English stage and screen actor and occasional singer was well known for playing Dennis Tanner in the world's longest running soap opera, Coronation Street. His two periods spent on the "street", from its inception in 1960 until 1968, and then again between 2011-14 earned him and entry in the Guinness World Records as "the person with the longest gap between television appearances as the same character in the same show" - 43 years. This record was subsequently broken by fellow English actor William Russell in October 2022.