Freddie Starr found dead at 76, according to reports
Iconic comedian Freddie Starr has reportedly died at the age of 76.
He was found dead at his home in Spain, according to reports from the Sun.
Posts on Facebook and Twitter pages claiming be his official social media channels appeared to confirm the news.
Starr was a household name who rose to fame in the 1970s, but his outrageous sense of humour frequently landed him in hot water.
The Liverpudlian was the lead singer of the Midniters during the 1960s and rose to national prominence in the early 1970s after appearing on Opportunity Knocks.
During the 1990s, he starred in several TV shows including Freddie Starr (1993-94), The Freddie Starr Show (1996-98) and An Audience with Freddie Starr in 1996.
In 2011, he took part in I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here but dropped out due to ill health.
A meal of fermented egg and a camel toe forced Starr to leave after he suffered an allergic reaction and had to be taken to hospital.
Tributes
Starr's fellow comic Jim Davidson was among the many celebrities paying tribute to the comedy legend.
He tweeted: "Just heard the news. Freddie Starr was the greatest."
Actor Bobby Davro was on GMB to look back on his friendship with Starr, and recounted the first time they had met.
TV presenter Amanda Holden said she hopes Starr is 'remembered with a smile'.
Writing on Twitter, she said: "Sad to hear of Freddie Starr passing today. His style may have fallen out of comedy fashion & favour - but it's important to recognise his once huge popularity and fame."
Legacy and controversy
Starr was known by fans for his eccentric and often unpredictable behaviour.
In 1986, he was famously at the centre of one of the most infamous newspaper headlines: ‘Freddie Starr ate my hamster.’
The story, published by The Sun, claimed Starr placed the small creature between two slices of bread and ate it at a friend's home after returning from a performance in Manchester.
It’s an allegation Starr has repeatedly denied.
Kelvin MacKenzie - the editor behind the bizarre story - told Good Morning Britain he had heard it from the mistress of the Managing Director at the time, who claimed it happened to her model friend.
"The Berlin Wall, and various other wars... seemed less interesting than Freddie Starr eating somebody's hamster," he told the programme.
It wasn't just this incident that cast a shadow over Starr's career. Police investigated an allegation of historical sexual abuse against Starr in2012, which he said left him ‘suicidal’.
Starr was told in 2014 he would not be prosecuted after spending 18 months on bail.
After an unsuccessful defamation lawsuit that costed him a rumoured £1 million, he moved to Spain to allegedly stay out of the limelight.
“No matter which way I turned there was a ****ing revolver pointing at my head so I thought, ‘I’m not going to tell anyone, I’m just going to get on a plane and go to Spain, the place I love, and this is where I’m going to die’,” he told the Mail.
Regardless, Starr's sense of humour continued to shine through in the last year of his life. In February, he posted a picture on Facebook of himself with cigarettes stuffed into his mouth, nose and ears.
In May he posted: “Hello everyone, hope everyone is okay? Me yes I’m okay getting tired now but otherwise I’m doing good.
“I just have to say thank you all from the bottom of my heart for all the kind comments and messages it really does mean a lot so thank you to each and every one of you. Thanks so much. Freddie.