| Andy Hunter | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EastEnders character | |||||||
&sq=Envato&lang=en&file=File:Andy-Hunter.jpg) | |||||||
| Portrayed by | Michael Higgs | ||||||
| Duration | 2003–2005 | ||||||
| First appearance | Episode 2545 3 July 2003 | ||||||
| Last appearance | Episode 2892 18 February 2005 | ||||||
| Classification | Former; regular | ||||||
| Created by | Louise Berridge | ||||||
| |||||||
Andy Hunter is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Michael Higgs. He first appeared in the episode broadcast in the United Kingdom on 3 July 2003 and, following the murder of his gangland boss Jack Dalton (Hywel Bennett), became the show's main antagonist up until the character was axed and killed off in the series' 20th Anniversary episode, shown on 18 February 2005.
The character's story arc began with Andy taking over Dalton's position as the leader of his criminal organization, The Firm, and becoming the newly established crime kingpin of Walford in the borough's local community named Albert Square. Soon afterwards, Andy went on to develop a mutual friendship with Dalton's protege-turned-killer Dennis Rickman (Nigel Harman); establish a relationship with local wayward Kat Slater (Jessie Wallace), which led to the pair having a wedding that ended with Kat jilting Andy in favor of his love rival Alfie Moon (Shane Richie); repetitively clash with Dennis' girlfriend and Kat's daughter Zoe (Michelle Ryan) after he blackmails her mother into sleeping with him to get revenge on Alfie; humiliate Dennis' illegitimate father Den Watts (Leslie Grantham) after defeating him in a high-stakes poker game and then exposing his antics to his adopted daughter Sharon (Letitia Dean); feign a romance and subsequent marriage with Kat's best-friend Sam Mitchell (Kim Medcalf) in order to extract control of her family empire; instigate a feud with Sam's cousin Billy (Perry Fenwick) after the latter attempts to warn Sam's mother, Peggy (Barbara Windsor), about his scheme to exploit her financial interests; arrange for Billy's companion Minty Peterson (Cliff Parisi) to get beaten up over his romantic feelings for Sam; build an unlikely friendship with his secretary Pat Evans (Pam St Clement); organize the death of employee Paul Trueman (Gary Beadle) in retribution for attempting to entrap Andy into a police sting operation over his criminal activities; spark a conflict with Paul's adopted father, Patrick (Rudolph Walker), after the latter discovers the truth about his son's fate; and became enemies with Alfie's two cousins, Jake (Joel Beckett) and Danny (Jake Maskall), after having their grandmother Nana (Hilda Braid) attacked in retaliation for the pair stealing his car and later assaulting him.
Eventually, Andy's villainous reign reached its conclusion towards the show's 20th anniversary episode — when Jake and Danny's mob boss, Johnny Allen (Billy Murray), arrived on the square and proceeded to usurp his position as both the square's reigning top dog and Walford's undisputed crime kingpin. In response to this, Andy planned to con £750,000 from Johnny during a criminal transaction between them. However, his plan failed when Andy was betrayed by his henchman Eddie (Daren Elliott Holmes) — who alerted Johnny of his plans to get one over him. This ultimately led to Johnny killing Andy by throwing him off a motorway bridge, thus ending the character's duration on the programme.