Breaking: Tinky Winky legendary actor, Simon Shelton died at age 52 (Details, pics)

The actor who played Tinky Winky in BBC children's TV series Teletubbies died aged 52 of hypothermia after collapsing on the streets of Liverpool, a friend confirmed today.

Simon Shelton Barnes, a father-of-three from Ampthill in Bedfordshire, had trained as a ballet dancer and choreographer before taking on the role as the purple Teletubby who carried a 'magic bag' in the show from 1998 to 2001.

Today, his flatmate Judith Tynan, who is the cousin of his ex-wife Emma Robbins and lived with him on the Wirral for the final year of his life, paid tribute to the 'charming and handsome' actor.

She told Mail: '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.

'It was a very good time in his life and he was privileged to have been part of that success, I think. I think it worked for him.

'If you're famous everybody knows your face - but they didn't know his face, but he had a big time of it, and it worked. And he had a good living from it.'

Ms Tynan said he had gone into photography in recent year, adding: 'He was a handsome chap; very good looking.

'I used to say to him every morning, 'Goodness Simon, how do you look so good? He was just a very good looking chap. He was a great flatmate.'

She insisted that she and Barnes were not a couple but just 'very, very good friends - and everybody used to think we were a couple, but we weren't'.

Merseyside Police confirmed to MailOnline today that officers were called to reports that a man had died in the Mann Island area of Liverpool last Wednesday.

Yesterday, John Simmit, who was Dipsy in the show, tweeted: 'What a week! RIP Simon Shelton aka Tinky Winky: remembering the many good times. Rest easy.