'Comedy genius': Coronation Street and Shameless star dies in 'sudden accident'
22 March 2022, 15:12 | Updated: 22 March 2022, 22:43
A Coronation Street and Shameless star has died after a "sudden accident".
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"Comedy genius" Maggie Fox died on Monday, leaving family and friends in "a state of shock".
Her comedy partner, Sue Ryding, shared the update on Tuesday morning.
She said on social media: "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.
Ms Ryding added: "Consequently the Spring Tour of Chateau Ghoul has been cancelled. As you can imagine I am completely heartbroken."
She went on to say: "We are still all in a state of shock as this was very sudden following an accident."
Details of the accident are still unknown.
It is with huge sadness that I announce the death of my comedy partner of 40 years Maggie Fox yesterday. I sat down and remembered certain moments in shows where the audience laughed so much we had to pause. Sometimes we laughed too! Full statement https://t.co/CzEA0QcTzZ pic.twitter.com/4wPvXMvZCd
— LipService Theatre (@LipServicetour) March 22, 2022
The actress had starred in several separate roles on Coronation Street during her career - including as Ruth Audsley and Judge Travers - between 1990 and 2010.
She also appeared in a 2006 episode of Shameless as the registrar at Frank and Sheila's wedding.
However, her perhaps most well known role throughout her acting career - which spanned 15 years - came in the shape of Bilson in ITV's The Forsyte Saga.
Ms Ryding reflected on the star's earlier years starting out, adding in her statement: "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!"
She ended saying: "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."
The pair had been preparing a new production to tour the UK with when Ms Fox passed away.
