Irene Sutcliffe

Irene Sutcliffe (12 July 1924 – 3 May 2019) was an English actress born and raised in Burnley, Lancashire. Her father, Fred Sutcliffe, worked as an ironmonger. She trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art before embarking on a career that spanned more than six decades.

Sutcliffe's first credited television appearance came in 1953, when she played Desdemona in the BBC's Sunday Night Theatre episode "Will Shakespeare." Her final screen credit came in 2015, when she appeared as The King's Mother in The Royals. Among the many television productions she appeared in across that period were Emergency Ward 10, in which she played a Night Sister in 1966; Juliet Bravo, where she portrayed Mrs. Williams in a 1984 episode; Inspector Morse, in which she appeared as Mrs. Hornsby in the first episode of the first season in 1987; and Miss Marple, where she played Miss Gorringe in the episode "At Bertram's Hotel" that same year. She also appeared in All Creatures Great and Small as Sister Rose in 1989, She's Out as Mrs. Simms in 1995, Hetty Wainthropp Investigates as Helen Rance in 1997, Doc Martin as Janet Sawle in 2007, and Doctors as Joan Woolf in 2010.

Sutcliffe is best known for her role as Maggie Clegg in ITV's long-running serial Coronation Street, a part she held from 1968 to 1975 and played across 412 episodes. Her stage work included Broadway appearances in 1962, with credits comprising Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth.

Her work extended to film and radio as well. In 1987 she appeared in Withnail and I as Mabs Blennerhassit. On BBC Radio 4 she performed in the 1975 play Dark Green by Rose Tremaine, took the role of Lady Sneerwell in a 1977 production of The School for Scandal, and played Mrs. Van Shuyler in a 1997 adaptation of Death on the Nile. In 1999, her narration of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice earned her a finalist nomination for the Audie Award for Best Female Narrator.

Sutcliffe died on 3 May 2019 at the age of 94.