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
Hooker with a heart of gold character of Nancy in Charles Dickens' novel "Oliver Twist" and the stage musical derived from it, "Oliver!". In television history, the ""tart with a heart"" has become an important archetype in serial drama and soap opera, especially in Britain. During the 1960s, the character of Elsie Tanner in British series "Coronation Street" set the mold for future characters such as Bet Lynch (also "Coronation Street"), Kat Slater, Stacey Slater and Dawn Swann (all three characters from the British soap opera "EastEnders"). Characters of this nature are often depicted as having tragic lives, but put on a front when in public