AFTER A LIFETIME OF LITTLE WHITE LIES, AMANDA'S REAL AGE
IS..65
Taken from The Sunday Mirror - 10/09/00
YOUNG-AT-HEART STREET STAR HAS BEEN SHAVING OFF YEARS SINCE HER VERY FIRST ROLE
CORONATION Street star Amanda Barrie's oldest and best kept secret can be revealed for the first time today...
her age.
The evergreen actress, who plays Mike Baldwin's ex-wife Alma, is SIXTY FIVE on Thursday. The news will come as a surprise to friends and millions of Street fans who believe she is now only 60. According to TV biographies and the official Corrie Street website, Alma was born in September 1939. But we can reveal she was in fact born a full four years earlier. Her birth certificate, under her real name of Shirley Anne Broadbent, records she was born on September 14, 1935.
The revelation may also surprise Amanda'a ex-husband, actor Robin Hunter, who believed his bride was still in her 20s. The marriage certificate records her age as 27 on their wedding day - June 19, 1967 - when in fact Amanda was nearly 32. Even rival EastEnders star Barbara Windsor might raise an eyebrow or two at the news of Amanda's real age. When the pair appeared together as showgirls at a London nightclub in the 1950s, Amanda said she was only 16. But we have unearthed a brochure from the notorious Winston's Club in New Bond Street showing Amanda and Barbara dancing back to back. The brochure is advertising a New Year's Eve Gala dated 1957 - when Amanda would have been 22.
According to official Coronation Street archives, her screen character Alma Baldwin is nearly 10 years younger than Amanda. The archives show she was born Alma Halliwell on October 18, 1944 - making her 56. Alma has of course led an interesting life but Amanda's own has been equally as dramatic.
She was born in Ashton-under-Lyne. Her father was an accountant and her mother Connie took every opportunity to put Amanda on the stage. By the time she was 13, Amanda had joined the Theatre Girls' Club in London's Soho. In 1967 she broke into television. She received enduring fame appearing in Carry On Cabby and Carry On Cleo. Her first serious love was at the age of 17 when she fell for a scriptwriter. Later she had a passionate fling with Sixties pop idol Billy Fury. She married briefly in 1967, but the marriage soon collapsed. A Street friend said last night: "Amanda has led one of those lives that scriptwriters couldn't make up. "Mind you I think a lot of people will be surprised she's 65. She looks nowhere near that age."