Elsie Gregory (also Grimshaw, Howard and Tanner) is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera, Coronation Street, played by Pat Phoenix from the series' inception in 1960 to 1973, and again from 1976 until 1984. Elsie Tanner was one of the original core characters on Coronation Street and appeared in the first episode. She is considered to be an icon in soap history and regarded as one of the greatest ever characters to appear in Coronation Street. Her final appearance came in January 1984, when Elsie emigrated to Portugal. Phoenix decided to quit the series in 1983 to pursue other projects. Three years after leaving, Phoenix died, and a few months later, in the VHS special The Lives and Loves of Elsie Tanner, Anne Cunningham returned as Elsie's daughter Linda, hinting about Elsie's previous passing and including archive footage for flashbacks. However, 24 years later, when Philip Lowrie returned as Elsie's son Dennis Tanner, it was revealed that Elsie had died in a car accident, along with Bill Gregory, circa 2004/2005, meaning that the VHS release is not part of the canon of the show (on which these events have not been mentioned). In 2011, it was revealed that she and her son Dennis were related to Eileen Grimshaw and Julie Carp, as Elsie's cousin, Arnley Grimshaw, was their grandfather.