Kathy Staff Biography

Fast Facts

• After she was diagnosed with a brain tumor in early 2008, Staff died later that year at the Willow Wood Hospice in Ashton-under-Lyne in Greater Manchester, England
• Hoped to become a ballet dancer but her parents could not afford the tuition
• Worked as a shorthand typist for the National Gas & Oil Engine Company in Greater Manchester, England, before finding work on stage with the firm's amateur acting group, and then moving on to extra work in television in Scotland and Wales
• Famous her for role as Nora Batty on the longest running sitcom in the world, "Last of the Summer Wine․"
• Retired from acting for a brief period of time to raise her family but started working as an extra for ITV Granada broadcasting network in the 1960s
• Published her autobiography "My Story- Wrinkles and All" in 1997
• Disliked her real name, Minnie Higginbottom, and changed it to Katherine Brant, which she used in most of her early theatrical work
• Younger daughter, the Reverend Susan Jackson, became one of the first women to be ordained in the Church of England