Famed actress Dame Patricia Routledge has passed away.

Dame Patricia was born February 17th, 1929 in Tranmere in Birkenhead, Cheshire. She would earn a degree in English Language and Literature with honours from the University of Liverpool before going into acting with the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.

She would start out in the theatre appearing in a number of productions in New York and London, including Richard III, Little Mary Sunshine, Cowardy Custard, Virtue in Danger, Noises Off, The Importance of Being Earnest, and The Solid Gold Cadillac.

Dame Patricia would earn a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical in 1968 for her role in Darling of the Day alongside Vincent Price. In 1980, she would appear as Ruth in The Pirates of Penzance at the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park (during the Shakespeare in the Park season.)

However, Dame Patricia is best remembered as Hyacinth Bucket in Roy Clarke‘s television series Keeping Up Appearances from 1990 to 1995. Her other famed television role that she is remembered for is as Private Directive Hetty Wainthropp in Hetty Wainthropp Investigates from 1996 to 1998. The pilot for the series had aired in 1990 but ITV did not pick up a series, with the BBC doing so in 1996 after she had left Keeping Up Appearances.

She would present a documentary entitled Beatrix Potter with Patricia Routledge in 2016 to celebrate the author’s 150th birthday.

Dame Patricia never married and had no children. When asked in 2001 about this she replied: “I didn’t make a decision not to be married and not to be a mother. Life just turned out like that because my involvement in acting was so total.“

She was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1993 Birthday Honours, then a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2004 Birthday Honours, and finally made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2017 New Year Honours.

In 2001, she received an honorary MA University of Chichester, followed by two honorary Doctor of Letters from Lancaster University in 2008 and University of Chester in 2019.

Dame Patricia passed away in her sleep on October 3rd, 2025 at the age of 96.