Quiz

She was reportedly under consideration for the main lead female role in the film La strada dei quartieri alti (1958) but Simone Signoret was cast instead.

At the time of her death she was lined up for the role of a high - powered glamorous businesswoman in a new soap opera called The Legacy which had American production interests and might have launched her on an American career.

Her final appearance in Coronation Street was on 4 January 1984 when, according to the story line, she was going to start a new life with her old flame Bill Gregory and help him run his bar in Portugal.

In 1959 she was cast in the lead role of the stage production of "Fings Ain't What They Used To Be" but was taken ill with chest pains. Miriam Karlin took over the role and both she and the show were a West End success.

She was a heavy smoker all her life and continued to smoke even when she was dying of lung cancer.

Her marriage to her first husband in 1953 lasted only a year but they did not divorce until 1961.

She toured service bases with Manchester Arts Theatre Company in 1942, and worked with Chorlton Repertory, in Manchester among others.

She used to be a filing clerk in a Manchester office.

She lived in a 16 room mansion on the Cheshire- Derbyshire border.

The wardrobe she used for personal appearances included some 250 pairs of shoes.

Loves dogs and had 3 , a Corgi, Mr Smith, a mongrel, Mr Robinson and a Husky Mr Big,.

She married Tony Booth, her lover of 7 years, in her hospital bed where she was dying of cancer aged 62.

She used to be an office clerk with the gas board in Manchester.

She attended Chorlton Central High School for Girls in Manchester where she acted in a play, The Death of Tintageles with fellow pupil Betty Alberge who joined Coronation Street with Pat in December 1960.

Phoenix married Anthony Booth in the Alexandra Hospital (Cheadle), on 9 September 1986, attracting much media attention. Eight days later, she died in her sleep, aged 62. At her request, her funeral service at the Holy Name Church in Manchester featured a large brass band; according to Coronation Street histories written by show historian Daran Little, she wanted the event that marked her death to be as lively as her life. Booth's daughter Cherie was amongst the mourners, alongside her husband, Tony Blair.

As part of the Coronation Street 40th anniversary celebrations in 2000, blue plaques were unveiled outside the Granada Studios, the location for most of her work on Coronation Street, to four of the soap opera's stars, including Phoenix. The other plaques commemorated the lives of Doris Speed, Bryan Mosley and Violet Carson.

In March 1986, Phoenix, who smoked 60 cigarettes a day, was diagnosed with lung cancer after collapsing at home. She continued to work following her diagnosis, hiding her illness from most people, including her lover Tony Booth.

She owned the Navigation Inn, a pub in Buxworth, Derbyshire.

Phoenix wrote two volumes of autobiography; All My Burning Bridges (1974) and Love, Curiosity, Freckles and Doubt (1983).

Just prior to joining Coronation Street she was out of work and broke.

Lives in a Georgian cottage in Cheshire.