British actor Stephen Lewis, best known for his role in the 1970s sitcom "On the Buses," has died in an East London nursing home, the BBC reported. He was 88 years old.
Lewis passed away at around 2 a.m. on Wednesday and died "quite peacefully," nephew Peter Lewis said, according to the Guardian. Lewis' health had been deteriorating after being placed in a nursing home three years ago.
"He had terrible arthritis in one knee which really badly affected him," Peter said, "and many years ago he had prostate cancer – and whether that had come back we don't know."
Rashid Ebrahimkhan, the manager of the nursing home where Lewis received care in his final years, told the Guardian Lewis would still deliver his famous lines from his hit TV show: "I'll get you for this, Butler" and "Get these buses out, Butler."
The British actor got his start on the West End in London before he landed the role as inspector Cyril "Blakey" Blake in "On the Buses", according to Entertainment Weekly. The show ran from 1969-1973 and spawned three movies and TV show spin-offs. Lewis went on to play Clem "Smiler" Hemmingway in "Last of the Summer Wine," another television series that ran from 1988 to 2007 on the BBC.
Ebrahimkhan said that Lewis was resilient even though he battled various ailments during his time at the nursing home.
"He still had his sense of humor, very much so, like he was on 'On The Buses,'" Ebrahimkhan said. "He had the sense of humor until the last."
