Georgina Hale has died aged 80.
Georgina Hale has died aged 80
The veteran soap actress – best known for her parts in ‘Emmerdale’ and ‘Hollyoaks’ – passed away on 4 January, but her death only came to light on Wednesday (10.01.24) night when fans took to social media to mourn her passing.
Many said they “loved” the actress, while others filled social media with memories of seeing her act and said her death had left them “devastated”.
Away from soaps, Georgina was also renowned for her work in the films of Ken Russell.
Her performance in 1974’s ‘Mahler’ earned her a Bafta film award as most promising newcomer and she received a Laurence Olivier Award nomination for her role in the original London production of ‘Steaming’.
Georgina’s other TV parts included an appearance in ‘Doctor Who – The Happiness Patrol’ in 1988.
In 2010, the actress was listed as one of 10 great British character actors by The Guardian.
Born in Ilford, Essex, in 1943 to publicans Elsie (née Fordham) and George Robert Hole, Georgina married John Forgeham in 1964, but they later divorced.
Her film debut came in the historical drama ‘Eagle in a Cage’ in 1971, in which she played Betsy Balcombe alongside Kenneth Haigh as Napoleon Bonaparte.
Georgina admitted she grew up overweight and shy, and kept changing school as her parents moved around different pubs, which she believed devastated her education.
She told the Glasgow Herald in 2002: “I couldn’t write, spell or read.
“There was a real shame in it, and you were the dunce of the class, always getting whacked around the head.”
Georgina’s mum died when she was 18, followed by her father four years later and at the age of 19 she was given tickets to see ‘West Side Story’, which she said “blew my mind” as she’d never stepped foot in a theatre before seeing the show.
She went on to train at Rada and graduated in 1965, and made her stage name Hale.
The actress had parts in Royal Shakespeare Company productions and her West End debut came in Chekhov’s ‘The Seagull’ in London’s Duke of York’s theatre in 1976.
Georgina also succeeded Elizabeth Estensen in the eponymous role of T-Bag, the villainous, tea-drinking sorceress in a succession of children’s adventure shows made by Thames Television.