Doris Speed

Doris Speed, MBE (3 February 1899 – 16 November 1994) was an English actress, best known for her role as the snooty Mayoress of fictional Weatherfield and Rovers Return Inn public house landlady Annie Walker on Coronation Street, a role she played from the series inception in 1960 until 1983.

Early life and career

As a child she toured with her musical and comedy artist parents George and Ada (née Worsley) Speed, moving to different schools almost every week. Her debut came to her at the age of three years, as she toddled onstage in a nightdress to sing a song about a golliwog. Two years later, she made her acting debut as the velvet-suited infant Prince of Rome in a Victorian melodrama, called The Royal Divorce.

She then appeared in repertory theatres and in numerous radio plays. She left acting to work for, amongst others, the Guinness brewery in Manchester, as a clerk. Returning to acting relatively late in life, she had a small role in the 1960 Stanley Baker vehicle Hell Is a City, set in her native Manchester.