Anita Carey: Doctors and Coronation Street star who performed Joyce Smedley dies at 75
British actress Anita Carey, greatest recognized for her cleaning soap roles in Coronation Street and Doctors, has died aged 75, her agent has confirmed.
Carey was a TV comedy actress who established herself in Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads?, earlier than turning to cleaning soap in 1978 when she was supplied a task in Coronation Street.
She performed Brenda Summers, a sufferer of home violence, in 4 episodes, earlier than returning to the fictional Greater Manchester city of Weatherfield 18 years later to play the debt-laden Joyce Smedley from 1996 to 1997.
Joyce met an premature finish when she was run over as she ran to chase her canine, Scamper – her exit one in all a collection of action-packed farewells as a part of a “cast cull” by then new producer Brian Park.
In 1990, Carey returned to sitcom in A Kind Of Living, earlier than returning to cleaning soap in 2007 to play Vivien March in BBC One’s Doctors for 2 years. In their tribute, the official Doctors X account (previously Twitter) described her as a “gifted actress who breathed life into the beloved character”.
Carey’s agent Katie Threlfall confirmed her loss of life, however no additional particulars got. The actress had been identified with breast most cancers in 2010, based on reviews.
Former Doctors director Steve Hughes, who labored on the collection between 2005 and 2010, was amongst these paying tribute to Carey, writing on Twitter: “Sad to hear that Anita Carey has passed. I really enjoyed working with her on Doctors back in the day.”
Meanwhile, Doctors author Roland Moore tweeted: “Saddened to hear about Anita Carey. She was a joy to write for as Vivien on Doctors and it was great to meet her once at the soap awards.”
Carey’s breakthrough position was that of Susan Chambers in Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads? in 1973, the identical 12 months she met her future husband and fellow actor Mark Wing-Davey whereas she was enjoying Miss Heasman within the touring theatre present Butley.
The following 12 months, the couple appeared in a manufacturing of The Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde on the Crucible Theatre, earlier than Carey starred within the West End manufacturing of Hobson’s Choice.
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Other programmes included sketch present One-Upmanship, primarily based on Stephen Potter’s spoof self-help books, in addition to the comedy-drama Beryl’s Lot enjoying one of many on-screen youngsters of actress Carmel McSharry.
She additionally starred in John Finch’s drama The Spoils Of War, enjoying Martha Blaze, earlier than showing as Joyce Gould, the devoted spouse of a Labour MP, in ITV’s 1986 adaptation of Jeffrey Archer’s novel First Among Equals.
Carey later moved to New York after Wing-Davey, whom she married in 2002, grew to become chairman of the graduate performing programme at New York University in 2008.