ACTRESS Georgina Hale has died aged 80 after an incredible TV and theater career spanning 50 years.
Star performer Hale was known for a range of roles and featured in hit series Emmerdale and Hollyoaks.
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Georgina Hale in Mahler (1974) Credit: Alamy
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Hale stars in The Devils in 1971. Credit: Alamy
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Halls at the BFI & Radio Times TV Festival at BFI Southbank 2017. Credit: Getty
The late actress is believed to have died on January 4, but her death has only come to light now
Hale was also known for her award-winning work in Ken Russell films.
Her performance in Mahler (1974) was awarded the Bafta Film Award as Most Promising Newcomer.
She was also nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for her performance in the original London production of Steaming.
And she appeared in Doctor Who – The Happiness Patrol back in 1988.
Hale also starred in Emmerdale in 2006, appearing as Beryl Chugspoke in four episodes.
One of her last cameos on the small screen came in 2011, when she played Blanche Longford in the Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks for four episodes.
The star also appeared in Holby City towards the end of her career in 2016.
Heartbroken fans paid tribute to the iconic actress on social media after she passed away.
One wrote: “Loved her in everything I saw her in. She was so talented.”
“RIP Brilliant in Sweeney’s movie and Minder episode with Brian Glover,” said another.
A third commented: “Always a fan of Georgina and the often quirky characters she played.
“I got to see her on the London stage in the early 80s in “Steaming”. I loved her in Minder opposite Brian Glover. Very sad to hear the news of her death. RIP.”
“Very distinctive actress, loved her voice,” wrote another.
In 2010, The Guardian named Hale among ten great British character actors.
Hale made her film debut in the historical drama Eagle in a Cage (1971) as Betsy Balcombe, opposite Kenneth Haigh as Napoleon Bonaparte.
She also appeared in Russell’s two 1971 films – The Devils and The Boy Friend.
Hale said she grew up overweight and shy and kept changing schools as her parents moved around different pubs – something she believed hurt her education.
“I couldn’t write, spell or read,” she told the Glasgow Herald in 2002.
“There was a real shame in that, and you were the fool in class, you always got hit on the head.”
Her mother died when she was 18, and her father four years later. At the age of 19, after never having visited the theater, she got tickets to West Side Story, which, as she said, “really stuck with me.”
She was working in London, as a junior at a Knightsbridge hairdresser, when she saw an acting workshop in Chelsea that taught Stanislavski’s technique of method acting.
This led her to train in Rad, where she graduated in 1965.
Changing her professional name to Hale, she began her career with the Royal Shakespeare Company in roles at Stratford-upon-Avon and the Aldwych Theater in London (1965-66).
Her West End debut was in Chekhov’s The Seagull at the Duke of York’s Theater in 1976.
She then starred as Bobbi Michele, opposite Lee Montague, in the UK premiere of Neil Simon’s play Last of the Red Hot Lovers at Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theater in 1979.
Hale married actor John Forgeham in 1964, but they later divorced.
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Georgina Hale and Glenda Jackson at the Summit Credit: Alamy
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Robert Powell and Georgina Hale in Cannes Credit: Alamy
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Source: HIS Education