Elsie Tanner leave Weatherfield. Her final appearance was screened at the beginning of 1984. Pat Phoenix died of lung cancer in September 1986 at the age of 62. Elsie, her character, died in a car crash, at the age of 81 in 2004 after leaving Weatherfield 20 years earlier, although it was not mentioned in the show until 2011. Elsie Tanner Elsie Tanner (also Grimshaw, Howard and Gregory) is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera, "Coronation Street", played by Pat Phoenix from the series inception in 1960 to 1973 and from 1976 until 1984. Elsie Tanner was one of
Elsie Tanner book "Left at East Gate a First Hand", he joked about the probability of UFO landing being "as unlikely as Elsie Tanner getting into a nunnery" and branded her as having dubious morals. In the book "Women and soap opera: a study of prime time soaps", Christine Geraghty describes Elsie as having open family situations to deal with in her later years. She stated that Elsie always seemed ill-equipped to offer other characters advice on their love lives when they needed it. In 1983, it was announced that Phoenix would be leaving her role of Elsie Tanner and was to