Emmerdale star Steve Halliwell, who played Zak Dingle in the ITV soap, had a difficult start to his life and struggled to make ends meet before landing his iconic role

The late Zak Dingle actor, Steve Halliwell had previously opened up on his financial struggles.

The former Emmerdale star who tragically died last year, opened up about his struggle to afford even a bacon sandwich during the early days of his career. In his memoir If The Cap Fits, he revealed that growing up with his brother Clive was tough and that bacon butties were considered a “luxury” they couldn’t afford.

He wrote: “When I first went on this walk there was a small café in the woods known as Nab’s Wife (a corruption of the area originally known as Nab’s Wharfe), where you could get a refreshing cup of tea and a Mars bar. You could also get a bacon butty, but we never had enough money for such ‘luxuries’. On one occasion I persuaded mum to give Clive and me enough money for a bacon butty each, but when we got to the café it was all boarded up and, sadly, never reopened.”

Before finding fame on the soap, Steve held various odd jobs and eventually left home in search of “adventure and freedom”, but things didn’t go as planned. The actor ended up homeless and sleeping rough, confessing that he often found himself “starving hungry and without money”.

He admitted: “The life of the beats may have been feeding my soul, but it certainly wasn’t feeding my belly,” reports Leeds Live. At one point, he was arrested and charged with “wandering abroad” under the Vagrancy Act. However, he confessed that receiving clean prison clothes and hot food made him feel positive about the whole experience.

Steve Halliwell, a familiar face on British TV with roles in Coronation Street and All Creatures Great and Small, became a household name as Zak Dingle in Emmerdale, appearing in over 2,400 episodes. Sadly, Steve passed away earlier this year, leaving behind a £63,000 fortune to his widow Valerie and daughter Charlotte, aged 40.

Emmerdale is set to give Steve – and his beloved character Zak – a touching send-off as the Dingles come together to bid farewell to their family’s patriarch. Emmerdale producer Sophie Roper shared previously with the Mirror: “We lost Steve recently, so we’re going to be marking Zak’s passing in the coming months with a Dingle funeral.”

She added, “It will be very difficult for a lot of people who work on the show and obviously a lot of our viewers who have grown and love Zak for many, many years – but it will be a hugely fitting tribute for a great character.” Steve appeared on the show for 29 years and his salary is rumoured to have been earning around £200,000 per year.

But probate documents reveal the net value of his estate was just £63,030. He was also living at the St Helenas Caravan Park in Horsforth, near Leeds, West Yorkshire when he wrote his will in November 2019.