020 when the character left Albert Square to visit her grandson Charlie Cotton.
We just hope she changes her mind again! If not, she had already proven her many talents before EastEnders.
EastEnders airs on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays on BBC One.
What will you miss about June Brown from EastEnders? Let us know your favourite Dot Cotton moments in the comments below.
