Dame Penelope Keith, The Good Life And To The Manor Born Star, Dies At 86

Dame Penelope Keith, the acclaimed British actress best known for her roles in The Good Life and To the Manor Born, has died at the age of 86.

"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 Keith family said in a statement. “The family is grateful for the care and support she received throughout her treatments and ask that their privacy be respected at this time."

Tributes have been pouring in from friends and admirers. Felicity Kendal, Keith's co-star on The Good Life, called her a "comic genius" and "a joy to know and work with." Sue Perkins also honoured the actress on Instagram as the “creator of some of the greatest sitcom characters of all time.”

Dame Penelope Keith famously played snobbish suburban neighbour Margo Leadbetter in The Good Life and widowed aristocrat Audrey Forbes-Hamilton in To the Manor Born.

Born in Surrey, she joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1963 and won an Olivier Award for Best Comedy Performance in 1976 for Donkey's Years. She became a household name as Margo in The Good Life from 1975 and won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Light Entertainment Performance in 1977.

After The Good Life, she starred as Audrey in To the Manor Born. She later won a BAFTA for Best Actress for The Norman Conquests and Saving It For Albie. Her other 80s and 90s sitcom credits include Executive Stress, No Job for a Lady, Moving, Law and Disorder and Next of Kin.

In the 2000s, she worked largely in theatre, playing Madame Arcati in a 2004 production of Blithe Spirit and Lady Bracknell in a 2007 version of The Importance of Being Earnest. Following her death, theatres across London's West End will dim their lights for two minutes at 7 pm on 1 July in Keith's memory.