Michael Keating actor has died aged 79, ending a career that made him a familiar face in EastEnders for 12 years. He played Reverend George Stevens from 2005 to 2017 and became part of the show’s regular life at Walford christenings, marriages and funerals.
George Stevens and Dot Cotton
Keating often shared scenes with June Brown’s Dot Cotton, and he was seen leading the prayers at Ronnie Mitchell’s funeral in 2017. That gave him a particular place in the soap’s late-life rituals: the priest who turned up when the script needed grief, ceremony and a steady voice.
His death was confirmed by his agent to the Press Association. For viewers who followed EastEnders through those years, the loss lands in the middle of a cast history that already shifted when June Brown died in 2022.
Vila Restal in 52 episodes
Before Walford, Keating was the only actor to appear in all 52 episodes of Blake 7 as Vila Restal. He also appeared in an early Doctor Who story called The Sun Makers and in the audio drama The Twilight Kingdom, which kept him in genre work long before streaming-era nostalgia turned that kind of credit line into shorthand for cult status.
He also had roles in Yes Minister, The Bill, Casualty and London’s Burning. His final TV role came in the 2009 Midsomer Murders episode The Dogleg Murders, which leaves a career that moved from one familiar British television institution to another.
From 1947 to 2009
Born in North London in 1947, Keating began acting in 1966 and worked steadily across television for decades. The broad spread of credits matters because it shows a performer who was never just tied to one role, even though Reverend George Stevens became the part most viewers would remember him for.
For soap viewers, the practical legacy is simple: the priest who appeared at some of the show’s most recent funerals is gone, and the archive now carries the full record of a career that ran from 1966 to 2009 on screen and on audio beyond that. Keating’s name will sit where British television keeps its dependable working actors — in the credits, not the headlines — but this one belongs in both.
