Jill Summers

Jill Summers was best known to British TV viewers for her role as the gravel-voiced battleaxe Phyllis Pearce in ITV's Coronation Street but before winning fame in the soap she had a long career as a singer in revue and variety. Born in Eccles, Lancashire, the daughter of actress Marie Santoni, her father worked in a circus as a tightrope walker. Summers had four sisters and a brother and at the age of six she toured with them, singing and dancing in small scale revues where she was singled out by producers as a budding comedienne. In her early twenties she formed a song and comedy act with her brother Tom. She toured with ENSA during World War Two entertaining the troops and after the war returned to variety where she worked as a solo act on bills with such stars as Tommy Trinder, Max Wall, Dick Emery and Arthur Askey. As variety theatres began to close in the 1950s she appeared in summer seasons and pantomimes but in 1972 was offered the role of Bessie Procter, Hilda Ogden's (Jean Alexander) lady friend in Coronation Street. Ten years later she first appeared as Phyllis Pearce expecting the role to last only two weeks. She appeared in more than 500 episodes of the soap although poor health in later years kept her appearances to a minimum. Serious health worries first surfaced when she collapsed with angina on the set of This Is Your Life when host Michael Aspel handed her the famous red book. Commenting on her role as Phyllis Pearce she said, "Phyllis just grew on me and grew as a character. I love the part."