Lynda Bellingham, born May 31, 1948 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, was an English actress who appeared in The Bill in 2004 as arch-villainess Irene Radford. She was best known for her appearances as the mother of the Oxo Family in the TV adverts between 1983 and 1999. She also appeared as a panelist on ITV daytime show Loose Women, alongside Lisa Maxwell. In July 2013 she was diagnosed with colon cancer, and in September 2014 she said she would stop chemotherapy and have one last Christmas before her death, however, she died in the arms of her husband Michael Pattermore in a London hospital on October 19, 2014, at the age of 66.