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Wendy Richard

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Wendy Richard OBE
Image:WendyRichard2006.jpg

<tr><td style="text-align:left;">Birth name</td><td>Wendy Emerton</td></tr>

Born 20 July 1943
Middlesbrough, Teesside, England
Notable roles Shirley Brahms in Are You Being Served?, Pauline Fowler in EastEnders

Wendy Richard, MBE (born Wendy Emerton on 20 July, 1943) is an English actress.

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[edit] Career

After attending the Italia Conti Academy stage school, she first became familiar to TV audiences playing Joyce Harker, a regular in the BBC's 1960s soap opera, The Newcomers. She has also appeared in Dad's Army (as Private Walker's girl-friend Shirley), Up Pompeii, The Likely Lads and several of the Carry On films. In 1962, her distinct cockney vocals also helped get her to #1 on the UK singles chart — uncredited, on the single, Come Outside, by Mike Sarne.

Richard is best known for two roles:

  • Her role in the 1970s sitcom Are You Being Served? as Miss Shirley Brahms, a slow-witted sales representative with a heavy Cockney accent, catapulted her to fame. (Richard also appeared in the Are You Being Served? sequel Grace & Favour in 1992 and 1993.)
  • Richard found continued success as heroine and matriarch Pauline Fowler on the BBC soap opera EastEnders, a role she has played since the first episode in 1985. On July 10 2006, the BBC announced that Richard had decided to leave EastEnders, after nearly nearly 22 years in the show. <ref>Wendy Richard to leave EastEnders BBC News, URL last accessed on 2006-07-10.</ref> An interview with The Sun revealed that problems with the EastEnders storyline (Primarily her marriage to Joe Macer) was the main cause for her departure.[1] The Sun newspaper reported that Pauline would get a sendoff in a big Christmas storyline.

[edit] Personal life

Richard endured a long battle with breast cancer in the early 1990s; her cancer went into remission after years of treatment, but has since returned <ref>EastEnders star has cancer BBC News</ref>. Articles about her departure from EastEnders suggest her health challenges may have had a role in her decision to leave the series.

Richard is from Middlesbrough, and was awarded an MBE in 1999.

[edit] References

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[edit] External links

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