Dame Katherine Patricia Routledge is an English stage, television and film actress and singer.
40 Facts About Patricia Routledge
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Patricia Routledge made her professional stage debut at the Liverpool Playhouse in 1952 and her Broadway debut in How's the World Treating You in 1966.
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Patricia Routledge won the 1968 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her role in Darling of the Day, and the 1988 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for Candide.
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On television, Patricia Routledge came to prominence during the 1980s in monologues written by Alan Bennett and Victoria Wood; appearing in Bennett's A Woman of No Importance, as Kitty in Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV, and being nominated for the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress for Bennett's Talking Heads: A Lady of Letters.
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Patricia Routledge starred as Hetty Wainthropp in the British television series Hetty Wainthropp Investigates.
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Patricia Routledge was born on 17 February 1929 in Tranmere in Cheshire.
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Patricia Routledge was educated at Birkenhead High School, and the University of Liverpool.
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Patricia Routledge gained a degree with honours in English Language and Literature.
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Patricia Routledge was involved in the University's dramatic society, where she worked closely with the academic Edmund Colledge, who both directed and acted in several of the society's productions.
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Patricia Routledge has had a long career in theatre, particularly musical theatre, in the United Kingdom and the United States.
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Patricia Routledge has been a long-standing member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, appearing in such acclaimed productions as the 1984 Richard III, which starred Antony Sher in the title role.
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Patricia Routledge was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her work in And a Nightingale Sang in 1979.
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In 1980, Patricia Routledge played Ruth in the Joseph Papp production of The Pirates of Penzance, co-starring American actor Kevin Kline and pop vocalist Linda Ronstadt, at the Delacorte Theatre in New York City's Central Park, one of a series of Shakespeare in the Park summer events.
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Patricia Routledge performed in Facade at New York's Carnegie Recital Hall.
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Patricia Routledge won a Laurence Olivier Award in 1988 for her portrayal of the Old Lady in Leonard Bernstein's Candide in the London cast of the critically acclaimed Scottish Opera production.
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Since 2009, Patricia Routledge has toured with a show entitled Facing The Music.
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Patricia Routledge's screen credits include To Sir, with Love, Pretty Polly, 30 Is a Dangerous Age, Cynthia, The Bliss of Mrs Blossom, Don't Raise the Bridge, Lower the River, If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium and Girl Stroke Boy.
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Patricia Routledge appeared in Coronation Street, and as a white witch in Doctor at Large.
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Patricia Routledge played Mrs Jennings in the BBC mini-series production of Sense and Sensibility.
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Patricia Routledge first appeared in A Woman of No Importance, the second installment of Bennett's anthology, Objects of Affection in 1982.
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Patricia Routledge then played the opinionated Kitty in Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV in 1985.
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Patricia Routledge performed two further monologues in Bennett's Talking Heads in 1988 and 1998.
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Patricia Routledge was nominated for a British Academy Television Award for Best Actress for the monologue "A Lady of Letters".
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In 1989, Patricia Routledge accepted the lead role of Hetty Wainthropp in an ITV mystery drama, Hetty Wainthropp: Missing Persons.
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In 1990, Patricia Routledge was cast as Hyacinth Bucket in the comedy series Keeping Up Appearances.
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Patricia Routledge portrayed a formerly working-class woman with social pretensions and delusions of grandeur.
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Patricia Routledge delighted in portraying Hyacinth, as she claimed she "couldn't stand people like her" in real life.
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Patricia Routledge left the role in 1995, despite the series' ongoing popularity, as she wished to pursue other roles as an actress.
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Patricia Routledge has played several real-life characters for television, including Barbara Pym and in a dramatised BBC Omnibus biographical documentary of 1994, Hildegard of Bingen.
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In 2001, Patricia Routledge starred in Anybody's Nightmare, a fact-based television drama in which she played Sheila Bowler, a mother and piano teacher who served four years in prison for murdering her elderly aunt, but was later acquitted following a retrial.
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The documentary featured an interview with Patricia Routledge, who was 93 at the time, sharing her memories of the show, along with supporting cast members Judy Cornwell, Jeremy Gittins and David Janson.
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In 1966, Patricia Routledge sang the role of Mad Margaret in Ruddigore, the title role in Iolanthe, and Melissa in Princess Ida, in a series of BBC Radio Gilbert and Sullivan recordings.
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Patricia Routledge took part in a studio broadcast of Tchaikovsky's opera Vakula the Smith in 1989.
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Patricia Routledge has lived in Chichester since 2000 and regularly worships at Chichester Cathedral.
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Patricia Routledge is a patron of the Beatrix Potter Society and an ambassador for the charity Royal Voluntary Service, previously known as WRVS.
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Patricia Routledge was a close friend of the first female Speaker of the House of Commons, Betty Boothroyd.
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Patricia Routledge's recording of "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" was played at Boothroyd's funeral in March 2023.
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Patricia Routledge was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 1993 Birthday Honours, Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2004 Birthday Honours, and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to theatre and charity.
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In 2008, Patricia Routledge received an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters from Lancaster University for her contribution to drama and theatre.
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On 15 March 2019, Patricia Routledge received an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters from the University of Chester at Chester Cathedral for her contributions to theatre and television.