Eileen Mayers

Eileen Mayers died on 27 June 2026 at the age of 94. Her death was announced in a notice in Equity magazine and in the Births, Deaths and Marriages column of The Times in July 2026, which read in part: "Eileen (nee Mayers) died on 27th June 2026 aged 94. She took her final curtain call after an acting career which began aged 15 at the Oldham Repertory Theatre." The news was picked up by fans and the national press in October 2026. The cause and place of her death, and funeral arrangements, have not been made public.

Eileen Mayers was born in Oldham, Lancashire, England. Coronation Street fan archive Corriepedia gives her birth year as 1932, which fits the age of 94 given in her death notice; her exact date of birth has not been made public. Details of her parents and childhood have not been published.

She began acting as a teenager. Her death notice said her acting career began at the age of 15 at the Oldham Repertory Theatre, and she also took part in amateur theatre in nearby Ashton-under-Lyne.

No formal drama school training has been documented. Mayers learned her craft on the stage in Oldham, where repertory theatre in the 1940s and 1950s meant a new play every week or two. Programmes held by Oldham Local Studies and Archives list her in the Oldham Repertory Company's productions of Charlotte Hastings' Bonaventure (November 1950) and Philip Yordan's Anna Lucasta (May 1951), both directed by Guy Vaesen, alongside actors including Pauline Yates, Philip Locke, Keith Marsh and Bernard Cribbins.

Mayers made her first screen appearance in the television series I'm Not Bothered in 1956. Ahead of the launch of Coronation Street at Granada Television in December 1960, she played Linda Cheveski in one of the programme's dry runs.

She was then cast as Sheila, a machinist at Elliston's Raincoat Factory, who first appeared in Episode 8 on 4 January 1961. Sheila was the first character to be introduced after the original cast was established. With Doreen Lostock (Angela Crow) she began as one of the street's flirty factory girls; early scripts called them simply the barm cake girls. After an absence caused by the 1961 to 1962 Equity actors' strike, Sheila returned with the surname Birtles and in July 1962 moved into the Corner Shop flat.

In 1963 Sheila's doomed romance with Neil Crossley (Geoffrey Matthews) led to a storyline in which she was to attempt suicide. The scenes were recorded but were cut and rewritten after the plot leaked to the press, and Sheila left the Street in September 1963. Mayers returned for an extended run in 1966, when Sheila lodged with Elsie Tanner (Pat Phoenix), worked at the PVC factory and nearly married Jerry Booth (Graham Haberfield) before leaving with Neil. She made brief returns in November 1969 and in 1974, and her last appearance was Episode 1431, broadcast on 2 October 1974. In total she appeared in 161 episodes.

Her other television credits included Just Jimmy (1964), How's Your Father (1974), Screenplay (1981) and Keep It in the Family (1983).

Sheila Birtles is best remembered for a scene viewers did not see for nearly fifty years. In September 1963, Episode 288 was scripted for the rejected and depressed Sheila to take an overdose of tablets. The scene was recorded, but the plot was reported in the Daily Mirror days before broadcast. Mirror reporter Ken Irwin later said that after he leaked the story viewers complained, Granada had a rethink and the scene was rewritten within 24 hours. The broadcast version showed Sheila with the pills before the screen faded, and she was found by Dennis Tanner (Philip Lowrie).

Corriepedia notes that only Sheila's scenes were rewritten, so other characters in later episodes react to events that were no longer shown, and that Mayers preferred the original version. The recorded scene was finally broadcast on 20 July 2011 in the ITV documentary series The Corrie Years. In that programme Mayers recalled being met by a wall of journalists outside Granada and said she would rather the episode had been shown.

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Mayers kept her private life out of the public eye. Her death notice referred to her as "Eileen (nee Mayers)," indicating that she later used a married name, but the name of her husband and any details of children or other family have not been made public.

As Sheila Birtles, Mayers was part of the first generation of Coronation Street actors who helped turn a regional serial into the world's longest running television soap opera. Sheila was the first new character added after the original cast, and her 1963 storyline is still cited as an early example of the public and press shaping a soap plot. Commentators have compared it with later Coronation Street mental health storylines, such as Natasha Blakeman's in 2010. The belated broadcast of her lost scene in 2011 introduced her performance to a new audience.

Documented screen credits: I'm Not Bothered (1956); Coronation Street (1961 to 1963, 1966, 1969 and 1974, as Sheila Birtles, later Crossley, 161 episodes); Just Jimmy (1964); How's Your Father (1974); Screenplay (1981); Keep It in the Family (1983). She also appeared in the ITV documentary series The Corrie Years (2011), which aired her unseen 1963 scene.

No awards or formal honours have been documented.