Eileen Derbyshire was born on 6 October 1931 and is an English retired actress, best known for her role as Emily Bishop in the long-running ITV soap opera Coronation Street.
16 Facts About Eileen Derbyshire
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Eileen Derbyshire played the character for 55 years from January 1961 to January 2016, making her the longest-serving female cast member in a British TV soap opera.
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Eileen Derbyshire was appointed an MBE in the 2010 Queen's Birthday Honours list for her long acting career.
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Eileen Derbyshire began teaching speech and drama, but had always wanted to act.
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Eileen Derbyshire was enrolled as a student, and later became assistant stage manager.
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Eileen Derbyshire married engineer Thomas Holt in 1965 and the following year they had a son, Oliver.
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Eileen Derbyshire's interests include opera, reading, going to concerts and holidaying in Vienna and Venice.
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Eileen Derbyshire has never joined fellow cast members at awards ceremonies or other events and did not appear in any of the publicity videos on the Coronation Street website.
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Eileen Derbyshire has only twice appeared on screen out of character: firstly, in 1988, she gave a rare interview in a documentary tribute to cast member and good friend Margot Bryant, who played Minnie Caldwell.
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Eileen Derbyshire appeared, along with the rest of the Coronation Street cast, in episodes of This Is Your Life for Patricia Phoenix in 1972, Jack Howarth in 1974, Julie Goodyear in 1980, William Roache in 1985 and Anne Kirkbride in 1998.
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Eileen Derbyshire's son has denied that Derbyshire is reclusive, pointing out she is simply "private, and one of the last of a dying breed of old-fashioned actresses who do it for the love of acting, not for all the attendant publicity".
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Eileen Derbyshire is godmother to three of actor William Roache's children and Barbara Knox's daughter Maxine.
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Eileen Derbyshire left Coronation Street for personal reasons in December 2015.
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Eileen Derbyshire's departure aired on 1 January 2016, then described as a sabbatical.
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Eileen Derbyshire returned for a cameo appearance as part of the on-screen celebrations for long-standing character Ken Barlow's 80th birthday in October 2019, being seen on a video call.
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Eileen Derbyshire was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 2010 Birthday Honours, for services to drama.