Maria Charles (born "Maria Zena Schneider" on 22nd September 1929 in Islington, London; died 21st April 2023 in Wandsworth, London) appeared on Coronation Street intermittently between February and June 2005 as Lena Thistlewood, a close friend of Blanche Hunt.
The daughter of David and Celia Schneider, she graduated from RADA in 1946 and used her father's working name, "Mr Charles", as her stage surname.
Her other television credits included roles in Nicholas Nickleby, Crossroads, Seven Faces of Woman, Crown Court, The Prince and the Pauper, Secret Army, A Soft Touch, Disraeli, Thomas and Sarah, Agony and its sequel Agony Again (alongside Maureen Lipman), Never the Twain, Dream Stuffing, Boon, Holby City, Bad Girls and Skins.
Film roles included A Gunman Has Escaped, Folly to Be Wise, The Deadly Affair, Revenge of the Pink Panther, Cuba, Victor/Victoria, Under the Bed, The Fool, Savage Hearts, Ten Minutes Older: The Cello, Sixty Six, Hot Fuzz, In Your Dreams and Sisterhood.
She made her stage debut as the Dormouse in a 1946 production of Alice in Wonderland, other works included Pick-Up Girl, Women of Twilight, The Boy Friend, Three Months Gone, Annie, Measure for Measure, Steaming, Fiddler on the Roof, When We Are Married, Follies, The Good Person of Sichuan, The Wind in the Willows, Hay Fever, The Absence of War, The David Hare Trilogy, The Yiddish Trojan Woman, The Price of Meat, Tartuffe, Apache Tears and Bad Girls - the Musical.
