British star Patricia Routledge, best known for her role as social climber Hyacinth Bucket in sitcom Keeping Up Appearances, has died. She was 96.
“We are deeply saddened to confirm the passing of Dame Patricia Routledge, who died peacefully in her sleep this morning surrounded by love,” said Routledge’s agent in a statement given to the U.K.’s Press Association on Friday. “Even at 96-years old, Dame Patricia’s passion for her work and for connecting with live audiences never waned, just as new generations of audiences have continued to find her through her beloved television roles. She will be dearly missed by those closest to her and by her devoted admirers around the world.”
Born in Birkenhead, Routledge began her career on the stage, first at the Liverpool Playhouse in 1952 and then on the West End in a 1959 edition of The Love Doctor. She made her Broadway debut in How’s the World Treating You in 1966, and later won a Tony Award for her role in Darling of the Day in 1968. In 1988, she was awarded an Olivier Award for Candide at London venue the Old Vic.
But it was playing Hyacinth Bucket from 1990 to 1995 in beloved sitcom Keeping Up Appearances that made Routledge a household name in her native Britain. She was twice nominated for a BAFTA TV award for her performance in Roy Clarke’s show, which also starred Clive Swift, Josephine Tewson, Geoffrey Hughes, Judy Cornwell, Shirley Stelfox, Mary Millar and David Griffin.
The series became an immense success, not just in the U.K. but also capturing audiences in U.S. Canada, Australia, Denmark, Finland and Ireland. By February 2016, it had been sold nearly a thousand times to overseas broadcasters, making it BBC Worldwide’s most exported television program ever.
Clarke said in a statement to BBC News as news broke of Routledge’s death: “It’s a fortunate coincidence to find your scripts in the hands of so accomplished an actor. She was a singer and it showed in the way she could use her voice without music. It was an instrument. On top of such skills she was also a very fine physical clown,” he continued. “With those talents she took my scripts to the heights. I can only salute her talents and regret their passing.”
As well as Keeping Up Appearances, Routledge starred in Alan Bennett’s A Woman of No Importance in 1982 and as Kitty in Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV from 1985 to 1986. She was again nominated for the BAFTA TV Award for best actress for Bennett’s Talking Heads: A Lady of Letters and starred as Hetty Wainthropp in Hetty Wainthropp Investigates through the ’90s.
In 2017, she was made a dame by Queen Elizabeth II for her services to entertainment and charity.
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