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 still holding the hand of her husband, Bill Gregory. Elsie apparently died as she had lived - never doing anything by halves and had been lucky to have 20 happy years living the high life in the Algarve. She was 81. In May 2012, Dennis' gave his fiancee, Rita Sullivan (Barbara Knox) - who had previously been married to Len Fairclough, Elsie's close friend - Elsie's engagement ring. In Dorothy Catherine Anger's book ""Other worlds: society seen through soap opera"" she brands Elsie a "tarty woman" who has the ability to "attract men like bees to honey". In Larry Warren's