Anne Kirkbride Dead at 60

Anne Kirkbride

Anne Kirkbride, who played Deirdre Barlow for more than 40 years on the long-running British soap opera Coronation Street, has died. She was 60.

"There are no words to describe the sense of grief we feel at Anne's passing," executive producer Kieran Roberts said in the post. "We know only too acutely how much Anne meant to the millions of people who watched her create the legendary character of Deirdre Barlow."

Kirkbride first showed up on Coronation Street, the world's longest-running active television soap opera, in 1972 as a teenager with a handful of lines. Within a few years, she had entered into a short-lived marriage with one character and then a romance and marriage with another, Ken Barlow (William Roache, who'd been on the show since its inception in 1960).