Susan Johnston (née Wright), OBE (born 7 December 1943) is a BAFTA nominated English actress known for playing Sheila Grant in the soap opera Brookside (1982–90), Grace Foley in Waking the Dead (2000–11), Barbara Royle in the BBC comedy The Royle Family (1998–2012) and Gloria Price in Coronation Street (2012–14).

Biography

Johnston has campaigned on behalf of the Labour Party and has been a long-time gay rights campaigner. She is a supporter of Liverpool F.C. and Warrington RLFC.

In 1967, she married her first husband Neil Johnston and became pregnant at the age of 24. She suffered a miscarriage shortly after and the couple later divorced but she kept his surname as her professional name. She has one son Joel from her second marriage to David Pammenter. She has one grandchild.

Despite playing the role of heavy smoker Barbara Royle in The Royle Family, Johnston gave up smoking in 1978, but had to smoke low-tar cigarettes whilst playing the role; however, she is now completely anti-smoking.

Johnston was appointed OBE in the 2009 Queen's Birthday Honours.

In November 2010, she was awarded an honorary doctorate by University of Chester at Chester Cathedral.

In 1989 Johnston, assisted by Lesley Thomson, published her first book, a memoir titled Hold on to the Messy Times. In 2011, she published another memoir titled Things I Couldn't Tell My Mother.

In 1970, Johnston was sexually attacked at the age of 27 which inspired her storyline in Brookside as Sheila Grant, where she was raped.

In her autobiography, Things I Couldn't Tell My Mother, she was originally going to be called Margaret Jane Wright, after her mother and grandmother, but her father thought that it would be best to call her Susan. She takes the surname Johnston, from her first marriage to Neil Johnston, her first husband from her first marriage.