Actor Andy Devine died due to “hospital-acquired pneumonia” after a fall, a coroner has concluded.
In January, the 79-year-old, who played Shadrach Dingle in Emmerdale for ten years, died in Southport Hospital.
Sefton Senior Coroner Julie Goulding said that the soap star had fallen and lain on the floor for about an hour as he was “unable to get up until his carers arrived”.
She said his condition deteriorated, “culminating in his death”.
Devine made his Emmerdale debut as Shadrach Dingle, the father of Chas and husband of Faith, in 2000.
Emmerdale was not his first soap, as he had previously played a photographer in Coronation Street, while he also appeared in Queer As Folk, Where The Heart Is, Cracker and Prime Suspect.
One of his earliest roles was as a Draconian Guard in Doctor Who in the 1970s.
Ms Golding said the actor, whose real first name was Peter, “lost his balance which resulted in a fall”.
“Peter had serious underlying clinical co-morbidities and, despite all appropriate care and treatment, [his] condition worsened leading to his death,” she said.
She concluded that the medical cause of her death was “hospital-acquired pneumonia” and that her death was an “accident”.
Emmerdale actor Liam O’Brien, who played Ethan Blake for three years, tweeted that he was “heartbroken to hear of the passing of an old friend”.
“Even more sad that he passed away in January and [I] never knew,” he said.
Fellow soap actor Daniel Jillings, who appeared in Coronation Street and Hollyoaks, tweeted that Devine was his “first drama teacher and a great”, adding that he was a “character both on and off-screen”.