Fyffe was born into a showbusiness family in Stafford. His mother and aunt were a singing act, the Terry Sisters, and his father performed in variety. After leaving school Fyffe began his working life as a hairdresser, but caught the acting bug when he joined a local amateur dramatic society. In his early 20s he worked as a female impersonator under the name of Perri St Clair.
He devised a drag act, and was successfully touring it around the clubs when the baritone who partnered him failed to show up one night in Pimlico, and Logan was drafted in to help out as a pianist. They hit it off right away, and together invented the two peculiar old ladies, soon discovering that the act, originally written for a gay audience, had a more general appeal.
An Evening With Hinge And Bracket was the hit of the 1974 Edinburgh festival, and they transferred to London's Royal Court Theatre, then to the Mayfair for a three-month season. Their next show, Sixty Glorious Years, was equally successful.
Fyffe credited his father with a great deal of support in the creation of Dame Hilda. "He talked to me for hours about the 1930s in terrific detail," he said. "That's why Hilda is so authentic. She is not into tights or rinses. She wears lisle stockings on suspenders, and brushes a bit of henna through the grey, and always calls her albums gramophone records."
Hinge and Bracket were radio naturals, and for 10 years they broadcast regularly on Radio 4 with The Enchanting World Of Dr Evadne Hinge And Dame Hilda Bracket and other shows. In the early 1980s, they had their own television series, Dear Ladies.
Although best known as one part of the duo, Fyffe also made several solo appearances, once as Dame Hilda playing the venomous Katisha in The Mikado, and on another as Ruth in The Pirates Of Penzance. He had been due to perform in the pantomime Sleeping Beauty last Christmas, but had to pull out when he was diagnosed with cancer.
Patrick Fyffe died of cancer aged 60. He was unmarried and is survived by his sister, the actor Jane Fyffe.
