Roberta Taylor, a husky-voiced actress born in East London, rose to fame on television, playing the roles of Irene Raymond in the popular soap EastEnders and Inspector Gina Gold in The Bill.
Born out of wedlock to bus conductors Robert Alexander Archer and Winifred Roberts, Roberta was brought up by her mother, a formidable grandmother, and several aunts. Her father had a wife elsewhere and soon left. Roberta was nicknamed 'Robbie' and trained as a dental nurse while studying drama at Toynbee Hall in Whitechapel.
She married Victor Taylor, a rope maker, in 1966, but the union ended in divorce nine years later. On the advice of a friend, Roberta enrolled at the Central School of Speech and Drama, where she met her future second husband, actor Peter Guinness. Upon her graduation in 1976, she began a lengthy association with the Citizen's Theatre in Glasgow, acting in plays by Brecht, Proust, Coward, Lermontov, and Wilde.
Roberta also performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal Exchange in Manchester, and at the West End. She returned to the Citizen's in 2014, playing the role of Gertrude in a revival of Hamlet, opposite Guinness as Claudius. They also appeared together in The Bill in 2007.
Following her screen debut in 1979, Roberta's resume of guest appearances included episodes of Minder, Father Brown, Silent Witness, and Luther. She played the imperious and dogmatic philanthropist Mrs. Pardiggle in BBC's adaptation of Bleak House and was last seen on TV as costume shop owner Gloria Fonteyn in several episodes of Shakespeare & Hathaway: Private Investigators.
In addition to her acting career, Roberta published a novel, 'The Reinvention of Ivy Brown', in 2008, and a volume of poems, 'Where I Am From', in 2023. Roberta Alexandra Mary Taylor died of pneumonia on July 6, 2024, at the age of 76.
