EastEnders and The Bill actress Roberta Taylor dies of ‘infection’ at age 76
EastEnders star Roberta Taylor has reportedly died at the age of 76.
The actress, best known for her role as Irene Raymond in the BBC soap from 1997 to 2000, joined the cast of ITV’s The Bill as Inspector Gina Gold.
Taylor’s obituary in Tuesday’s Guardian said she died on July 6 from an infection she contracted in a fall two months earlier that had aggravated her existing health problem, pneumonia.
She leaves behind her husband, actor Peter Guinness, her son Elliott, a granddaughter and two stepbrothers.
Her last major television appearance was in the private detective comedy “Shakespeare & Hathaway”.
Her involvement in the fictional world began in 1997, when she arrived as the matriarch of the Hills family and visited her children Sarah (Daniela Denby-Ashe) and Tony (Mark Homer).
Over the course of her three years on the soap, Taylor’s character Irene had a number of love interests, including Terry Raymond (Gavin Richards), as well as a steamy affair with her lodger Troy Harvey (Jamie Jarvis).
She described her exit to the Mirror as follows: “I kept thinking, ‘When can I finally learn my lines?’ I’ve dedicated a lot of my life to the show and if I wanted to continue at this pace, I’d have to continue to put my life on hold.”
“I didn’t want to do things half-heartedly (…) I had a lot of fun playing Irene and Gavin, who plays my on-screen husband Terry, and I got on brilliantly.”
“Irene was a complicated woman. I never knew what would happen next, but that’s life. We worked hard on our characters.
With deep heart over the death of Roberta Taylor, loved by millions as Irene Raymond in #EastEndersInspector Gina Gold in The Bill and much more. We send all our love to her family and friends at this tragic time. pic.twitter.com/v5fFwGWPrI
— Walford East (@WalfordEast) July 23, 2024
“People thought we were weird, but in reality there was a lot of sarcasm.”
Taylor also had roles in “Silent Witness,” “Inspector Morse,” “Doctors,” and “Luther.”
She grew up on the Isle of Dogs and, in addition to taking acting lessons, initially trained as a dental assistant.
Taylor married Victor in 1966 and had a son named Elliott.
After graduating from drama school, she appeared in numerous plays, including Noel Coward’s Private Lives, Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband and Brecht’s Mother Courage.
She divorced her first husband in 1975 before marrying Peter in 1996, who was best known for his roles in “Jack Ryan,” “Merlin,” “Official Secrets,” and “Alien 3.”
