He was known for playing the iconic Terry Sullivan in Brookside, famed for his trademark curly perm and moustache.
But after leaving the soap in 1997 – actor Brian Regan entered into a life of crime and drug addition.
Terry debuted on British screens in 1982 and was portrayed by Regan for 15 years – making him the soap’s longest serving cast member.
The bright lights of stardom did not stay on for long for the 67-year-old, whose acting career ran dry after appearing on Brookside.
In 2012, he was handed a prison sentence of four years and 10 months for dealing drugs, as well as being untruthful to authorities about his part in the murder of doorman Bahman Faraji.
He admitted driving the gunman to and from the scene of the murder but denied that he knew that they were carrying a sawn-off shotgun or that they intended to 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁 Faraji. Regan was later convicted for perverting the course of justice.
Brookside character Terry became known as one of soap’s most unlucky characters, with his storylines in the soap centring around trauma, loss and heart-break.
After several failed relationships, Terry found love with Sue Harper (Annie Miles) and the pair later married and welcomed a son, Danny (Keiran Poole).
But Terry’s unlucky streak continued when it unravelled that the son was in fact not his own – before both Sue and Danny were 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁ed in a whodunit storyline.
The character was eventually written out of the show in the late 90s in a storyline which saw him move to Spain to recover from brain damage.
The former actor was found not guilty at Liverpool Crown Court in March 2012 over his role in the 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁ing of a nightclub doorman.
However, Regan was convicted of two counts of perverting the course of justice by lying to police in the early stages of the murder investigation and disposing of a pair of gloves he wore on the night.
Regan, who was on bail for supplying cocaine when the murder took place, was jailed on January 25 for a total of four years and 10 months.
Bahman Faraji, known by the nicknames Batman and Ben, was gunned down in a ‘ruthlessly planned and callously carried out execution’.
Prosecutors said it was the result of an argument between criminals.
Bahman had gone to the Belgrave public house in February 2011 following a series of phone calls he received from a pay-as-you-go mobile phone.
Actor Regan’s unwitting involvement began when he delivered a £30 bag of cocaine to drug user Edward Heffey.
That night, ‘(Heffey) asked for a lift to go and get money so he could pay for the drugs’, Regan said.
The pair then drove to Belgrave Road, around the corner from the pub, and Heffey left the vehicle as Regan snorted a line of cocaine.
The former soap star told the trial he would supply Heffey, a convicted armed robber, with drugs ‘about three or four times a day’.
Following the shooting, detectives launched a murder investigation and began by hunting for the getaway car, a red Ford Escort estate, which had been spotted by witnesses and on CCTV.
The next day, police stop-checked the vehicle in Liverpool city centre and at the wheel was Regan alongside girlfriend Christine Line.
Regan initially told police he had not been anywhere near the area where the murder took place.
But Christine’s witness statement contained significant differences and detectives became suspicious.
The couple were arrested that night and Regan’s efforts to distance himself from the shooting quickly unravelled.
Reportedly, a year later the former actor was fearing attacks in prison from those connected to the murderous gang he helped send to prison.
Eventually, the father-of-three was categorised as a vulnerable prisoner, being assigned to solitary confinement in HMP Liverpool for his own safety.
