Corrie star Peter Armitage has died at the age of 78

[Ome]

Coronation Street star Peter Armitage has died at the age of 78, four years after beating bowel cancer.

​

The actor first appeared on the show 30 years ago when he started playing Bill Webster, and was last seen on-screen in 2011, shortly after his character had suffered a heart attack.

Armitage's friend and Corrie co-star Charlie Lawson (Jim McDonald) revealed the news of his death in a message on Twitter today (December 5).

"It’s with great sadness, that I’ve to tell you my great old friend Pete Armitage has died. RIP mate," he wrote.

Other cast members paid tribute to Peter, including Simon Gregson (Steve McDonald), Jane Danson (Leanne Battersby), and Samia Longchambon (Maria Connor).

Gregson said: "I loved Pete what a lovely man very sad RIP lovely man."

 

[Walford Boy]

Very sad news. RIP Peter.

 

[Ome]

I was always hoping he would return, even more since Kevin hasn't had anyone other than Tyrone as a partner.

 

[Sarah]

Sad to hear this. I really liked him.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

The name confused me at first because I was thinking of Peter Adamson (AKA Len Fairclough) who died many years ago now.


I fondly remember his first run on Corrie, and of course his Yellow Pages advert:

"I were right about that saddle though..."

 

[Barbara Fan]

Sorry to hear that, I always hoped he would make a return from Germany or wherever he moved to!

I also remember him starring him in Alan Bleasdales GBH too from early 1990s

RIP Peter Armitage

 

[Englishboy]

I enjoyed his performances as Bill Webster on the cobbles - a true Corrie bloke.

In fact, he was regarded by some as the nearest they ever got to replacing "tough guy" Len Fairclough in the 1980s.

Aside from Corrie, I too will also remember him in the Yellow Pages TV adverts.

Sad news but he lived a good age.

RIP

 

[James from London]

Bill Webster was a lovely Coronation Street character, one who fell more into the "real" rather than "larger than life" category. The comparison with Len Fairclough is a good one, in that he was just always effortlessly believable as a normal bloke. And normality has become a rarer, more cherished quality now that soaps, in general, have become more extreme. I've also got two personal, if quite minor, memories of Peter Armitage. I remember seeing him one night in 1999 in Jimmy McGovern's powerful film Dockers on Channel 4:

The very next day I was on the way to a job interview when I passed him in the street. I wanted to tell him how good he'd been the night before, but I was too chicken. The job interview turned out to be life-changing and so I've always sort of associated him with that.

Then years later, I ended up sharing a dressing room with him on Doctors. He was very chatty -- in fact, I couldn't get a word in. I did manage to say how much I'd liked him with Tyrone's Molly's Aunty Pam on Corrie and he said she'd been his favourite love interest on the show. I've just read that that Doctors episode was his last ever TV job so I feel even more fortunate for having run into him then.

"Armitage was an actor I always liked, because he possessed a credible authenticity in the many working class roles he played. He never struck you as someone who seemed to be acting, you genuinely believed he could be the person he was playing"

http://randomramblingsthoughtsandfiction.blogspot.com/2018/12/rip-peter-armitage.html

 

[emm1978]

Peter also appeared in the Street as painter and decorator Maurice Allan in 1977, 7 years before landing the more familiar role of Bill Webster.

 

[emm1978]

I wonder if they will acknowledge Bill's passing in the programme sometime next year.

 

[Ome]

wonder if they will acknowledge Bill's passing in the programme sometime next year.

I hope they do, but I'm still waiting for them to mention Hilda's passing.

We are getting an off-screen death this week with Archie Shuttleworth

 

[emm1978]

I hope they do, but I'm still waiting for them to mention Hilda's passing.

We are getting an off-screen death this week with Archie Shuttleworth

That's not the shock death from tonight is it?

I would have thought a shock death would be more out of the blue.

 

[emm1978]

Then again, we never heard of Ena Sharples, Minnie Caldwell, Percy Sugden, Phyllis Pearce passings either.

 

[Ome]

I would have thought a shock death would be more out of the blue.

Agreed and I'm not sure many of the more recent viewers will know who he was.

While I like the continuity, I'd much prefer them to recognise a more longstanding character's death.

Unless Archie's death is connected to a new story.

 

[emm1978]

Agreed and I'm not sure many of the more recent viewers will know who he was.

While I like the continuity, I'd much prefer them to recognise a more longstanding character's death.

Unless Archie's death is connected to a new story.

It seems a bit random to kill off Archie, seeing as he's been almost unheard of since the days of Richard Hillman.

Did Roy Hudd rule out a return to the Street?

 

[emm1978]

Peter as Wilf Butler, the first on screen tenant of Butler's Farm, alongside Jack Sugden, in Emmerdale in 2003.

 

[Ome]

It seems a bit random to kill off Archie, seeing as he's been almost unheard of since the days of Richard Hillman.

Apparently, there is a story behind it.

Spoiler

Audrey is to inherit a lot of money and Lewis swindles it from her

 

[LEEJ88]

Will the death of Bill ever be mentioned in Corrie considering his 2 children are in the soap??