Anita Carey, an actor known for her work on Coronation Street and Doctors, has died aged 75.
Her agent Katie Threlfall confirmed the news of Carey’s death on Monday (7 August). The actor had been living with breast cancer for 13 years.
Carey played two roles on the Manchester-based ITV soap throughout her career. She first played Brenda Summers, a victim of domestic violence, in 1978, before returning in 1996 to portray Joyce Smedley, mother of Judy Mallett (Gaynor Faye).
She was cut from the programme in 1997, however, amid a series of action-packed farewells following a “cast cull” by new producer Brian Park in an apparent bid to boost viewing figures.
Prior to her stint as Joyce on Coronation Street, Carey had performed in professional theatre and in the sitcom A Kind of Living (1990), which also starred Richard Griffiths and Tim Healy.
In 2007, Carey returned to the world of soaps in the role of Vivien March on BBC One’s Doctors, for which she scored a British Soap Award for best dramatic performance in 2009.
Former Doctors director Steve Hughes, who worked on the show between 2005 and 2010, paid tribute to the late actor on Twitter, writing: “Sad to hear that Anita Carey has passed. I really enjoyed working with her on Doctors back in the day.”
Meanwhile, Doctors writer 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.”
Anita Carey— (Granada TV)
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.
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A year later the couple appeared in a Crucible Theatre production of The Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde, before Carey starred in the West End production of Hobson’s Choice.
In the following years, the actor appeared in the sketch show One-Upmanship, based on Stephen Potter’s spoof self-help books, as well as the comedy-drama Beryl’s Lot, playing one of the on-screen children of actor Carmel McSharry.
She also starred in John Finch’s drama The Spoils Of War as Martha Blaze, before appearing as the devoted wife of a Labour MP, Joyce Gould, in ITV’s 1986 adaptation of Jeffrey Archer’s 1984 novel First Among Equals.
Carey took on countless TV roles before moving to New York after Wing-Davey, whom she married in 2002, had become a successful director in the US and chairman of the graduate acting programme at New York University in 2008.
Additional reporting by PA
