BORN ON THIS DAY

JEROME ROBBINS ( 1918- 98). The choreographer and director worked on The King And I and Fiddler On The Roof, and won an Oscar for West Side Story. Often hailed as the greatest U.S. choreographer of the 20th century, Robbins warned his dancers: ‘I know I am difficult. I know I am going to hurt your feelings. But that’s just the way I am.’ JEAN ALEXANDER (19262016). The Liverpool-born actress, pictured, is best remembered for wearing curlers and a headscarf as Hilda Ogden in Coronation Street for 23 years until Christmas Day in 1987. Hundreds of fans sent condolence cards when her onscreen husband Stan was killed off in the show in 1984 ( actor Bernard Youens had died in hospital). She never married and said she’d never had sex.