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Privacy NoticeEastEnders star Roberta Taylor, who was best known for playing the role of Irene Raymond on the soap, has died at the age of 76. Roberta played Irene Raymond from 1997 until 2000 before joining The Bill in 2002, playing Inspector Gina Gold. The actress died from an infection on 6 July, caused by a fall two months prior that agitated her underlying health problems with pneumonia, according to The Guardian. She leaves behind her actor husband Peter Guinness, her son Elliott, a granddaughter and two stepbrothers. Arriving on Albert Square in 1997, Roberta’s character Irene was introduced as the matriarch of the Hills family who stops by Walford to visit her estranged children Sarah (Daniela Denby-Ashe) and Tony (Mark Homer). During her time on the soap, Irene struck up a romance with Terry Raymond (Gavin Richards) and engaged in an affair with her lodger Troy Harvey (Jamie Jarvis).
Roberta Taylor in Luther
(Image: BBC)
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Roberta chose to leave EastEnders three years later, revealing that while it had been a “fantastic experience”, she was “pleased to be leaving”. She added at the time in an interview with The Mirror: “I was always thinking, ‘When can I learn my lines?’ I gave over much of my life to the show and if I was to carry on at such a pace I’d have to continue to put my life on hold. “I didn’t want to do things at half-cock […] I had a lot of fun playing Irene, and Gavin, who plays my screen husband Terry, and I got on brilliantly. Irene was a complicated lady. I never knew what was going to happen next, but that’s what life is like. We worked hard at our characters. People thought we were comical but actually there was a lot of sarcasm.” Roberta was also known for her roles in Inspector Morse, The Witches, In Suspicious Circumstances, Silent Witness and Doctors. In 2002, she joined the cast as The Bill as Gina Gold, remaining in the role for six years. She later took on roles in Father Brown, Viceroy’s House, Casualty, The Foreigner, Shakespeare & Hathaway: Private Investigators and Luther – which proved to be her final acting job in 2019.
Robert Taylor was best known for her roles in The Bill and EastEnders
(Image: Daily Mirror)
Born in Plaistow, east London, Roberta grew up on the Isle of Dogs and originally trained to be a dental nurse whilst taking drama classes. She married ropemaker Victor Taylor 1966, with whom she had a son Elliott. She got into drama school in 1973 and after graduating, starred in a number of plays, including Noel Coward’s Private Lives, Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband and Brecht’s Mother Courage. She went onto divorce her first husband in 1975 before marrying Peter Guinness, best known for his roles in Jack Ryan, Merlin, Official Secrets and Alien 3, in 1996. Fans took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to pay tribute to the soap star, with one writing: “Rest in peace, Roberta.” Another said: “How sad. She was brilliant in EastEnders. RIP Roberta.” Story SavedYou can find this story in My Bookmarks.Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right.Follow OK! MagazineFacebookTwitterCommentMore OnEastEnders
