Reg Varney | British comic actor, 92

Reg Varney, 92, a comic actor who played a cheery Cockney bus driver in British sitcom

On the Buses

, died yesterday at a nursing home in Budleigh Salterton, southwest England.

Mr. Varney began his career as a singer, piano player and comic in the rough-and-tumble world of pubs and music halls. During World War II, he continued to perform as part of a touring show entertaining the troops.

After the war he kept touring the music-hall circuit and played a variety of television roles before becoming a household name in Britain with On the Buses. Mr. Varney played Stan Butler, a happy-go-lucky driver tormented by the ire of his irascible boss, Inspector Blake.

With its cheeky humor and large doses of slapstick, the show was a huge hit, running for seven series between 1969 and 1973. It was exported around the world, spawned three feature films and a stage show, and remains enduringly popular.

Mr. Varney also secured his place in history by making the world's first withdrawal from an electronic automated teller machine, at a branch of Barclays Bank in Enfield, north London, in 1967.

- Associated Press