When he was cast as Frank Butcher in the BBC soap opera EastEnders, Mike Reid was an occasional actor who was much better known as a stand-up comic. But he quickly grew into the part and created one of the show’s most durable characters, playing him on and off for more than 12 years.

An imposing 6ft 2in, with a hushed, gravelly voice, Reid had a magnetic screen presence and was not afraid to display emotion, to the point of shedding tears, when the script demanded. It was a formidable piece of acting which, because it took place within a popular form, was rarely given its due.

After guest appearances in September 1987, Reid became a regular the following year. As landlord of the Queen Vic pub, Frank Butcher had the daunting task of succeeding an EastEnders legend, Leslie Grantham’s “Dirty Den”. Later becoming a secondhand car dealer, Frank went through two marriages, had prickly relationships with his senile mother and wayward children and was often at the centre of the show’s more harrowing plots.

In 1994, to give Reid a break from the show’s gruelling schedule, Frank mysteriously disappeared from Albert Square after his car lot was set on fire. But the character was too strong to lose and Frank’s comeback became inevitable. It was deliberately scheduled for a Christmas edition and drew 22 million viewers.

After Reid had taken another break, Frank started a romance, which led to marriage, with the landlady Peggy (Barbara Windsor) and he shared the subsequent trauma of her suspected breast cancer. In 1998, when Tiffany Mitchell died under the wheels of Frank’s car, Reid managed the not inconsiderable feat of winning sympathy for the driver.

A lorry driver’s son, Reid was born in 1940 in Tottenham, North London, and left school at 15 to work as a coal-man. He went on to do a variety of jobs from merchant seaman to bricklayer’s labourer, but fell into bad company and in his 1999 autobiography he described an early life of crime, from petty theft to lorry hijacks, and a spell in Brixton Prison.

Meanwhile, he had made a modest start as an entertainer, singing and doing comedy routines in pubs. He became an extra and did stunt work in films and landed bit parts in popular TV series of the 1960s, such as The Saint, The Baron and The Avengers. In 1971, while on holiday at Butlin’s in Minehead, he entered a talent competition. He won further heats and got through to the final at the London Palladium, where he came second. But the crucial break came the following year on The Comedians, a Granada series devoted to emerging stand-up talent, much of it appearing on TV for the first time.

The only Londoner among mainly Northern entertainers, Reid was one of a number of comics, including Bernard Manning, Frank Carson and Charlie Williams, who were propelled to sudden stardom. As he wrote later: “Once the show hit the air the phone never stopped ringing.”

As a result of The Comedians he was able to command huge fees on the Northern club circuit and was given his own shows on BBC and ITV, in which his speciality was long, involved jokes delivered in a strong cockney accent. He appeared on the Royal Variety Show, made a record, The Ugly Duckling, which reached the Top Ten and presented the children’s programme Runaround.

In 1976 he had his first acting part, as Arthur Mullard’s sponging brother in the ITV sitcom Yus My Dear. Although the show found little favour with the critics or the public, it helped Reid to broaden his range and he made a further foray into acting in the comedy-drama Big Deal.

His move to EastEnders, the first established name to join the show, came after an unhappy period in which he lost nearly £250,000 on a failed Spanish nightclub, and his son, Mark, was convicted of manslaughter. In 1990 Mark, a psychopathic schizophrenic, committed suicide by setting fire to himself.

Despite the success and high profile it brought him, Reid had mixed feelings about EastEnders. He complained that the depressing storylines affected his own life and that the demands of a thrice-weekly show left him little opportunity to pursue other projects.

He made his final regular appearance in the soap in 2000 and, after one or two occasional returns, made it clear that he had no interest in possible future reappearances. He continued to find outlets for his comedy act, on stage, in cabaret and in a series of adult-rated videos. He also starred in the gangster movie Snatch, directed by Guy Ritchie.

He retired to Spain where he was a keen golfer but earlier this year returned to the UK to guest star in two episodes of the ITV police drama series The Bill, in which he played corrupt businessman Brian Stevens.

Reid had a daughter by his first marriage, which was dissolved, and two sons by his second.

Mike Reid, comedian and actor, was born on January 19, 1940. He died of a heart attack on July 29, 2007, aged 67