Patricia Routledge, TV's Hyacinth Bucket (Bouquet) and a Tony Award Winner, Dies at 96

Tony Award winner Patricia Routledge has died at the age of 96.

While her profile became globally synonymous with the snobby Hyacinth Bucket (pronounced Bouquet) in the phenomenally successful BBC sitcom Keeping Up Appearances (1990-95), Routledge was a wildly successful stage star.

After her 1952 debut as Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Liverpool Playhouse, early roles included Adriana in a 1956 musical version of The Comedy of Errors and the title role in the West End production of the operetta spoof Little Mary Sunshine (1962).

On Broadway, Routledge won a Tony for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance in Broadway’s Darling of the Day (1968), and famously played every First Lady, from Abigail Adams to Eleanor Roosevelt, in Leonard Bernstein and Alan Jay Lerner’s 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Though the show was a major flop, Routledge received sterling notices thanks to her second-act showstopper, “Duet for One (The First Lady of the Land).” She received a standing ovation for the number mid-show on opening night, and a standing ovation from the orchestra mid-show on closing night.

She won an Olivier Award for her turn in Scottish Opera’s staging of Bernstein’s Candide (1988). She also played Nettie Fowler in the National Theatre’s production of Carousel (1992) and Ruth in the famous Delacorte Theater production of The Pirates of Penzance, opposite Kevin Kline.

Routledge also spent time with the Royal Shakespeare Company and appeared in Restoration comedies, notably at Chichester Festival Theatre in productions like The Country Wife and The Magistrate (1969).

On screen, beyond Hyacinth, she starred as the pragmatic sleuth in Hetty Wainthropp Investigates. She also appeared in several of Alan Bennett’s poignant Talking Heads monologues.