Barbara Knox – 87

Another star that came from Corrie is Barbara Knox. She also became an MBE on the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in 2010 with her Corrie cast member and friend Eileen Derbyshire. After appearing as Rita Littlewood in a December 1964 episode, Knox returned in January 1972 to play Rita Tanner full-time.

Perhaps the reason why she’s such a great actress is her background in theater, having made her professional stage debut at the Oldham Coliseum Theatre in 1962. Knox has a couple of awards under her name, and two of them are her British Soap Award and Malcolm Hebden a Lifetime Achievement Award.