Popular ’90s Sitcom Star Dead at 96

Keeping Up Appearances star Dame Patricia Routledge has died. The actress best known for her role of Hyacinth Bucket — pronounced “bouquet,” as per her insistence — was 96.

“We are deeply saddened to confirm the passing of Dame Patricia Routledge, who died peacefully in her sleep this morning, surrounded by love,” Routledge’s agent said in a statement Friday, as per the BBC.

“Even at 96 years old, Dame Patricia’s passion for her work and for connecting with live audiences never waned, just as new generations of audiences have continued to find her through her beloved television roles,” the agent continued. “She will be dearly missed by those closest to her and by her devoted admirers around the world.”

Routledge’s performance as her snobby Keeping Up Appearances character from 1990 to 1995 on the BBC sitcom endeared her to a nation, and in 1996, she was voted the UK’s most popular actress at the BBC’s 60th anniversary awards.

Routledge’s other television credits include Alan Bennett’s TV monologues, Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV, and Hetty Wainthropp Investigates, on which she played the titular housewife-turned-gumshoe from 1996 to 1998. She received three BAFTA TV Award nominations during her career.

Routledge also enjoyed success on the stage, earning an Olivier Award for her role as the Old Lady in Bernstein’s operetta Candide in 1988, and a Tony Award for her part as Alice Challice in Darling of the Day in 1968.

She was made an OBE in 1993 and a CBE in 2004, before ultimately being honored as a dame in 2017.

Prior to her 95th birthday, Routledge shared a celebrated message about growing older. “I’ll be turning 95 this coming Monday. In my younger years, I was often filled with worry – worry that I wasn’t quite good enough, that no one would cast me again, that I wouldn’t live up to my mother’s hopes. But these days begin in peace, and end in gratitude,” she wrote at the time.

“I’m writing this to tell you something simple. Growing older is not the closing act. It can be the most exquisite chapter – if you let yourself bloom again,” she continued. “Let these years ahead be your treasure years. You don’t need to be famous. You don’t need to be flawless. You only need to show up – fully – for the life that is still yours.”