1. Jean Margaret Hodgkinson, known by the stage name Jean Alexander, was a British actress.
23 Facts About Jean Alexander
1. 2.
Jean Alexander was best known to television viewers for her long running role of Hilda Ogden in the soap opera Coronation Street, a role she played from 1964 until 1987, and as Auntie Wainwright in the long-running sitcom Last of the Summer Wine from 1988 to 2010.
3.
Jean Alexander aspired to become an actress from an early age, and later said that she was inspired by variety acts she saw at the Pavilion theatre in her home city.
4.
Jean Alexander attended St Edmund's College for Girls in Princes Park, Toxteth and as a teenager, she joined an amateur theatre group and took elocution lessons.
5.
Jean Alexander spent five years as a library assistant in Liverpool before she began her acting career in 1949 at the Adelphi Guild Theatre in Macclesfield.
6.
Jean Alexander first appeared as Florrie in Sheppey by Somerset Maugham.
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Jean Alexander later worked in rep in Oldham, Stockport and York.
8.
Jean Alexander first appeared in Coronation Street in 1962 in a minor role as a landlady.
9.
Jean Alexander started playing the role on 8 July 1964, and left the show on 25 December 1987.
10.
Ogden became highly popular with viewers and Jean Alexander was often identified with her character.
11.
On 6 December 2010, Jean Alexander spoke by telephone to ITV's This Morning to discuss her time on Coronation Street on the day of the drama's 50th anniversary episode.
12.
In 1988, Jean Alexander made a guest appearance in the long-running BBC comedy series Last of the Summer Wine as Auntie Wainwright, the money-grabbing local junk shop owner.
13.
Jean Alexander returned for a second guest appearance in 1989, and finally became a series regular in 1992, remaining until the end of the series in 2010.
14.
Jean Alexander voiced Mrs Santa in the Robbie the Reindeer film Hooves of Fire, and appeared in Boon and as Lily in the children's series The Phoenix and the Carpet.
15.
Jean Alexander starred with Patricia Hodge and Lionel Jeffries in the comedy series Rich Tea and Sympathy, and appeared in the quiz show Cluedo.
16.
Jean Alexander never married, stating that she put her acting career first.
17.
Jean Alexander was a close friend of her Coronation Street husband, Bernard Youens.
18.
Jean Alexander lived for many years in Southport, Merseyside, and in 2009 she joined with others to campaign successfully for a temporary library in the town while the central library was being refurbished.
19.
Jean Alexander was a keen gardener and after her death was commemorated in the town with a memorial bench at Southport Flower Show, where she was a regular visitor.
20.
Jean Alexander donated her 1955 Qualcast Panther lawnmower to the British Lawnmower Museum in the town, where it is still on display.
21.
Jean Alexander announced her retirement in 2012, two years after her last television appearance.
22.
Jean Alexander's acting career lasted for more than 60 years.
23.
Jean Alexander celebrated her 90th birthday on 11 October 2016, but was taken ill and died three days later in Southport Hospital.