Former Coronation Street actress Jean Alexander, who was once voted Britain's greatest soap star, has died three days after turning 90.
Ms Alexander, who played the much-loved character Hilda Ogden between 1964 and 1987, died in hospital yesterday.
Her family said she had recently undergone tests and was re-admitted on her birthday after "feeling a little bit poorly".
As news of her death emerged stars of Coronation Street paid tribute to the actress, describing her as a "legend".
Liverpool-born Alexander won hearts as the sharp-tongued cleaning lady who was rarely seen without a set of tightly-wound hair curlers.
Fans tuned in in vast numbers to watch her daily battle to get her inept husband, Stan, out of the Rovers Return and into work.
When Ms Alexander decided to leave Weatherfield in 1987, an estimated 30 million people watched her farewell episode.
In the years after leaving the cobbles she became a mainstay of BBC sitcom Last Of The Summer Wine as eccentric bric-a-brac shop owner Auntie Wainwright.
In 2005 Ms Alexander was voted as the greatest soap opera star of all time and there were calls for Hilda to be memorialised.
She said at the time: "I just couldn't see myself stood on a pedestal cast in bronze.
"Knowing my luck, the Southport seagulls would find me and do their worst, as they have done before - usually when I have just washed my hair."
Ms Alexander starred in Last Of The Summer Wine until 2010, and she continued to enjoy celebrity status after her retirement in 2012, her niece, Sonia Hearld, told the Press Association.
"People used to stop her just to say hello and how much they missed her," Mrs Hearld, 64, said.
"She was always very good to her fans - she said 'they put me where I am'."
Ms Alexander reportedly suffered a stroke in 2014 and had been living in a nursing home.
