Katherine Patricia Routledge, CBE (born 17 February 1929), is an English actress and singer. She is best known for her role as Hyacinth Bucket in the British television series Keeping Up Appearances, which ran from 1990 to 1995.

Routledge made her professional stage debut at the Liverpool Playhouse in 1952 and her Broadway debut in How's the World Treating You in 1966. In 1968, she won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her role in Darling of the Day. Other theatre credits include Candide, for which she won the 1988 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical.

On television, she came to prominence during the 1980s in monologues written by Victoria Wood and Alan Bennett, appearing as Kitty in Victoria Wood As Seen On TV (1985–86) and in Bennett's A Woman of No Importance (1982) and Talking Heads (1988). For the last, she was nominated for the British Academy Television Award for Best Actress. For her role as Hyacinth in Keeping Up Appearances she received two further BAFTA nominations. She also starred as Hetty Wainthropp in the British television series Hetty Wainthropp Investigates (1995–99).

Her film roles include To Sir, with Love with Sidney Poitier (1967) and Don't Raise the Bridge, Lower the River with Jerry Lewis (1968).

Biography

Routledge has never married, has no children, and as of June 2008 resides in Chichester, West Sussex and regularly worships at Chichester Cathedral.

She was appointed OBE in 1993 and CBE in 2004. As of July 2012, she was a patron of the Beatrix Potter Society.

In 2008, Routledge received a Doctor of Letters degree from Lancaster University for her contribution to drama and theatre.