Emmerdale actress Shirley Stelfox has died following a short battle with cancer.
A statement from Associated International Management said she had passed away peacefully on Monday at home with her daughter Helena by her side.
The 74-year-old was best known for her role in ITV's Emmerdale as Edna Birch, which she played for the last 15 years.
ITV executive producer, John Whiston, said: "The family here at Emmerdale are deeply saddened by Shirley's passing, it is hard to imagine Emmerdale without her.
"We offer our condolences to Shirley's family and share our feeling of loss with the millions of viewers who will miss Edna enormously."
She trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), and went on to star in numerous well-known TV shows.
She was the first Rose in Keeping Up Appearances and also starred in The Bill, Coronation Street and Crossroads.
Her film credits included a role opposite John Hurt in the movie adaptation of George Orwell's novel 1984. She also starred alongside Julie Walters in Personal Services.
TV and film aside, she also had a successful career in the theatre, with her stage work including Not Now, Darling, Toad Of Toad Hall and Cavalcade at the Chichester Festival Theatre.
She was married to actor Don Henderson from 1979 until he passed away in 1997.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here