Tony Winner Dame Patricia Routledge Dies at 96
Routledge received the 1968 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Music for her role as Alice Challice in Darling of the Day.
By: Stephi Wild Oct. 03, 2025
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BroadwayWorld is saddened to report that Dame Katherine Patricia Routledge, English actress and singer, known for her work on stage and screen, has died at age 96.
Born in Birkenhead, England, in 1929, Routledge went to Mersey Park Primary School, Birkenhead High School, and the University of Liverpool before training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. She made her stage debut in 1952 as Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at The Liverpool Playhouse and appeared on the London stage two years later as Carlotta in The Duenna at the Westminster Theatre. Early roles included Adriana in a 1956 musical staging of A Comedy of Errors and the title role in the West End’s Little Mary Sunshine (1962).
In 1966, she made her Broadway debut in the comedy How’s the World Treating You?, and two years later also appeared as Alice Challice in Darling of the Day, playing opposite Vincent Price. For this role, she received the 1968 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical. She later returned to Broadway in 1976 for Bernstein’s 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and appeared in the 1980 Central Park production of The Pirates of Penzance as Ruth.
Routledge appeared frequently in Shakespeare, Restoration comedies, contemporary dramas, and musical theater. London audiences saw her in Carousel and Candide, while television viewers came to know her in dramatizations of Dickens and Austen, as well as in a 1983 production of The Beggar’s Opera. She also portrayed novelist Barbara Pym in Miss Pym’s Day Out (1991) and the visionary Hildegard of Bingen in a 1994 documentary.
She may be best known for her work on screen, notably as Hyacinth Bucket in Keeping Up Appearances and the determined detective in Hetty Wainthropp Investigates.
In 1996, Routledge was voted Great Britain’s all-time favorite television actress. In recognition of her contributions to the arts, she was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1993 and later a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2004.
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