Dawn French, who worked with the comedy star, described her as a ‘unique and beautiful spark’
Emma Chambers, best known for playing Alice Tinker in The Vicar of Dibley, has died aged 53, it was announced on Saturday.
Dawn French, the star of The Vicar of Dibley, described her as “a unique and beautiful spark”.
Her agent said Chambers died of natural causes on Wednesday evening, and said the actor “brought laughter and joy to many, and will be greatly missed”. She is survived by her husband Ian Dunn, who is also an actor.
Broadcaster Emma Freud, who was friends with Chambers, tweeted: “We’re very, very sad. She was a great, great comedy performer, and a truly fine actress. And a tender, sweet, funny, unusual, loving human being.
“How could you not love this girl,” she added, posting a video of her work.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Emma Chambers, left, with Gary Waldhorn and Dawn French in The Vicar of Dibley. Photograph: Alamy
French posted a humorous photograph of herself and Chambers on Twitter and said that she loved her a lot.
Dawn French (@Dawn_French) I was regularly humped like this by the unique & beautiful spark that was Emma Chambers. I never minded. I loved her. A lot . pic.twitter.com/imzkoyKja9
Chambers also appeared in the 1999 film Notting Hill as Hugh Grant’s younger sister, Honey, and the actor reacted to the news, tweeting that she was “a hilarious and very warm person”.
Hugh Grant (@HackedOffHugh) Emma Chambers was a hilarious and very warm person and of course a brilliant actress. Very sad news.
Her agent, John Grant, said: “We are very sad to announce the untimely death, from natural causes, of the acclaimed actress Emma Chambers.
“Over the years, Emma created a wealth of characters and an immense body of work. She brought laughter and joy to many, and will be greatly missed.”
Grant added: “At this difficult time we ask that the privacy of the family and loved ones be respected.”
The much loved actress Emma Chambers - who starred as the Vicar of Dibley’s dippy verger - has died at the age of 53.
She was best known for playing Alice Tinker in the BBC's gentle sit-com, written by Richard Curtis, about a female vicar and her eccentric parishioners.
Her agent John Grant said Ms Chambers, who also starred in the 1999 film Notting Hill with Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts, died from natural causes on Wednesday evening and would be "greatly missed".
Mr Curtis, who also wrote Notting Hill, told the Telegraph Ms Chambers was a "fine actress" and was "more than the measure of" both his leading stars Dawn French and Julia Roberts.
“We’re obviously terribly sad. She really was a great, great comedy performer - and a very fine actress. And a tender, sweet, funny, unusual, loving human being," he said.
"In my work she worked opposite Dawn French and Julia Roberts - and was more than the measure of the pair of them.
"I suppose I particularly remember those jokes at the end of each episode of the Vicar of Dibley. They were always done right at the end of the recording - with no time left - and were big feats of complicated remembering - and she was always completely accurate, completely innocent, completely hilarious.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Vicar of Dibley's Alice Tinker: "I can't believe it's not butter"
Actors Dawn French and Hugh Grant have led tributes to their former co-star Emma Chambers, who has died aged 53.
Known for playing Alice Tinker in The Vicar of Dibley, Doncaster-born Chambers also had roles in Notting Hill and a Martin Chuzzlewit adaptation.
Chambers died from natural causes on Wednesday evening and would be "greatly missed", her agent John Grant said.
"Emma created a wealth of characters and an immense body of work," he added.
She leaves a husband, fellow actor Ian Dunn.
French, who starred in The Vicar of Dibley alongside Chambers for 13 years, paid tribute to a "very bright spark and the most loyal and loving friend anyone could wish for".
"I will miss her very much", she said, while also posting a picture of the pair on Twitter.
Skip Twitter post by @Dawn_French I was regularly humped like this by the unique & beautiful spark that was Emma Chambers. I never minded. I loved her. A lot . pic.twitter.com/imzkoyKja9 — Dawn French (@Dawn_French) February 24, 2018 Report
Notting Hill star Hugh Grant, who played the older brother of Chambers' character Honey in the 1999 film, spoke of his sadness following the news, adding: "She brought laughter and joy to many."
Other well-wishers included Emma Freud, the partner of Richard Curtis, who created both the film and the TV comedy.
Skip Twitter post by @emmafreud Our beautiful friend Emma Chambers has died at the age of 53. We're very very sad. She was a great, great comedy performer, and a truly fine actress. And a tender, sweet, funny, unusual, loving human being. pic.twitter.com/vLQcRcv2Ex — emma freud 🔴 (@emmafreud) February 24, 2018 Report
Skip Twitter post by @HackedOffHugh Emma Chambers was a hilarious and very warm person and of course a brilliant actress. Very sad news. — Hugh Grant (@HackedOffHugh) February 24, 2018 Report
Skip Twitter post by @JeremyClarkson I'm sad about Emma Chambers. Knew her when she was a kid in Doncaster. She was very funny. — Jeremy Clarkson (@JeremyClarkson) February 24, 2018 Report
Chambers played the character of Alice Tinker, a village church verger, in The Vicar of Dibley between 1994 and 2007, with French in the title role.
In 1998, she won the British Comedy Award for best TV actress for her performance.
Jon Plowman, executive producer of the series and former head of comedy at the BBC, described Chambers as "bright and clever".
He said: "Emma was a gifted comic actress who made any part she played - no matter how ditzy or other worldly - look easy."
'It was a joy'
Chambers would go over every line to make sure she got the rhythm and the tone of the lunatic she was playing, says Paul Mayhew-Archer, co-writer of the Vicar of Dibley.
He told BBC Radio 5 live that despite most comedy series having an idiot, "she made Alice a completely unique, very special idiot".
"The joy of the scenes with Emma and Dawn is they never went wrong, so you just got these wonderful first takes - so you got all that original energy transferred straight on to the screen - it was a joy."
Image caption Chambers was known for playing Alice Tinker in The Vicar of Dibley, alongside Dawn French
Image caption She was named best TV comedy actress in 1998 for her portrayal of Alice
Image caption She appeared as Charity Pecksniff (right) in a BBC adaptation of Charles Dickens' Martin Chuzzlewit
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The Vicar of Dibley actress Emma Chambers has died of natural causes aged 53, her agent has confirmed.
Best known for playing Alice Tinker in the BBC sitcom which starred Dawn French, the Doncaster-born star also featured in Notting Hill alongside Julia Roberts.
Notting Hill co-star Hugh Grant led tributes to her this evening, calling her a 'warm person' and 'brilliant actress'.
Dawn French said: 'Emma was a very bright spark and the most loyal & loving friend anyone could wish for. I will miss her very much.'
Her agent said Chambers, who died from natural causes on Wednesday evening, would be 'greatly missed'.
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The Vicar of Dibley actress Emma Chambers has died of natural causes aged 53, her agent has confirmed. She was best known for playing Alice Tinker in the BBC sitcom which starred Dawn French (right), the Doncaster-born star also featured in Notting Hill alongside Julia Roberts
Her agent said Chambers, who died from natural causes on Wednesday evening, would be 'greatly missed'. A statement said: 'Emma created a wealth of characters and an immense body of work. She brought laughter and joy to many'
Hugh Grant, pictured with Julia Roberts and Emma Chambers in romantic comedy Notting Hill, mourned the loss of a 'brilliant actress' this evening
A statement said: 'Emma created a wealth of characters and an immense body of work. She brought laughter and joy to many.'
Jon Plowman, executive producer of The Vicar of Dibley and former head of comedy at the BBC, said: 'This is a sad day. Emma was a gifted comic actress who made any part she played - no matter how ditzy or other worldly - look easy.
'To create a much loved comic character as she did, you have to be every bit as bright and clever as Emma always was.
'She was great fun to work with and adored by all the cast and crew of Vicar of Dibley. She will be missed and our deepest condolences go out to her family and friends.'
Chambers played alongside French from 1994 to 2007 in the much loved sitcom and won the British Comedy Award for Best Actress for her performance in 1998.
Once asked if she resembled her portrayal of the dippy Alice Tinker in real life, Chambers rejected the comparison with the words: 'I'm a cynical old bitch.'
In Notting Hill, Chambers played Honey, Hugh Grant's eccentric younger sister and the romantic interest of Rhys Ifans' character Spike.
Chambers is pictured during her appearance in the 1999 romantic comedy Notting Hill, in which she portrayed Hugh Grant's younger sister
Chambers played alongside Dawn French from 1994 to 2007 in the much loved sitcom and won the British Comedy Award for Best Actress for her performance in 1998
Chambers as Alice pictured with James Fleet as Hugo (centre) and Gary Waldhorn as David in a scene from the Vicar of Dibley
While best known for her Vicar of Dibley role (right), Chambers also played Helen Yardley in How Do You Want Me? (left, with Dylan Moran)
Emma Chambers (pictured at the charity world premiere of The Clandestine Marriage) has died of natural causes
Her friend and fellow broadcaster Emma Freud, who is married to director Richard Curtis tweeted: 'Our beautiful friend Emma Chambers has died at the age of 53. We're very very sad.
'She was a great, great comedy performer, and a truly fine actress. And a tender, sweet, funny, unusual, loving human being.'
Vicar of Dibley co-writer Paul Mayhew-Archer, 65, said he was 'devastated' by her passing, which was said by her agent to be of natural causes.
'I loved working with her, she was stunning,' he said. 'I used to love watching her going over her lines in rehearsal, she would read them to herself and try to find the perfect delivery.
'I am devastated, she was a key part of the Vicar of Dibley. It is one of those strange things, because when you start working on something, you think it is one thing and it becomes something quite different.
'Alice became completely central to the piece, it was just perfect.
'Most sitcoms have an idiot of some sort but she managed to make her idiot completely different, it was amazing.
'The last time I saw her was the last episode, all of my memories are to do with the programme, her passing was so sudden.'
James Dreyfus, who starred alongside Chambers in Notting Hill paid tribute on Twitter.
He said: 'RIP the wonderful and talented Emma Chambers. Unique & unspeakably funny. Too young. Thoughts with her family.'
A statement from her agency read: 'Emma created a wealth of characters and an immense body of work. She brought laughter and joy to many.' She is pictured right with Dawn French on the Vicar of Dibley and right in How Do You Want Me?
Chambers (left, in the Vicar of Dibley) was in the theater for about ten years before her major break in television. She has appeared in some stage productions including Tartuffe and Invisible Friends
Chambers, who lived in Lymington, Hampshire, is survived by her husband, fellow actor Ian Dunn, an actor in the daytime show Doctors.
She tied the knot in 1991 at a low-key ceremony in New Forest and described her marriage as 'glorious' in an interview in January this year.
'My wedding was very short. I was playing the lead in an Alan Ayckbourn play and was only given one day off,' she told Hitberry magazine.
Chambers played alongside Dawn French from 1994 to 2007 in the much loved sitcom and won the British Comedy Award for Best Actress for her performance in 1998
'My sister, Sarah Doukas, is a model agent and one of her bookers made me a dress which cost £180. I still look at it in my wardrobe and think it is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.
'The wedding itself was in the New Forest. I loved it because I had never had a big party before as we had always been on the move when I was a child.'
Former Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson recalled Chambers being 'very funny'.
He wrote on Twitter: 'I'm sad about Emma Chambers. Knew her when she was a kid in Doncaster. She was very funny.'
Journalist Lizo Mzimba paid his respects to the actress as tributes poured in this evening on social media
Prior to starring alongside Dawn French, Chambers trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Arts and was a classmate of EastEnders star Ross Kemp.
Starting out in smaller roles in TV shows such as The Bill, she also portrayed Helen Yardley in Simon Nye's sitcom How Do You Want Me?
She also provided voice performances for The Wind in the Willows film and the TV series Little Robots.
In 2000 she took on the role of Martha Thompson in Take a Girl Like You, a television drama based on the novel by Kingsley Amis.
Tributes for the actress poured in from celebrities today, with Jodie Marsh tweeting: ‘Such terribly sad news about Emma Chambers. Notting Hill is one of my favourite films of all time and she is so stunningly superb in it. That film makes me laugh & cry, as does her performance in it. RIP Emma.’
Fellow comic actors praised her too, with Citizen Khan star Adil Ray tweeting: 'So sad. Emma Chambers was absolutely masterful. Very funny, she made the daftness believable. The joke coda with @Dawn-French in Dibley required great skill and Emma just nailed it. She made it. We say this a lot, but Emma IS a great loss to our screens.'
Fans of Chambers are commemorating her using the hashtag #ICantBelieveItsNotButter, a reference to one of her most famous scenes in the Vicar of Dibley.
In an exchange with Geraldine, Alice baffles the vicar by telling her that she can't believe some spread she bought in Kirkenden is not I Can't Believe it's Not Butter.
The character's celebrated dimness was compounded when Alice married the intellectually challenged Hugo Horton, who was played by James Edward Fleet.
Emma Chambers plays Alice Tinker at her wedding to Hugo Horton, who is played by James Fleet. The couple's collective lack of common sense was a celebrated source of the show's humour
