Anita Carey has died aged 75, her agent has confirmed.
The TV comedy actor turned to soap acting in 1978 when she was offered the role of Brenda Summers, a victim of domestic violence, on Coronation Street before returning to the cobbles 18 years later to play Joyce Smedley, the debt-laden mother of Judy Mallett (Gaynor Faye).
Yorkshire-born Carey was the first to film her exit from the ITV soap in 1997, amid a series of action-packed farewells following a headline-hitting “cast cull” by new producer Brian Park in a bid to boost viewing figures, it was reported at the time.
BBC One’s Doctors for two years.
She played Brenda Summers, a victim of domestic violence, in four episodes, before returning to the fictional Greater Manchester town of Weatherfield 18 years later to play the debt-laden Joyce Smedley from 1996 to 1997.
Joyce met an untimely end when she was run over as she ran to chase her dog, Scamper - her exit one of a series of action-packed farewells as part of a "cast cull" by then new producer Brian Pa
She played receptionist Vivien March in BBC daytime soap Doctors between 2007 and 2009.
British Soap Award for Best Dramatic Performance for a storyline in which her character was raped. The scenes also won Best Storyline for Doctors that same year in 2009.
The actor of stage and screen was born in Halifax, West Yorkshire and began performing in a drama club in Bradford as a child before training at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London between 1967 and 1970.
Carey first established herself in TV comedy playing Susan Chambers in Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads? in 1973.
That same year, she met her future husband, fellow actor Mark Wing-Davey, while she was playing Miss Heasman in the touring theatre show Butley.
Her stint was only brief but she then returned to the soap a decade later as Joyce Smedley, mum of Gaynor Faye's character Judy Mallett. Despite enjoying several storylines during her second stunt on the long-running soap, Anita's character departed Weatherfield during then new Coronation Street producer Brian Park's brutal casting cull.
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