Personal Life and Death
Franklin was married to John Caswell Garth from 1934 until his death from cancer in 1953 at the age of 50. Franklin, who was 42 at the time, never remarried.
Off-screen, Franklin devoted much of her time to charity and gave away all the royalties she received from EastEnders repeats to her favourite animal charities. “At my age one isn’t buying new fur coats and diamonds”, she said. “If you get that lot of repeat fees four times a year you can afford to be a bit more generous to other people.”
In May 2005 it was confirmed that Franklin would present the Lifetime Soap Achievement Award to former colleague June Brown at the British Soap Awards but was too ill to attend. It was later given by another EastEnders actor Anna Wing who played Lou Beale, who mentioned her in the speech.
Franklin died at her home in Barnes on 11 July 2005, four days after her 94th birthday. Her life and work was honoured at the British Academy Television Awards in 2006. In 2007 it was revealed that she had left a sum of £872,772 in her will. One third went to charity Help The Aged, while the rest went to friends and relatives, one of whom was her cousin Clive Dunn, who played Corporal Jones in TV's Dad's Army.
Read more about this topic: Gretchen Franklin
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