Paula Tilbrook

Paula Tilbrook (16 January 1930 – 1 December 2019) was an English actress who played Betty Eagleton in the ITV soap opera Emmerdale from 1994 to 2015.

Career Born in Salford, Lancashire, Tilbrook begun her career performing on stage across North East England. After a break from acting to raise her children, she moved into television, appearing in the sitcom The Dustbinmen in 1969 and alongside Ken Dodd in Ken Dodd and the Diddymen from 1969 to 1973; thereafter, she became a regular on Dodd's radio programmes. In April 2015, it was announced that Tilbrook would be retiring from acting and her final scenes as Betty aired on 25 May, which saw the character leave for Australia. She briefly reprised her role in Emmerdale on Christmas Day 2015, when Betty appeared via Skype to speak to the villagers.

Tilbrook died on 1 December 2019, aged 89; however, her death was not announced by her family until July 2020.