Shirley Rosemary Stelfox (11 April 1941 – 7 December 2015) was an English actress, known for her portrayal of the character Edna Birch, a moralising busybody in the ITV soap opera Emmerdale, and as Rose, the vampy sister of the snobby and overbearing Hyacinth Bucket in the first series of the comedy series Keeping Up Appearances.
[1] She then studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), where her classmates included Edward Fox, John Thaw and Sarah Miles.
[2] After the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art Stelfox started on BBC Television in The Case Before You, a play in which she appeared as a 15 year old arsonist.
She played Hyacinth Bucket's sister Rose in the first series of Keeping Up Appearances, but was replaced by Mary Millar.
[3] She appeared in several other well-known television series, including ‘’Emmerdale’’, Wicked Women (1970),[4] Making Out, Heartbeat, Common as Muck, Juliet Bravo, The Bill, Crossroads, Inspector Morse, Grange Hill and Albion Market.