Roberta Taylor, the actor who played the matriarch Irene Raymond in 'EastEnders' and the hard-drinking Inspector Gina Gold in 'The Bill,' had a distinguished career in both television and theatre.

When offered the role of Irene Raymond, she told producers she didn't mind the character as long as she didn't have to wear a cardigan.

She played Irene from 1997 to 2000, portraying an ex-wife and estranged mother with a toyboy lover, a grocery store, and a penchant for new age fads like feng shui and aromatherapy.

After leaving 'EastEnders,' she took on the role of Inspector Gina Gold in 'The Bill' from 2002 to 2008.

Taylor, who passed away at the age of 76, had a long and distinguished theatrical career.

She honed her craft and unique blend of glamour and vulgarity over a long period of association with the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow from 1976 to 1995, and also performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal Exchange in Manchester, the Birmingham Rep, and in the West End.

Her last major TV series was the cosy private investigators comedy 'Shakespeare & Hathaway' (2018-22), where she played the theatrical costumier Gloria Fonteyn.

The series was shot mostly in Stratford-upon-Avon, and Taylor managed to wring genuine pathos in her solemn dedication of a dead dog's ashes to the River Avon.

Taylor's final stage show was Jonathan Harvey's jukebox musical 'Dusty' (2018), which closed after a short tour despite strong performances by Katherine Kingsley as Dusty Springfield and Taylor as her undermining mother.

By this time, Taylor was a household name, known for her cutting-edge emotional truth, warm and expressive voice, and large, liquid brown eyes.

Born in Plaistow, East London, to Winifred Roberts and Robert Archer, Taylor grew up in a small house on the Isle of Dogs with her mother, grandmother, and several aunts.

She attended St.

Luke's Church Primary School and Sir Humphrey Gilbert Secondary School, leaving without qualifications to take a series of secretarial jobs.

While training to be a dental nurse, she took drama classes at Toynbee Hall in Whitechapel.

She married Victor Taylor in 1966, with whom she had a son, Elliott.

An elderly friend in the Portobello market advised her to try out at a drama school, and she successfully auditioned at the Central School in 1973, where she met her future life partner and second husband, Peter Guinness.

Taylor joined the Citizens Theatre in 1976, where she performed in a repertoire of plays including 'The Seven Deadly Sins' by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill, and 'Masquerade' by Mikhail Lermontov.

Taylor's notable performances included roles in 'A Waste of Time' (1981), 'Private Lives' (1984), and 'An Ideal Husband' (1986).

She also appeared in films such as 'The Witches' (1990) and 'Tom and Viv' (1994).

A dedicated smoker, Taylor suffered from emphysema and passed away due to pneumonia.

Taylor divorced her first husband in 1975 and set up home with Guinness in Pimlico, central London, and later in Vauxhall.

They married in 1996.