Star of ITV's Coronation Street and Shameless, Maggie Fox, has died after a "sudden accident". The actress' family are said to be "heartbroken" following her death.
She reportedly passed away surrounded by her loved ones. The details of the accident have not been revealed. Maggie previously played two roles in the long-running ITV soap - most notably as Ruth Audsley in 2001.
Her other acting roles include Reckless and The Forsyte Saga. Sue Ryding, her comedy partner of 40 years and co-artistic director at LipService Theatre, announced the tragic news on Twitter and said she was 'heartbroken' by the loss of her friend, M.E.N reports.
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Sue said: "It is with great sadness that I have to announce the death of Maggie Fox, my comedy partner of 40 years and co-Artistic Director of LipService. Maggie passed away yesterday with her family around her. Consequently the Spring Tour of Chateau Ghoul has been cancelled. As you can imagine I am completely heartbroken."
Paying tribute to her 'comedy genius' friend, she added: "I met Maggie when we were drama students at Bristol University in the 1970s. We were in a very serious production of Ibsen's The Lady From the Sea but for some reason the audience was on the floor laughing.
"A tragedy for Ibsen (he was good at those) but the launch of an epic comedy partnership. Our theatre company LipService was officially launched in 1985 and we have written 22 original comedies, touring all over the world, managing to have children in between!
"It's notoriously difficult to present new work in theatre and we are really proud that we managed to do so and to build an audience for it." Sue says a new digital version of their live comedy show Chateau Ghoul, which had already been filmed, will be shared later this year in memory of Maggie. We are still all in a state of shock as this was very sudden following an accident," she said.
"We had planned a new digital version of Chateau Ghoul which we had already filmed which will be shared with you later in the year in memory of Maggie, plus some live events using the huge amount of digital footage we thankfully have archived. Details to be published when have a plan.
"Thank you for supporting us over all these years, we are so lucky to have such a loyal audience. We do hope you will join us to celebrate her comedy genius later in the year."
And the Lowry Theatre said: "Everyone at The Lowry sends love and best wishes to Lip Service following the death of Maggie Fox. Regular visitors to The Lowry and hugely popular with our audiences. Maggie will be sorely missed."
Maggie Fox appeared on Coronation Street in four roles, as a nurse in 1990, Charmian Grey in 1992, Ruth Audsley in 2001 and Judge Travers in September 2010.
Her character Ruth was involved when Roy and Hayley Cropper, played by David Neilson and Julie Hesmondhalgh, went on the run with their foster child Wayne Hayes. She later appeared as Judge Travers in the case between waring sisters Kylie Turner, played by Paula Lane, and Becky McDonald, played by Katherine Kelly, as they fought for custody of Kylie's son Max.
She also played maid Bilson in the ITV period drama The Forsyte Saga. And she appeared as a registrar in the Channel Four drama Shameless.
