Helen Worth Biography

Helen Worth (born Cathryn Helen Wigglesworth 7 January 1951) is an English actress, best known for playing Gail Platt in the ITV soap opera, Coronation Street.

Early life

Worth was born to parents Alfred and Gladys Wigglesworth in Leeds and grew up in Morecambe, Lancashire, where her parents ran a small seafront hotel. She was brought up in a middle-class family and attended private school. At the age of eight her parents fostered Ghanaian born Wilson Kpikpitse, who was sent to England as an overseas student at the age of eleven and remained with the family for eight years, but moved on following the death of Worth's mother, who was killed in a hit-and-run road accident while she was on a visit to Brighton.

Worth's grandmother lived in Bradford and ran a boarding house for music hall performers, which prompted her desire to perform. She took dancing lessons from the age of three, and took part in many school theatrical productions. At the age of ten, she read stories on Granada Television's Scene at 6.30, and appeared in an episode of BBC's Z-Cars. At the age of twelve she played one of the von Trapp children in a stage production of The Sound of Music, at the Palace Theatre in London, a role that kept her in London for nine months. Following this she returned to Morecambe to finish her education and later attended the Corona Theatre School in London.

Career

After graduating from drama school, Worth worked in repertory theatre, which included a year with the BBC Radio repertory company. She has had roles in films such as Oliver! (1968) and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969 " she is clearly visible in the assembly scene at about 1hr 49mins), and has appeared on television in the Doctor Who story Colony in Space (1971), The Doctors, Helen: A Woman of Today (1973), Within These Walls (1974) and The Carnforth Practice (1974).

She joined Coronation Street in 1974 and has remained with the soap since then. Since arriving on the Street as Gail Potter, Worth's character has married four times, has had three children and has been involved in some of the soap's biggest storylines, including a marriage to the serial killer, Richard Hillman, who at one stage attempted to kill her entire family.

In September 2006 Helen Worth was honoured with an Outstanding Achievement award at the Inside Soap Awards for her performance as Gail in Coronation Street. Recently, Worth has said she plans never to quit the street, saying she's happy with Gail's never ending drama, and that it's a job she loves. In an interview with GMTV in January 2010, Worth said she loves Gail's storylines and praised the writers for giving her some great plots over the years, and which she hopes will continue

Personal life

Worth lives in Cheshire and also has a house in Chelsea, London. She married actor Michael Angelis in 1980, and had previously lived with him for several years. Worth forgave Angelis when he admitted to an affair in 1995, but they split in 2001 after he strayed again with model, Jennifer Khalastchi. Following this, it was mistakenly reported by The Sun newspaper that Worth was dating London restaurant owner Simon Hopkinson. Worth married London music teacher Trevor Dawson on 6 April 2013. Worth is a patron of the Born Free Foundation, an international wildlife charity working throughout the world to stop individual wild animal suffering and protect threatened species in the wild. She appears on television fronting campaigns and joined them at the House of Commons in 2006 to speak about the proposed changes to the Animal Welfare Bill and campaign for the retirement of Anne, the UK's last remaining circus elephant.

She is a supporter of the charity ActionAid and has visited Sierra Leone in support of its work there.