The daughter of the actor who played Tinky Winky in the BBC’s Teletubbies has paid tribute to ‘most beautiful man in the world’ following his death aged 52.
Simon Shelton Barnes, from Ampthill in Bedfordshire, had trained as a ballet dancer and choreographer before taking on the role from 1998 to 2001 as the purple character who carried a ‘magic bag’ in the children’s show.
After the father-of-three’s death, his make-up artist daughter Lydia Barnes said: ‘I love you so much dad. Always have, always will. The most beautiful man in the world. Forever in my heart.’
Mr Barnes was found last Wednesday at 7.30am having died of hypothermia after collapsing on the streets of Liverpool in the Mann Island area of the city.
Tributes were also paid yesterday by his former flatmate Judith Tynan, the cousin of his ex-wife Emma Robbins, who lived with him on the Wirral in Merseyside for the final year of his life.
She told MailOnline: ‘I’m very floored at losing him, he was just the best company. He was just the best person to live with and we got on terribly well.
‘I’m gobsmacked at losing him. He was charming and handsome and delicate and so lovely to be around. He wasn’t difficult, he was pleasurable and a delicate man.’
She said the Teletubbies was his ‘pièce de résistance’ and they ‘laughed a lot about it because it was silly and he used to tell me that costume weighed 60lbs’.
Ms Tynan continued: ‘It was a big to-do to wear it because it was just a big thing, but it made him – it made his life and put him on the map.