Elizabeth Bradley


Elizabeth Bradley was an English actress, perhaps most famous for playing battle-axe Maud Grimes in the fictional soap Coronation Street.
Bradley was born Joan Abraham in Hampstead, London, the daughter of a senior civil servant, and took her father's middle name as her stage surname. She started acting professionally at the age of 23. She married actor Garth Adams in 1950, and was so until his death in 1977 - they had three children.
Bradley's most famous role was as wheelchair-using pensioner Maud Grimes in Coronation Street in old age, from 1993 to 1999. The character was sometimes called "the mother-in-law from hell". She filmed 476 episodes during this time, and died suddenly in France a year after leaving the show.
She has also made TV appearances in The Bill, Casualty, Bad Girls and The Sweeney. Her film roles included Four Dimensions of Greta and The Flesh and Blood Show with director Pete Walker, and as the old woman who encounters a naked David Naughton at London Zoo in An American Werewolf in London.
She was also a successful theatre actress, obtaining an Olivier Award nomination as Best Supporting Actress for her role in a National Theatre production of Billy Liar.
Bradley died after suffering a stroke, at the age of 78.