Barbara Windsor is estimated to be worth £9 million. She attended the Aida Foster Theatre School.
After debuting on stage at 13 and West End at 15, Windsor acted in The Belles of St Trinian’s (1954), her first movie.
How did Windsor rise to stardom and become a millionaire?
Her rise to stardom began with Joan Littlewood’s Theatre Workshop, where she performed in Fings Ain’t Wot They Used to Be and Littlewood’s 1963 movie Sparrows Can’t Sing, for which she received a BAFTA nomination. Windsor went on to receive a Tony nomination for Best Featured Actress in the Broadway production Oh, What A Lovely War! (1963).
She later appeared in films such as Crooks in Cloisters (1964), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968), Come Spy with Me (1977, musical), the BBC sitcoms The Rag Trade (1961-1963) and Wild, Wild Women, and ITV’s Worzel Gummidge (1979-1981).
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Windsor’s brush with fame began as a ‘good time girl’ in the Carry On Series: Carry On Spying (1964), Carry On Doctor (1967), Carry On Camping (1969), Carry On Again Doctor (1969), Carry On Henry (1971), Carry On Matron (1972), Carry On Abroad (1972), Carry On Girls (1973) and Carry On Dick (1974).
Between 1973 and 1975, she appeared in Carry On London!, a West End revue, with other members of the Carry On team. She even acted in the TV series Carry On Laughing! (1975) and presented That’s Carry On! (1977) alongside Kenneth Williams.
Windsor played music hall singer Marie Lloyd in Sing A Rude Song in 1970 and two years later performed in West End’s The Threepenny Opera.
She toured across the UK, South Africa and New Zealand with her own show called Carry On Barbara! in 1975.
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In 1981, she acted in the Kenneth Williams-directed play Entertaining Mr Sloane.
Windsor was cast as Peggy in the soap opera EastEnders, in 1994, for which she won Best Actress in 1999 and Lifetime Achievement in 2009 at The British Soap Awards. Leaving the series in 2010, she appeared intermittently, including a 30th anniversary celebration in February 2015 with EastEnders: Back to Ours.
Awarded an MBE at the 2000 New Year Honours, Windsor released her autobiography, All of Me, in 2001.
In 2010, Windsor lent voice in Walt Disney’s Alice in Wonderland.
She will be reprising Dormouse in Alice in Wonderland: Through the Looking Glass in 2016.
