Neville Buswell has died aged 77.
The actor was best known for portraying Ray Langton on the ITV soap – the first husband of Deirdre Barlow, played by the late Anne Kirkbride, and the biological father of Tracy Barlow (Kate Ford) – on and off from 1966 to 2005.
After leaving Weatherfield in 1966, Neville’s biggest stint on the cobbles was from 1968 to 1978, and he later returned to the show in 2005 when Ray discovered he had stomach cancer.
He wanted to make amends with Tracy, and he managed to get to know her and his granddaughter Amy Barlow before passing away at Deirdre and Ken Barlow’s (Bill Roache) wedding reception.
And in 2017, Ray was mentioned on an episode when Tracy told her brother Peter Barlow (Chris Gascoyne) about him, admitting Ken was more of a father figure to her.
After departing ‘Corrie’ in the 70s, Neville moved to the US and worked as a croupier and a manager at a Las Vegas casino.
As a result of his Vegas connections, Neville appeared in ‘Coronation Street’ spin-off ‘Viva Las Vegas!’.
In the 1997 special, his character Ray was working in a bar and came across Vera Duckworth (Liz Dawn) while she was holidaying in Sin City.
Vera told him what had been happening in Weatherfield since his departure, but he thought she was joking, so he came up with a bizarre story about hiding from his evil twin.
However, when Ray returned to the cobbles in 2005 this wasn’t mentioned, and he said he had been living in Holland.
Neville Buswell dies aged 77
