Roberta Taylor dead: EastEnders and The Bill star dies aged 76 from infection caused by horror fall
EASTENDERS and The Bill star Roberta Taylor has died aged 76 from an infection caused by a horror fall.
Roberta suffered from pneumonia after a fall two months ago, the Guardian reports.
The actress played tough-as-nails mum Irene Raymond in EastEnders from 1997 to 2000.
She then left the BBC to play hard-drinking Inspector Gina Gold on ITV police drama The Bill.
Roberta also acted on stage in the West End and with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
And she appeared as a guest on ITV daytime panel show Loose Women.
Her last big TV role was on private investigators comedy Shakespeare & Hathaway.
The true Cockney actress was born in Plaistow, east London to bus conductor Winifred Roberts and fellow “clippy” Robert Archer.
She grew up in a small house with her mum, gran and aunts on the Isle of Dogs after Robert walked out on the family.
Roberta left school without any qualifications and started out working as a secretary.
She married ropemaker Victor Taylor in 1966 and had a son named Elliott the same year.
An elderly friend who Roberta met in Portobello Market, west London urged her to try out at a drama school.
She took acting classes while training to be a dental nurse – before auditioning at the famous Central school in 1973.
In a twist of fate, Roberta’s future life partner Peter Guinness also tried out at Central the same day.
Roberta divorced her first husband in 1975 and set up home with Peter in Pimlico, central London.
The couple moved to Vauxhall just across the river before marrying in 1996.
Roberta and Peter attended a quiz hosted by Claudia Winkleman for the homeless charity Centrepoint this February.
They posed for snap with other stage stars in what is thought to be the final public snap of Roberta.
Roberta is survived by Peter, her son Elliott, her granddaughter Ellis and her stepbrothers Lionel and Brian.