Julie Goodyear

Julie Goodyear (née Kemp; born 29 March 1942) is an English retired actress. She is known for portraying Bet Lynch in the long-running ITV soap opera Coronation Street. She first appeared as Bet for nine episodes in 1966, before becoming a series regular from 1970 to 1995. She returned for eight episodes in 2002 and another seven in 2003. For her role on Coronation Street, she received the Special Recognition Award at the 1995 National Television Awards. She was made an MBE in the 1996 New Year Honours.
Goodyear was born on 29 March 1942 in Heywood, Lancashire, to Alice (née Duckworth) and George Kemp, who divorced when Goodyear was six years old. Her mother remarried to William Goodyear in 1949, whom she knew as her father and whose surname she adopted. Goodyear was brought up by her maternal grandmother, Elizabeth Duckworth, who died by drowning when Goodyear was thirteen years old. She attended Queen Elizabeth Grammar School in Middleton.
Goodyear began modelling in the 1960s, predominantly as hand and foot model, which led to her acting debut in 1965, portraying the uncredited role of Charity in the first series of the ITV sitcom Pardon the Expression. The following year, she appeared in the second series on a further three occasions as separate minor characters. Between 1965 and 1966, she appeared as Duckie in two episodes of the crime drama The Man in Room 17 and also featured in one of ITV's Play of the Week in 1966.
Goodyear is known for playing barmaid Bet Lynch on the ITV1 soap opera Coronation Street. After appearing as an extra the previous year, she started playing the role for a brief time in 1966, but left when senior cast member Pat Phoenix (who played Elsie Tanner) advised her to get some more training. It was at that time she joined Oldham's Repertory Theatre and went on to appear in episodes of various television series including Mr. Rose and The Fellows in 1967, City '68, Spindoe, The War of Darkie Pilbeam and appeared as Sandra in Granada Television's sitcom Nearest and Dearest in 1968, as well as Her Majesty's Pleasure, The Contenders and Kes in 1969. She appeared in two episodes of The Dustbinmen between 1969 and 1970, and portrayed Mrs. Powner in an episode of A Family At War.
Goodyear returned to Coronation Street in 1970 and remained in the series for 25 years. She quit Coronation Street in 1995, shortly after winning the Lifetime Achievement Award for her role as Bet Lynch in the first ever National Television Awards. She returned to the role of Bet in 1999 for the home video spin-off The Rover Returns.
In 2002, it was announced that Goodyear would be returning to the show after seven years away. Goodyear's return was intended to be permanent and she had signed a year's contract, however she was forced to quit after seventeen days due to the intense filming schedule, which had left her suffering from exhaustion. She returned to the show again in 2003, though this time, her appearances were part of a storyline set in Blackpool that involved Liz McDonald (Beverley Callard) and her husband Jim (Charles Lawson), who had recently escaped from prison. These transpired to be Goodyear's final scenes in the show.
In 1996, she signed a deal for advertisements for Shredded Wheat. Her other work included filming a pilot of The Julie Goodyear Show for Granada, presenting Live Time on the Granada Breeze network every week day throughout January 1999, and being a DJ on Manchester Talk Radio. In 2001, she appeared in the BBC television comedy sketch series Revolver and on several episodes of the ITV1 game show Lily Savage's Blankety Blank. In 2004, she won the first series of the Living TV reality series, I'm Famous and Frightened!.
In 2005, Goodyear was one of the celebrities taking part in the ITV reality series, Celebrity Fit Club, alongside former Coronation Street co-star Ken Morley. She was originally made team captain but quit the role after six weeks, and the role was taken over by Aldo Zilli. She lost 1 stone 10 pounds, and her team won the show.
She appeared in the reality shows Road Raja, Age Swap, Celebrity Penthouse and Celebrity Stars in Their Eyes as Marlene Dietrich. She had a small role in the British film Tug of War (2006) and in October 2006 played a brief role in Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks as Mrs. Temple, owner of a B&B. In 2007, she was interviewed by Piers Morgan for the BBC series You Can't Fire Me, I'm Famous where she discussed her highly publicised short-lived return to Coronation Street in 2002. In April 2008, Goodyear and her fourth husband appeared on an episode of All Star Mr & Mrs, and in December 2008, Goodyear portrayed Sarah Harding's mother in the Christmas variety show The Girls Aloud Party. In October 2009, it was confirmed that she would be starring in Calendar Girls on the West End stage, and appeared in the show for three weeks before dropping out due to a virus. In December 2010, she participated in a Coronation Street special of Come Dine with Me.
In 2012, Goodyear became a housemate on the tenth series of Celebrity Big Brother on Channel 5. She was the seventh housemate to be evicted on Day 22 in a double eviction alongside fellow housemate Lorenzo Borghese.
Goodyear appeared on Piers Morgan's Life Stories in 2013. In 2017, Goodyear appeared in the BBC Two documentary Queer as Art. She made an appearance on The Big Quiz in 2018 and was interviewed for the television documentary Coronation Street at Christmas in 2019, the latter of which was her final television appearance.
Goodyear has been married four times. Her first marriage was to Ray Sutcliffe at the age of 17 when she was two months pregnant with her son Gary, who was born in April 1960. Her second husband, Tony Rudman, left her for his best man on their wedding day after Goodyear discovered he was gay; their marriage was subsequently annulled. Her third marriage in 1985 was after a long-distance relationship with American Richard Skrob. She married her fourth husband, Scott Brand, 26 years her junior, in 2007 after eleven years together. She has three grandchildren. Goodyear is a life-long resident of Heywood, Greater Manchester and lives with her fourth husband at Primrose Hill Farm, a property she purchased and renovated in 1995.
Her autobiography, titled Just Julie, was released in November 2006. In the book, she discussed her upbringing, bisexuality, experience with cancer, and Coronation Street. Goodyear is a patron of Willow Wood Hospice, where her Coronation Street co-star Roy Barraclough died in 2017. She donated several pieces of jewellery and memorabilia worn by her character Bet Lynch in order to raise funds for the hospice.
In 1979, she temporarily left Coronation Street for the second of three times after being diagnosed with cervical cancer, something she kept secret from the public until she had recovered. Following her ordeal with cancer, she founded a charity which resulted in formation of the Julie Goodyear Cancer Screening Centre.
In June 2023, Goodyear's husband Scott Brand announced that she had been diagnosed with dementia, confirming in a statement that she had been "suffering [from] forgetfulness for some time" [...] adding that they had been seeking medical advice and assistance, however there was "no hope of a reversal in the situation" and that her condition will get progressively worse. Following her diagnosis, Goodyear attended a memory walk alongside her husband in Heaton Park, Manchester for the Alzheimer's Society in October 2023. In March 2024, Goodyear's husband said she was "slowly fading away" and that it had been "extremely painful" to watch her deterioration.
She was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 1996 New Year Honours, "for services to television drama".