The actor who plays Tinky Winky's character in the Teletubbies hit boy series, Simon Shelton Barnes, passed away at the age of 52 on Friday (19/1). However, this news only spread on this day, Tuesday (23/1). Barnes died four days after his birthday. However, the cause of his death is still not revealed. Barnes played Tinky Winky for 14 episodes during 1998 to 2001, after the Teletubbies production crew fired the original purple doll actor, Dave Thompson, in 1997.
According to The Guardian report, Barnes lives in Ampthill, Bedfordshire, England and has been trained as a ballet dancer and choreographer before finally taking on the BBC iconic show.
The father of three had previously described Teletubbues as being "a bit like The Beatles or Take That on television." Family and relatives have remembered and made statements through their social media accounts.Teletubbies first aired the BBC on March 31, 1997. The event was then sold to many broadcast stations around the world and washed out massive success. In addition, the total sales of trinkets Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa and Po was able to reap income of more than 1 billion pounds, or about Rp18, 6 trillion globally.