Elizabeth Dawn

Sylvia Butterfield MBE, known professionally as Elizabeth Dawn or Liz Dawn, is an English actress, best known for her role as Vera Duckworth in the long-running British soap opera, Coronation Street. First starting on the serial in 1974, she had more of a recurring role as a factory worker until her husband, Jack, (played by William Tarmey) first appeared in 1979 and later for a more concrete role in 1983. For her role as Vera, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2008 British Soap Awards. She was made an MBE in the 2000 Queens Birthday Honours. Born in Leeds, West Yorkshire, Dawn started her show business career as a nightclub singer. By the late 1960s Dawn had ventured into acting, often taking small parts in television programmes as well as advertisements. During the 1970s, she appeared in a variety of programmes including All Creatures Great and Small and Colin Welland's play Leeds United, as well as an early appearance in Crown Court as a non speaking back ground artist. In January 1990, Dawn was featured on This is Your Life. Dawn published her autobiography Vera Duckworth - My Story in 1993. In 2000, Dawn was chosen as the Lady Mayoress of Leeds and was awarded an MBE in October of that year for her services to charity, having helped raise hundreds of thousands of pounds for hospitals in the Manchester and Leeds areas. On 12 October 2010, Dawn appeared in a wheelchair at the naming ceremony of the new Cunard cruise ship, MS Queen Elizabeth in Southampton. She appeared at the 2011 British Soap Awards giving the Lifetime Achievement Award to former co-star, Bill Tarmey. On 12 June 2014, Dawn was the subject of one of five celebrity specials of The Jeremy Kyle Show. She appeared on the show, talking about her career and health. On 11 November 2015, it was announced that Dawn was to briefly come out of retirement and make a guest appearance in Emmerdale over Christmas 2015 as Mrs Winterbottom.