Wendy Richard
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Wendy Richard MBE |
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|---|---|
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| Born |
Wendy Emerton 20 July 1943 Middlesbrough, North Riding of Yorkshire, England |
| Died | 26 February 2009 (aged 65) Harley Street Clinic, London, England |
| Cause of death | Breast cancer |
| Residence | London, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1960–2009 |
| Employer | BBC |
| Television |
Are You Being Served? Grace & Favour EastEnders |
| Spouse(s) | Leonard Blach (m. 1972–1974, divorced) Will Thorpe (m. 1980–1984, divorced) Paul Glorney (m. 1990–1994, divorced) John Burns (m. 2008–2009, her death) |
| Parent(s) | Henry William Emerton (1892-1954) Beatrice Reay Cutter (1910-1972) |
Wendy Richard, MBE (born Wendy Emerton, 20 July 1943 – 26 February 2009) was an English actress best known for playing the roles of Miss Shirley Brahms on Are You Being Served? and Pauline Fowler on EastEnders, the latter for nearly 22 years. Until her character's onscreen death in December 2006, she was one of only two original cast members to appear continuously from the first episode in 1985, along with Adam Woodyatt, who played her screen nephew Ian Beale. Richard was first educated at St George's Primary School in Mount Street, Mayfair, west London, before attending the Royal Masonic School for Girls in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, and then the Italia Conti Academy stage school in London.
She died on 26 February 2009 at the Harley Street clinic where she was being treated for breast cancer.
Richard, an only child, was born in Middlesbrough in 1943. Her parents, Henry and Beatrice Reay (née Cutter) Emerton, were publicans and ran the Corporation Hotel in the town. Emerton and Cutter married in Paddington in 1939. While Richard was a baby, her family moved to Bournemouth. They later moved to the Isle of Wight and then to London, where they ran the Shepherds Tavern in Shepherd Market, where Elizabeth Taylor and Antony Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon are said to have been customers. Richard attended the local primary school, St George's, but her education was interrupted when her family moved again, this time to the Valentine Hotel at Gants Hill, then in Essex, now in Greater London. Another move, to the Streatham Park Hotel in south London, followed a few months later. It was there, in December 1954, that Richard's father committed suicide. Wendy, then 11, found his body. Her mother Beatrice never remarried, and died of liver cancer in May 1972.
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