Who played Rosemary King in Emmerdale?

Rosemary was played by veteran Canadian actress Linda Thorson. She was already a well-known face thanks to her role as Tara King on The Avengers...
Carena Crawford
By Carena Crawford

Rosemary was played by veteran Canadian actress Linda Thorson. She was already a well-known face thanks to her role as Tara King on The Avengers in the 1960s.

Linda grew up in Canada and moved to London to train as an actress, so she’s known for her ability to switch between accents. Her Emmerdale alter ego Rosemary was not Canadian!

Linda Thorson well-known (Credit: Sebastien Nogier/EPA/Shutterstock)
Linda Thorson well-known (Credit: Sebastien Nogier/EPA/Shutterstock)

Linda’s glittering career away from Rosemary in Emmerdale

After The Avengers, Linda went on to appear in many television dramas in Britain, the US and Canada, including in Star Trek: The Next Generation. She was in films and appeared on Broadway.

Since leaving her role as Rosemary Linda has been just as busy. She has appeared in all sorts of television shows, at Regents Park Open Air Theatre, and in films.

She appeared as Gloria Estabrook in the television series of The Hardy Boys from 2020 until 2023.

She’s also recently starred in The Vows We Keep. This is a Hallmark movie about an event planner organising the perfect wedding for her sister. And she was in Lion Versus the Little People.

Schitt’s Creek

Sharp-eyed viewers might also have caught her playing a former soap star in hit comedy Schitt’s Creek. Linda plays Gloria Gregson, a one-time co-star of Moira Rose, who’s cashing in on her soap opera fame and fortune at fan conventions!

Gloria meets Moira at Soap Expo – a convention that Moira doesn’t really want to attend. She thinks it’s beneath her. But when she comes face to face with Gloria, who’s won 17 daytime Emmy awards, she realises it could be a good way to earn some money and remember the good old days.

Gloria tells Moira that she got exhausted always chasing parts and doing the fan conventions gives her freedom. Soon Moira is throwing herself into the day, thanks to Gloria!

We’d definitely be first in the queue if someone launched Soap Expo in the UK!