Theatre News

Lynda Bellingham dies from cancer aged 66sss

Bellingham was diagnosed last year before she was due to appear in ”A Passionate Woman” in Sheffield

Lynda Bellingham with Mark Field during a photo call for Vincent Roger in 2007
Lynda Bellingham with Mark Field during a photo call for Vincent Roger in 2007
© Dan Wooller

Much-loved actress Lynda Bellingham has died from cancer at the age of 66. Her agent Sue Latimer said she died yesterday (19 October 2014) "in her husband's arms".

Born in Canada and brought up in Buckinghamshire, Bellingham rose to prominence in the 1970s through roles in TV series including Kate and General Hospital.

Early in her stage career she worked in rep in Frinton and Crewe, and made her West End debut in the musical Bordello. She told WhatsOnStage in 2007: "It only ran for 41 performances. I was, however, the very first nude ever to appear on the stage of the Queen's Theatre."

She went on to play Helen Herriot in All Creatures Great and Small, and was cast as the iconic mother in a long-running series of adverts for Oxo, which ran for 16 years. "You could see me doing vet’s wife acting and healing animals on BBC," she said of this time, "and then switch over to ITV and watch me cooking them with gravy."

Bellingham's other extensive screen credits included roles in Doctor Who, At Home with the Braithwaites, The Bill and Faith in the Future. Her recent stage work included Calendar Girls (pictured) on UK tour, Vincent River at Trafalgar Studios and Sugar Mummies at the Royal Court.

She had been due to appear in new play A Passionate Woman at the Sheffield Lyceum last year, but the production was cancelled after she was diagnosed with cancer. Her memoir There's Something I've Been Dying To Tell You was published ten days ago.

Bellingham was married three times and is survived by her two sons.