Patricia Hayes OBE
Born	Patricia Lawlor Hayes (1909-12-22)22 December 1909 Streatham,London, England
Died	19 September 1998(1998-09-19) (aged 88) Puttenham, Surrey, England
Resting place	Watts Cemetery Chapel,Compton, Surrey, England
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1936–1996
Spouse	Valentine Brooke ​ ​ (m. 1939; div. 1951)​
Children	3, includingRichard O'Callaghan

Patricia Lawlor Hayes (22 December 1909 – 19 September 1998) was an Englishcharacter actress. She is best known for playing the titular Edna in thePlay for Today,Edna, the Inebriate Woman (1971), for which she won theBritish Academy Television Award for Best Actress.^[1]

Patricia Lawlor Hayes was born inStreatham,^[2]London, the daughter of George Frederick Hayes and Florence Alice Hayes. Her father was a clerk in the civil service and her mother was a schoolmistress. As a child, Hayes attended the Sacred Heart School inHammersmith.

Hayes attendedRADA, graduating in 1928. She spent the next 10 years in repertory theatre.^[3]

She was featured in many radio and television comedy shows between 1940 and 1996, includingHancock's Half Hour,Ray's a Laugh,The Arthur Askey Show,The Benny Hill Show,Bootsie and Snudge,Hugh and I andTill Death Us Do Part. She played the part of Henry Bones in the BBCChildren's Hour radio programmeNorman and Henry Bones, the Boy Detectives from 1943 to 1965.

Hayes was cast in supporting roles for films includingThe Bargee (1964),The NeverEnding Story (1984),A Fish Called Wanda (1988) and was also featured as Fin Raziel in theRon Howard filmWillow (1988).

Her most substantial television appearance was in the title role ofEdna, the Inebriate Woman (Play for Today, 1971) for which she won aBAFTA award. She provided the character voice for comedy puppet performances for television programmes such asGran (Woodland Animations, 1982).

In April 1975, Hayes was interviewed byRoy Plomley forDesert Island Discs. A sizeable, but incomplete, extract is available to listen to and download via the programme's website on the BBC.^[4]

In 1977, she appeared on the BBC's long running TV variety showThe Good Old Days; she had been an early member of thePlayers' Theatre in London, an old timemusic hall club, from the 1950s onwards.

In1978, Hayes was nominated for theLaurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for playing Rosalina inFilumena atThe National Theatre.^[5]

In 1985, she starred in the title role of the TV playMrs Capper's Birthday byNoël Coward.^[6]

Hayes played Miss. Willow, in one episode of the 1991 radio show,The Secret Life of Rosewood Avenue.

She was the mother of British actorRichard O'Callaghan (born Richard Brooke) by her marriage to Valentine Brooke, whom she divorced. She never remarried. She was formerly the head of theBritish Catholic Stage Guild, which her son later chaired.

She was awarded anOBE in 1987.^[3]

Patricia Hayes died in September 1998 inPuttenham, Surrey.^[2] She appeared posthumously in the 2002 filmCrime and Punishment which had been filmed in 1993, but delayed because of a legal case.^[7] She is buried at Watts Cemetery,Compton, Surrey.^[8]

• Patricia Hayes atIMDb
• Patricia Hayes at theBFI'sScreenonline

• 1909 births
• 1998 deaths
• 20th-century English actresses
• Actresses from London
• Best Actress BAFTA Award (television) winners
• English film actresses
• English radio actresses
• English Roman Catholics
• English television actresses
• Officers of the Order of the British Empire
• Actors from the London Borough of Lambeth
• Actors from the London Borough of Wandsworth
• Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
• People from Streatham
• People from Wandsworth

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from March 2022
• Use British English from April 2012
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