Dame Penelope Keith, the BAFTA-winning British actress best known for the BBC comedy The Good Life, has died. She was 86.
In a statement sent to British media, Keith’s family said: “We are deeply saddened to announce that Dame Penelope Keith died peacefully whilst living with cancer at her home in Surrey where she had lived for more than 50 years.
“The family is grateful for the care and support she received throughout her treatments, and ask that their privacy be respected at this time.”
Keith was born in 1940 under her real name, Penelope Anne Constance Hatfield. She joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1963 and secured her first major screen credit in The Army Game, the ITV comedy that aired between 1957 and 1961.
Keith progressed to roles in Carry on Doctor, The Avengers, and Private Lives before she was cast in The Good Life in 1975.
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The Good Life is woven into the fabric of British comedy and featured Keith as Margo Leadbetter, a straight-laced neighbour to Richard Briers and Felicity Kendal’s Tom and Barbara Good, who escape the rat race to live a self-sufficient lifestyle in suburbia.
Keith won her first BAFTA for The Good Life in 1977. A year later, she doubled her tally of bronze masks, winning for her work in The Norman Conquests: Living Together, a television play written by Alan Ayckbourn.
She was also BAFTA-nominated for To the Manor Born, the BBC comedy. One of her final screen credits was Death Comes to Pemberley, the 2013 limited series based on PD James’s homage to Pride and Prejudice, co-starring Matthew Rhys.
Jon Petrie, director of BBC comedy, said: “All of us at BBC Comedy are deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Dame Penelope Keith. She was one of the defining figures of British television comedy. Her iconic performance as Margo in The Good Life remains one of the nation’s most beloved sitcom roles and continues to delight audiences today. We send our heartfelt condolences to her family, friends and all of those who had the privilege of working with her.”
