List of East Enders Characters (1985) - Big Ron

Big Ron, played by Ron Tarr, is an overweight man that works in Walford market and appears as a background character from 1985 to 1997. Ron is involved in a few storylines, including one where he has a heart attack after he is pushed by a mugger in the market.

The actor Ron Tarr died of cancer in October 1997 and was appearing in pre-recorded episodes several weeks after his death. To explain the character's absence, he was given an off-screen storyline in early 1998 where he wins £500,000 on the National Lottery and emigrates to Spain. In a report about Tarr's death in the Daily Mirror, journalist Chris Hughes stated the character had "a cult following". Ron was supposed to feature in a special episode of the popular science fiction series, Doctor Who, which is entitled Dimensions in Time (1993). The episode was specially screened as part of BBC's annual fund-raising event, Children in Need. Viewers were asked to phone in and vote which EastEnders character, Mandy Salter (Nicola Stapleton) or Ron, would appear in the show and save the Doctor from certain death. Two versions were filmed for each voting outcome, but the Mandy version won with 56% of the vote. Ron's first line in the series is, "All right, Den?", said to Den Watts (Leslie Grantham), five months after Ron first appeared.