Emmerdale and Hollyoaks actress Georgina Hale dies aged 80 after ...

Emmerdale and Hollyoaks actress Georgina Hale has died aged 80. 

The soap star, who had a five decade acting career both on screen and stage, is believed to have died on 4th January. 

Her cause of death has yet to be revealed. 

Fans took to X, formerly Twitter, to share their condolences to the much-loved actress. 

One wrote: '#GeorginaHale was amazing in Doctor Who and One Foot in the Grave. One of my favourite actresses'. 

Others said: 'Sad news. Georgina Hale gone. She was on telly on the time in the 70s and 80s. Fine actress.'

Emmerdale and Hollyoaks actress Georgina Hale has died aged 80. The soap star, who had a five decade acting career, is believed to have died on 4th January

Georgina and Huw David pictured in Emmerdale 

'Sad news, brilliant career, Budgie and one of the best Minder episodes ever'.

'Georgina Hale was an interesting actress with a unique delivery, ensuring she always brought a touch of eccentricity to the screen. RIP.'

Georgina received a Laurence Olivier Award nomination for her performance in the original London production of Steaming. 

The actress also won a British Academy Film Award for Most Promising Newcome for  the Ken Russell film Mahler in 1975.

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.

The actress in McVicar in 1980, starring opposite Roger Daltrey 

Adam Faith and Georgina in Budgie in 1971. The actress played wayward wife Jean in the second series

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 (pictured in 1992) 

Fans took to X, formerly Twitter , to share their condolences to the much-loved actress

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.

She 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.