Actor Pauline Quirke, greatest recognized for starring in BBC sitcom Birds of a Feather, has dementia, her husband has introduced. In a press release, Steve Sheen confirmed that she was identified quite a lot of years in the past and she’s going to now not be doing any public-facing work.
“It’s with a heavy coronary heart that I announce my spouse Pauline’s resolution to step again from all skilled and industrial duties because of her prognosis of Dementia in 2021,” stated Sheen.
“Pauline has been an inspiration by means of her work within the movie and TV trade, her charity endeavours and because the founding father of the very profitable Pauline Quirke Academy of Performing Arts (PQA).”
“Her expertise, dedication, and imaginative and prescient have touched numerous lives and can proceed to take action by means of the legacy of her work and thru PQA the place her imaginative and prescient and steerage has facilitated many younger individuals’s development and curiosity within the arts, and enhanced their self-confidence.”
Quirke, 65, performed the position of Sharon Theodopolopodous in Birds of a Feather, one in every of two sisters whose husbands are despatched to jail for armed theft. The sequence ran for ten years between 1989 and 1998, earlier than being revived for 3 extra seasons by ITV in 2014, adopted by two Christmas specials. Quirke gained greatest TV comedy newcomer on the British Comedy awards for her position in 1990. In 1997, she was nominated as greatest actress for a TV Bafta, after starring within the BBC adaptation of Minette Walters’ crime drama, The Sculptress.
The actor didn’t seem in Birds of a Feather’s closing Christmas particular because of deciding to focus on PQA fairly than performing. The academy, which she arrange in 2007, operates at greater than 200 areas throughout the UK and has over 15,000 college students. Quirke earned an MBE in 2022 for providers to younger individuals, the leisure trade and charity.
“We kindly request privateness and understanding for Pauline and our household throughout this troublesome interval,” stated Sheen. “Pauline simply needs to spend time together with her household, youngsters and grandchildren.”