Walters fears that young people with acting potential are being put off by this career beacsue the drama school fees are too expensive.
She was fortunate to get funding back in the 60s to study drama at the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool, and thinks that the lack of money now to fund aspiring students will result in the art suffering.
In an interview with the Daily Mirror newspaper, she said: "Now the theatre is dying out, where do kids start out? They have to pay a lot to go to drama school, then hope they get straight into television or film. But working class kids can't afford that. I was lucky - I had a grant. You can't get a grant to go to drama school now. Soon the only actors are going to be privileged kids whose parents can afford to send them to drama school. That's not right. It feels like we are going backwards."
The 64 year old has said that she doesn't want to retire becasue she still gets offered great parts.
She said: "The desire is still there. I don't want to retire ... I did take a year off and I thought, 'You know what, I'm quite happy. Then a script came in and I thought, 'Oh my God, I've got to do this.' "
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