Neville Alfred Morris Buswell (20 January 1943 – 25 December 2019) was a British actor, best known for his role as Ray Langton in the ITV

Soap opera A soap opera (also called a daytime drama or soap) is a genre of a long-running radio or television Serial (radio and television), serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term ''soap opera'' originat ...

Coronation Street ''Coronation Street'' (colloquially referred to as ''Corrie'') is a British television soap opera created by ITV Granada, Granada Television and shown on ITV (TV network), ITV since 9 December 1960. The programme centres on a cobbled, terraced ...

''.

Early years

Buswell attended Belmont Abbey School near

Hereford Hereford ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of the ceremonial county of Herefordshire, England. It is on the banks of the River Wye and lies east of the border with Wales, north-west of Gloucester and south-west of Worcester. With ...

from 1955 to 1960, and represented the school at rowing and rugby – he was a fast and aggressive open side wing forward – and took part in the thriving amateur dramatics society with leading roles in

Gilbert and Sullivan Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900) and to the works they jointly created. The two men collaborated on fourteen com ...

operettas and straight plays such as Patrick Hamilton's ''

Rope A rope is a group of yarns, Plying, plies, fibres, or strands that are plying, twisted or braided together into a larger and stronger form. Ropes have high tensile strength and can be used for dragging and lifting. Rope is thicker and stronger ...

''. Buswell attended RADA and graduated in 1964.

Career

He first appeared on ''

'' in 1966, leaving that same year. He returned in 1968 and remained in the cast for ten years until he chose not to renew his contract rather abruptly in late 1978. He wanted to move to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

to be with his wife and her relatives. In the plot line, Ray was written out just as abruptly, leaving his wife Deirdre and young daughter to live in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

. For the next 13 years, Buswell worked as a croupier, and later as a supervisor/manager at a Las Vegas casino and from 1991 as a mortgage broker. Reality and fiction blended together in 1997, when he returned to the role of Ray Langton, who was now a Vegas croupier, for a one-off special ''Viva Las Vegas. '' After 26 years away, Buswell was written back into ''Coronation Street'' in episodes that aired in March 2005, for a six-week run. His character Ray Langton died of

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

in an episode that aired in the UK on 10 April 2005. Ray died at Deirdre and Ken's wedding reception in the Rovers Return. Buswell retired in February 2008 at the age of 65 and continued to live in Las Vegas.

References

External links

* 1943 births 2019 deaths 20th-century English male actors 21st-century English male actors British expatriate male actors in the United States English male soap opera actors Actors from the Borough of Cheshire East Male actors from Cheshire People from Prestbury, Cheshire {{UK-tv-actor-1940s-stub