Emmerdale and Hollyoaks actress Georgina Hale has died aged 80.
The soap star, who had an acting career spanning five decades both on screen and on stage, is said to have died on January 4.
Her cause of death is yet to be revealed.
Fans took to X, formerly Twitter, to share their condolences for the beloved actress.
One wrote: ‘#GeorginaHale was great in Doctor Who and One Foot in the Grave. One of my favorite actresses’.
Others said: ‘Sad news. Georgina Hale is gone. She was on television in the 1970s and 1980s. Fine actress.’
Emmerdale and Hollyoaks actress Georgina Hale has died aged 80. The soap star, who had an acting career spanning five decades, is said to have died on January 4.
Georgina and Huw David pictured in Emmerdale
‘Sad news, brilliant career, Budgie and one of the best Minder episodes ever’.
‘#GeorginaHale was an interesting actress with a unique performance, who ensured she always brought a touch of eccentricity to the screen. REST IN PEACE.’
Georgina received a Laurence Olivier Award nomination for her performance in the original London production of Steaming.
The actress also won a British Academy Film Award for Most Promising Newcome for the Ken Russell film Mahler in 1975.
Georgina’s other TV roles include an appearance in ‘Doctor Who – The Happiness Patrol’ in 1988.
In 2010, the actress was listed by The Guardian as one of the 10 Great British Character Actors.
Born in Ilford, Essex, in 1943 to publicans Elsie (née Fordham) and George Robert Hole, Georgina married John Forgeham in 1964, but they later divorced.
Her film debut came in 1971 in the historical drama “Eagle in a Cage,” in which she played Betsy Balcombe opposite Kenneth Haigh as Napoleon Bonaparte.
Georgina admitted that she grew up overweight and shy, and kept changing schools as her parents moved around different pubs, which she said ruined her education.
She told the Glasgow Herald in 2002: “I couldn’t write, spell or read.
“It was a real shame, and you were the dumbass of the class who always got hit on the head.”
Georgina’s mother died when she was 18, followed by her father four years later and at 19 she got tickets to see ‘West Side Story’, which she said ‘baffled’ her as she had never set foot in a theater . theater before seeing the show.
She went on to train at Rada and graduated in 1965, making her stage name Hale.
She played roles in Royal Shakespeare Company productions and her West End debut came in Chekhov’s ‘The Seagull’ at London’s Duke of York Theater in 1976.
Georgina also succeeded Elizabeth Estensen in the eponymous role of T-Bag, the evil, tea-drinking sorceress in a series of children’s adventure shows created by Thames Television.