The best guest actors on season 14 of "Doctor Who"
In order from greatest to least.
List activity
813 views
• 1 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
32 people
- Judith Paris was born on 15 May 1944 in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Doctor Who (1963), The Phantom of the Opera (2004) and The Rainbow (1989).Eldrad
(The Hand of Fear) - Norman Jones was born on 16 June 1932 in Donnington, Telford, Shropshire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for You Only Live Twice (1967), The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) and Curtain of Fear (1964). He died on 23 April 2013 in Newport, Shropshire, England, UK.Hieronymous
(The Masque of Mandragora) - After his parents divorced, he became a wayward, rebellious teenager. Deciding he should instill himself with some discipline, he joined a naval training ship for two years. His first taste of acting came during ten years subsequent service in the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy.Calib
(The Face of Evil) - He was educated at Rugby where he became interested in acting. He spent a year in Canada studying agriculture then returned to England and taught at a prep school in Surrey. In 1950 he joined the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art and on completing the course joined and toured with Dundee Repertory Theatre.Chancellor Goth
(The Deadly Assassin) - Trevor W Baxter (born 18 November 1932) was a British actor and playwright. He was educated at Dulwich College and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.
His credits include: Adam Adamant Lives!, Z Cars (1962), Maelstrom, Thriller, Spy Trap, The New Avengers, Jack the Ripper, The Barchester Chronicles and Doctors. He is known for his appearance in the Doctor Who serial The Talons of Weng-Chiang (1977) as Professor George Litefoot. He reprised his role of Professor Litefoot in an episode of audio series, Doctor Who: The Companion Chronicles: The Mahogany Murderers. The following year he was Professor Litefoot again for a continuing series of Jago & Litefoot.
Trevor Baxter has appeared on stage with the RSC and in the West End, toured Shakespeare in South America with Sir Ralph Richardson, and also appeared in the USA in David Mamet's A Life in the Theatre at Shakespeare Santa Cruz in 1986. He has appeared in many films including Nutcracker (1983), Parting Shots (1999), Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004) and Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj (2006).
He has also written a number of plays including Lies, The Undertaking, and Office Games. His play Ripping Them Off was given its first performance at the Warehouse Theatre Croydon on 5 October 1990, directed by Ted Craig and designed by Michael Pavelka. The cast consisted of: Ian Targett (Graham), Angus Mackay (Revd. Parkinson), Caroline Blakiston (Grace), Annette Badland (Hilda), Frank Ellis (Julian), Ewart James Walters (Max), Anthony Woodruff (Pauken), Ian Burford (Inspector Sands), Richard Clifford (Jeff) and C.P. Grogan (Susanna).
In 2003 he adapted Oscar Wilde's novella The Picture of Dorian Gray for the stage, followed in March 2005 by a touring version of Wilde's short story, Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, revived in January 2010 at the Theatre Royal Windsor, starring Lee Mead in the title role.
In 2013 Baxter continued to record Doctor Who audiobooks for Big Finish Productions as Professor Litefoot, having completed thirteen series.
He died in July 2017.Professor Litefoot
(The Talons of Weng-Chiang) - Christopher Benjamin was born on 27 December 1934 in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, England, UK. He is an actor, known for The Plague Dogs (1982), The Legend of Tarzan (2016) and Treasure Island (1999). He has been married to Anna Fox since 1960. They have three children.Henry Gordon Jago
(The Talons of Weng-Chiang) - Pamela Salem was born on 22 January 1944 in Bombay, State of Bombay, India. She was an actress, known for Never Say Never Again (1983), The Great Train Robbery (1978) and Gods and Monsters (1998). She was married to Michael O'Hagan. She died on 21 February 2024 in Surfside, Florida, USA.Toos
(The Robots of Death) - Michael Spice was born on 20 May 1931 in Croydon, Surrey, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Hamlet (1961), Doctor Who (1963) and Six Days of Justice (1972). He was married to Polly Murch. He died on 2 November 1983 in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England, UK.Weng-Chiang/Magnus Greel
(The Talons of Weng-Chiang) - Stephen Thorne was born on 2 March 1935 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Death of an Expert Witness (1983), Doctor Who (1963) and Runaway (1984). He was married to Barbara Sykes. He died on 26 May 2019 in the UK.Kastrian Eldrad
(The Hand of Fear) - Actor
- Soundtrack
The lean, rather emaciated-looking John Bennett studied acting at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London. After years in repertory theatre, he made his feature debut in 1960, and, thereafter, appeared regularly on British screens. He was prone to perform in diverse ethnic guises, often adopting heavy make-up and using his penchant for accents and dialects. One of his first notable appearances was as the evil Injun Joe in the BBC children's series The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1960). He came to be much in demand for crime-time TV series, like The Avengers (1961), The Saint (1962) and Z Cars (1962), effortlessly switching from menacing roles to law enforcement.
In feature films, he was generally confined to background support, except for his titular lead in the little-seen drama The Barber of Stamford Hill (1963). He also provided an effective thread connecting the various vignettes of The House That Dripped Blood (1971), as the sceptical investigating Chief Inspector. Bennett also appeared as Joseph Goebbels in Hitler: The Last Ten Days (1973), French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau in the excellent miniseries Fall of Eagles (1974), and as Greek historian and philosopher Xenophon in I, Claudius (1976). He twice guested in Doctor Who (1963), giving one of his most indelible performances as the Fu Manchu look-alike, Li H'sen Chang, an evil Chinese magician and hypnotist roaming Victorian-era London in search of victims to aid in his master's reincarnation, in "The Talons of Weng-Chiang". Bennett managed to avoid the pitfalls of caricature and gave a thoroughly convincing performance, managing to portray the arch villain with dignity and, ultimately, even a degree of sympathy.
In addition to his work on screen, Bennett remained an exceedingly busy stage performer, at once in classical roles at the National Theatre and with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and in West End revivals of noted musicals like "The King and I" (1979) and "The Sound of Music" (1981).Li H'sen Chang
(The Talons of Weng-Chiang)- George Pravda was born on 19 June 1916 in Prague, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary [now Prague, Czech Republic]. He was an actor, known for Thunderball (1965), Firefox (1982) and The Man in the Mirror (1966). He was married to Hana Maria Pravda. He died on 30 April 1985 in London, England, UK.Castellan Spandrell
(The Deadly Assassin) - Erik Chitty was born on 8 July 1907 in Dover, Kent, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Doctor Zhivago (1965), Please Sir! (1971) and A Bridge Too Far (1977). He was married to Hester Bevan (actress). He died on 22 July 1977 in London, England, UK.Co-Ordinator Engin
(The Deadly Assassin) - Peter Pratt was born on 21 March 1923 in Eastbourne, East Sussex, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Doctor Who (1963), Theatre 625 (1964) and Thursday Theatre (1964). He died on 11 January 1995 in London, England, UK.The Master
(The Deadly Assassin) - David Bailie was born in 1937 in South Africa, going to boarding school in Swaziland and immigrating to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) with his family in 1952. His first acting experience soon after school in 1955, was an amateur production of 'Doctor in the House' which persuaded him he wanted to be an actor. After leaving school he worked in a bank and then for Central African Airlines. In 1958, he made his first trip from Rhodesia to England to get a lie of the land.
In 1960 he moved to England and landed his first small role in the film Flame in the Streets (1960) and then played on of the bells boys in Arthur Koppits "Oh Dad Poor Dad Mama's hung you in the Closet and I'm Feeling so Sad" (1961) with Stella Adler playing Madame Rosepettle. He then bluffed his way into Weekly Repertory in Barrow-in-Furness as Juvenile lead - terrified the while that he would be exposed as totally inexperienced.
Recognising the need for training he auditioned three times for a bursary to RADA - each time only being accepted as a fee paying student which he couldn't afford - he finally sent for the last of his standby money (£200) he had left in Rhodesia and paid for the first term (1963) - at the end of term he approached John Fernald who relented and he was given free tuition from the next two years.
Terry Hands was also a student at the same time but had left a little earlier than Bailie and formed the Everyman Theatre with Peter James In Liverpool - On leaving RADA Bailie was invited to join the Everyman (1964). Amongst other roles he played Tolen in The Knack, Becket in Murder in the Cathedral, Dion in The Great God Brown, MacDuff in Macbeth and Lucky in Waiting for Godot. After a year there, he came back to London and auditioned for and was accepted by Laurence Olivier joining the National Theatre. He played minor roles and also understudied Sir Laurence Olivier in Love for Love.
Terry Hands, who had by now joined the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) at Stratford-upon-Avon (and later became its artistic director), invited Bailie to join them as an associate artist (1965). There he portrayed i.a. Florizel opposite Dame Judi Dench's Perdita in 'A Winter's Tale' along with Valentine in Two Gentlemen of Verona, Kozanka in The Plebeians Rehearse the Uprising and Leslie in The Madness of Lady Bright.
During the early 1970s he worked with Stomu Yamashta at his Red Buddha Theatre. He was cast as the lead in a show called 'Raindog', requiring him to do everything from singing (writing his own songs) and dancing, to performing Martial Arts and gymnastics - which he frankly admits was a demand too far and when Yamashta offered him a paltry sum for performing the opportunity was there to depart which he did.
He was now cast by director Michael E. Briant for the part of the villain Dask in The Robots of Death: Part One (1977), which has remained a particularly popular serial of the long-running cult TV series of the 1960/70/80s. He also played in a number of other series prominent at the time.
For personal reasons Bailie now had a long recess in his acting career. Between 1980 and 1989 he ran a furniture-making business. In 1990 he closed that down and returned to acting, having in fact to virtually restart his career. It didn't help that at exactly this point he had to have a cancer removed from his lip which required learning to speak again.
Whilst awaiting work in the acting field he busied himself with Cad design, self-training and writing computer programs and also doing Health and Safety work in the building industry - in fact busking for a living.
In the mid 1990s after playing alongside Brian Glover in Canterbury Tales he made a comeback in the movie business as 'Skewer' in Cutthroat Island (1995), then played an English Judge in The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999), and also the engineer in Gladiator (2000).
Bailie's best known work in film is the role of Cotton, a speechless pirate who has his tongue cut out, so he miraculously trained his parrot, also named Cotton, to read his mind and speak on his behalf. Bailie first appears as Cotton in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) as one of the pirates Jack Sparrow chooses in Tortuga. He is one of the Black Pearl crew-members to survive the Kracken attack in the sequel Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006). Bailie is also plays Cotton in the third installment of 'Pirates' Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End (2007).
David Bailie also emerged as a radio actor. He played the mad scientist Taren Capel, a re-incarnation of his earlier work from the 60s cult series 'Doctor Who'. He was involved in two audio DVDs playing the memorable character of the 'Celestial Toymaker' from Dr Who. He also worked as a Professional Photographer! Portraiture and Landscapes being his speciality. He travels nowhere unless his destination offers good Photo opportunities.
In addition he developed his skills as a video maker using his Canon 5d Mk2 to shoot a number of short HD videos.
David had two children from his first marriage. He lived in London England and married Egidija in 2002
He listed amongst his skills Acting, Furniture Making, Furniture & Interior Design, CAD Design, Computer Programming, Photography, Health and Safety Executive, Video Making, Property Developing, Restauranteur - virtually all of which afforded him a living at one or the same time or another - but principally acting is where he still felt the ambition.Dask
(The Robots of Death) - Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
English stage, screen and voice actor. Worked at the Oldham Coliseum before joining the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. Subsequently acted in repertory theatre and at the West End. Later started to work for the BBC. From 1967 to 1988, voiced many a Dalek (as well as Cybermen) in "Doctor Who".King Rokon
(The Hand of Fear)- Russell Hunter was born on 18 February 1925 in Glasgow, Strathclyde, Scotland, UK. He was an actor, known for Callan (1974), Callan (1967) and The Gaffer (1981). He was married to Una McLean, Caroline Blakiston and Marjorie Thomson. He died on 26 February 2004 in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.Uvanov
(The Robots of Death) - Angus Newton Mackay (15 July 1926 - 8 June 2013) was an actor.
Despite his Scottish name Angus Mackay was a most English performer. Usually bespectacled and always fastidious, he was forever popping up on television playing repressed and officious factotums, effete Etonians or kindly clergymen. Some of those little roles linger long in the memory, such as the amorous waterbed salesman in Steptoe and Son (1974). But Mackay's passion was the stage, where, in a 50-year career, he brought a piquant precision to everything from Stoppard to Shaw.
Born in 1926, the son of a Methodist minister, Mackay was raised in Bournemouth, and after National Service in Belfast read English at Cambridge. He was an indefatigable student actor: an adroit Heartfree in Vanburgh's The Provok'd Wife in 1949, and a "neat and polished" Antipholous in a Comedy of Errors staged as Victorian farce. It transferred to the Watergate Theatre in London in 1950, by which time he had been Warwick to Julian Slade's Dauphin in St Joan, a meeting that was to change his life.
Slade wrote an undergraduate musical for May Week, Lady May. Mackay proved both funny and melodious in the cast, and when Slade went on to study at Bristol Old Vic, he formed a writing partnership with actress Dorothy Reynolds as librettist. Mackay would go on to act in many of the pair's hits, (most notably as a comedy curate in the record-breaking Salad Days), and marry Dorothy.
Encouraged by a notice from Kenneth Tynan urging him to turn professional, Mackay left Cambridge with a parting shot of Jack in The Importance of Being Earnest. His career kicked off at the Bristol Hippodrome in JB Priestley's Treasure on Pelican (1951). Mackay was in good company from the off; Olivier cast him as a footman in The Sleeping Prince at the Phoenix in 1953 alongside Vivien Leigh. At Birmingham Rep he appeared in Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra with Albert Finney, and in 1958 he joined the Sheffield Playhouse for a season which began with Peter Ustinov's The Banbury Nose.
He and Dorothy had long associations with three theatres: the Bristol Old Vic, the Salisbury Arts and the Everyman Cheltenham. All three were under threat at various points and saved by campaigns the couple were active in. He played in Meet Me by Moonlight opposite his wife in Salisbury and at Cheltenham, where he was also a diffident Stephen Bent in Slade and Reynolds' Wildest Dreams (1960), and a dashing Mr Knightley to Helen Dorward's Emma in 1962. He and his wife loved Austen, and at the Salon in Ranger's House, Blackheath in summer 1967 the pair performed readings to mark the 150th anniversary of her death. England's Jane was then performed by them at the Purcell Rooms and around the country, beginning at Cheltenham and Salisbury, where they were always welcome.
It was hardly surprising that he would be kept busy for over 30 years with small roles for television: he was acute and meticulous, an actor of quietness and slightness. His most celebrated television performance was in Julian Bond's play Breakdown (1976), as the psychiatrist administering to a crumbling Jack Hedley.
Appearing in Wings of Song by CP Taylor for Granada three years later Mackay met the young actor Simon Callow. The two became great friends, and Mackay later scripted and performed in Nicolson Fights Croydon at the Offstage Downstairs at Chalk Farm in 1986, which Callow devised and directed, an intimate study of the patrician politician Harold Nicolson marooned in a drab hotel room during an election campaign as the England of 1949 is vividly evoked. Mackay adored the piece and won superb reviews. In James Mundy's Sinners and Saints at the Croydon Warehouse in 1986, by turns a grim and uplifting story of angels in dirty places, Mackay was described as "astonishing, Noel Coward crossed with Jean Genet".
In 1977 Dorothy died from motor neurone disease. The house at Manchuria Road in Clapham felt very empty, and so Mackay pinned up a notice at Rada offering lodgings to impoverished drama students. A young Kenneth Branagh saw the notice, and in his book Beginnings fondly remembers first entering the house which seemed to contain every edition of Plays and Players ever printed. Mackay was deeply versed in theatrical history, wrote copious diaries and kept thousands of press clippings. His archive was a paradise for a rising actor like Branagh and his devotion to theatre was an inspiration to all who came into contact with him. Simon Callow says in tribute to his friend: "I was enchanted to meet someone with such knowledge, and with such high standards which you wanted to live up to."
He left the business in 1993, regretfully feeling that what he had to offer was no longer required. He was quite wrong. The need for performers with immaculate manners, mellifluous voices, and, to use that very apt word again, "polish", lives on. And thanks to his archive, which there are plans to make accessible, and the wonders of videotape, so too does he.
He died in 2013 aged 86.Cardinal Borusa
(The Deadly Assassin) - Actor
- Soundtrack
British stage and screen actor whose characters typically displayed indecision or timidity, usually mild-mannered or naive types who tended to come to a sticky end somewhere along the line. Collings began acting professionally with the Liverpool Repertory Theatre in the early 60s. Though having never attended drama school, he nonetheless segued successfully into television work following the advice of a fellow actor. On screen from 1965, he initially appeared in several prominent cop shows (Z Cars (1962), Softly Softly (1966)) but became ultimately best known for his work in science fiction, often having undergone extensive alien make-up. He was notable as an alien kidnap victim turned into a human bomb in The Psychobombs (1970) and as a 'Vogan' renegade scientist out to destroy (and, of course, expiring in the process) the perennial robotic nemesis in Revenge of the Cybermen. Having enjoyed the experience, he popped up twice more in Doctor Who (1963) instalments: as the driver of a mining vehicle on an extraterrestrial world who suffers from the unfortunate malady 'robophobia' while confronting The Robots of Death and as the titular antagonist (on this occasion playing an immortal, but mutated and disfigured alien scientist) in Mawdryn Undead.
Collings also specialised in period drama, particularly effective as the often mistreated and underpaid clerk Bob Cratchit in Scrooge (1970), the spy John Barsad (aka Solomon Pross) in A Tale of Two Cities (1980), the Russian liberal politician Pavel Nikolayevich Milyukov in Fall of Eagles (1974) and British Tory Prime Minister William Pitt in the miniseries Prince Regent (1979). On stage, he portrayed Lord Stanley in a National Theatre production of Richard III and the King of France in Henry V at the Royal Exchange in Manchester. He provided the voice for Legolas in the BBC 4 radio serial The Lord of the Rings.Poul
(The Robots of Death)- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Brian Croucher was born on January 23rd 1942. He started work as an apprentice printer and did a stint as a redcoat at Butlin's holiday camp before applying to train as an actor at LAMDA. Throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s he appeared at London's Royal Court Theatre in several plays by controversial writers and has also worked with the National Theatre as well as playing Fagin at the Marlowe Theatre,Canterbury,having had an early,uncredited role in the 1968 film version. On television he tested for the role of Blake in 'Blake's 7', but ended up playing Travis instead and also appeared in children's cult Sci-Fi serial 'The Jensen Code',though in the mid-1990s he was best known as Ted Hills in the soap 'Eastenders'. He has appeared in most of the populist police TV series,his build and voice frequently getting him cast as a heavy,a role he plays in the 2012 film 'Coolio'. Married to writer Christina Balit - whose plays he has directed for the stage - they have two children.Borg
(The Robots of Death)- Victor Lucas was born on 12 July 1919 in West Ham, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Doctor Who (1963), World's End (1981) and Testament of Youth (1979). He was married to Marjorie Sommerville. He died on 17 November 2000 in Barnet, London, England, UK.Andor
(The Face of Evil) - Actor
- Writer
Robert James was a Scottish actor whose gift for subtle characterisation meant that he was rarely out of work in a career on stage, television and in film which spanned over five decades. He was recognisable stalwart of British television drama, a prolific "I know the face, but" performer of intelligence, authority and a distinctive countenance: large, beguiling eyes, pronounced cheekbones and latterly, a mighty shock of white hair, augmented by a slightly lisped diction. Held in high esteem by fellow members of the profession, he always gave good value: lending sharpness to the judiciary, geniality to the clergy or eccentricity to the scientist. He was born in Paisley, and despite his father's determination that he should be a lawyer (he was academically bright and even started working for a solicitor's firm after graduating from university) his love for theatre led to a zest for amateur dramatics and he was spotted by a director from The Wilson Barrett Company. They gave him his first professional role, and he quit the day job, ultimately appearing in over 100 productions for them at The Glasgow Alhambra during the late 40's/early 50's. Despite being extremely busy in television, he continued treading the boards for forty years, loving being a company man whether it be at The Liverpool Playhouse (where he met his wife) or The Almeida. His film appearances, initially as a bit player, included the Titanic film "A Night To Remember" (1958) in which he was among an illustrious bevy of British talent giving uncredited cameos (Norman Rossington, Desmond Llewellyn, Stratford Johns and Derren Nesbitt were literally in the same boat). James played the engine room officer, giving a touching performance that embodied the moving stoicism of the picture. In "Doctor Who", his affecting performance as conscience stricken scientist slowly losing his mind in "The Power Of The Daleks" (1966) is considered among the best performances given by a guest actor in the show. In person a witty, unassuming and modest man, he also lent his experience and encouragement to the Hadleigh Amateur Dramatic Society for whom he was a valued chairman.High Priest
(The Masque of Mandragora)- Jon Laurimore was born in 1936 in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Jack the Ripper (1988), Doctor Who (1963) and Gazette (1968). He has been married to Jill Laurimore since 1968. They have three children. He was previously married to Zoe Hicks.Count Federico
(The Masque of Mandragora) - Leon Eagles was born on 6 April 1932 in Cardiff, Wales, UK. He was an actor, known for The Tomorrow People (1973), The Prince and the Pauper (1976) and The Danedyke Mystery (1979). He was married to Mary Preston. He died on 16 December 1997 in Kensington, London, England, UK.Jabel
(The Face of Evil) - Chris Gannon was born on 8 August 1931 in Ireland. He was an actor, known for Jack the Ripper (1973), North and South (1966) and World's End (1981). He died on 19 April 1983 in Kensington, London, England, UK.Casey
(The Talons of Weng-Chiang) - Writer
- Actor
David Garfield is known for Lorna Doone (1976), Ring Out an Alibi (1964) and The Onedin Line (1971).Neeva
(The Face of Evil)- Rex Robinson was born on 16 February 1926 in Derby, Derbyshire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987), The Big Pull (1962) and Doctor Who (1963). He was married to Patricia Prior. He died on 13 April 2015 in Addlestone, Surrey, England, UK.Dr Carter
(The Hand of Fear) - Miles Fothergill was born in 1948 in Westmorland, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Blake's 7 (1978), Doctor Who (1963) and The Olympian Way (1981).S.V.7
(The Robots of Death) - The English actor Bernard Ashley Price was born on March 2, 1925, in Merton, Surrey, England, the son of an egg salesman. He made his acting debut at the age of 16 in an amateur production of Dodie Smith's "Dear Octopus" in London. The play was seen by the director Barry Jackson, who hired Price for his company and engaged his services until 1944. Lewis Casson then hired Price for a tour of George Bernard Shaw revivals, "Man and Superman," "Pygmalian," and "Saint Joan," that were performed in Bristol and London before touring liberated Paris, Belgium and Germany to entertain the Allied armed forces.
Price moved to South Africa in 1947, where he helped manage the Johannesburg corps de ballet and continued acting. He played one of the homosexuals in William Douglas Home's prison play "Now Barabbas Was a Robber," and acted in the thriller "They Walk Alone."
He returned to London in 1951 and acted in a variety of shows. In 1967, he he joined the New Era Academy of Drama and Music, eventually becoming an administrator. He was a founding member of Gay Switchboard and Icebreakers.
Bernard Price died of cancer in February 2000. He was 74 years old.Tomas
(The Face of Evil) - The younger brother of matinee idol Donald Houston attended elementary school in Wales but was largely self-educated with a love of sports and a strong leaning towards the arts and humanities. Glyn's working life began on his grandmother's milk round in Tonypandy. After leaving the Rhondda Valley he held down a variety of short-lived jobs and war-time appointments: with the Bristol Aeroplane Company, as a gunner with the Fleet Air Arm, a labourer on the docks at Cardiff and with the Military Police. Eventually posted to Singapore, Glyn served with the Royal Signals Regiment where his comedic potential was first recognised. Having joined the Entertainments National Service Association (and being promoted to Acting Sergeant) he put together a variety show for serving troops which toured India.
Following demobilisation at war's end, brother Donald helped him secure a position as assistant stage manager with the Guildford Repertory Theatre. On-the-job training in touring plays was to provide the foundation for a screen career which began when the director Basil Dearden created a part specifically for him in the Ealing production of The Blue Lamp (1950). Over the next six years, Glyn would appear regularly in films playing assorted working class types, sailors and soldiers (frequently Cockneys) in dramas with a crime, naval or military theme. These included classic productions like The Clouded Yellow (1950), The Cruel Sea (1953), Turn the Key Softly (1953) (famously, as Joan Collins's first onscreen lover) and The One That Got Away (1957). Many were small parts or even cameos, but occasional leads eventually followed. In Solo for Sparrow (1962), Glyn enjoyed a rare starring turn as a Scotland Yard Inspector turned private eye who brings down a gang of villains (one of them a young Michael Caine). He had a further leading role as yet another policeman in Emergency (1962), surfaced in a couple of Hammer horrors and played the comic foil in four Norman Wisdom farces, beginning with A Stitch in Time (1963). From 1958 Glyn also appeared in a staple of TV shows, live broadcasts, anthologies, soap operas and classic adaptations (notably, Lord Peter Wimsey's impeccable manservant Mervyn Bunter in Clouds of Witness (1972)) and Rosa Bud's guardian Grewgious in The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1993) .
His most consistent stock-in-trade characters continued to be serious professionals, generally in uniformed garb as officers (Colonel Wolsey in Doctor Who (1963) "The Awakening"), or, most frequently, police inspectors and superintendents (Outbreak of Murder (1962), Gideon C.I.D. (1964), Z Cars (1962), Softly Softly (1966)). Though he maintained a prolific career on stage in plays by Chekov, Shaw, Miller and others, his one self-confessed regret was not having become a leading light on the Shakespearean stage. Glyn Houston became recipient of a Bafta Cymru special award in 2008 for outstanding contribution to film and television. His autobiography, "Glyn Houston, A Black and White Actor", appeared the following year.Professor Watson
(The Hand of Fear) - Actor
- Director
Gareth Armstrong was born in 1948 in Wales, UK. He is an actor and director, known for A Gentlemen's Club (1988), Doctor Who (1963) and Monkey (1978).Giuliano
(The Masque of Mandragora)- Actor
- Additional Crew
A familiar patrician-looking face both here and abroad, blue-eyed, fair-haired classical stage and TV actor Tim Pigott-Smith, the son of a journalist, was born on in Rugby, Warwickshire, on May 13, 1946. The Britisher attended King Edward VI School in Stratford-upon-Avon, graduated from Bristol University in 1967, and then receiving his acting training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. In later years, he would return to Bristol University as a lecturer.
Tim made his professional debut in 1969 with the Bristol Old Vic under the stage name of "Tim Smith" and was predominantly a stage player in both regional and repertory companies. He focused quite strongly on Shakespeare and Greek plays and went on to play Balthazar in "Much Ado About Nothing" for the Prospect touring company as well as Posthumus in a 1974 production of "Cymbeline" for the Royal Shakespeare Company. He made his Broadway debut that same year in "Sherlock Holmes" as Dr. Watson opposite John Wood. Over the years, he would act alongside most of England's grande dame royalty including Judi Dench, Helen Mirren, Geraldine James, Margaret Tyzack, Peggy Ashcroft, Maggie Smith and Penelope Wilton.
A charming, distinguished presence on stage, Tim was invited by an ailing Anthony Quayle to take over the running of the Compass theatre company founded by him in 1984 and served as its artistic director from 1989-1992. A theatre director as well ("Hamlet," and "A Royal Hunt of the Sun"), he would take several Shakespearean classics later to BBC-TV. He, in fact, started his small screen career in secondary Shakespeare roles as Laertes in Hamlet (1970) opposite Ian McKellen in the title role and Proculeius in Antony and Cleopatra (1974) starring Richard Johnson and Janet Suzman. He transitioned into more prominent BBC roles with his Angelo in Measure for Measure (1979) and Hotspur in Henry IV Part I (1979).
Aside from Tim's theatre work, quality TV remained an extremely successful venue for decades with impressive performances in such prestigious min-series as North & South (1975), The Glittering Prizes (1976), The Lost Boys (1978), Danger UXB (1979), Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years (1981), Fame Is the Spur (1982), I Remember Nelson (1982), The Jewel in the Crown (1984) (BAFTA-TV as sadistic villain Ronald Merrick) and The Challenge (1986). He enjoyed recurring roles on the TV series Doctor Who (1963), Hannah (1980) and regular roles in the short-lived comedy Struggle (1983), the drama The Chief (1990) and with The Vice (1999). His mellifluous voice was also popular on many BBC radio productions, in audio books, as well as serving as a narrator on such documentary series as Crimes That Shook the World (2006) and Doomsday: World War I (2013)
Film work began in the 1970's but remained far and few and less distinguished with his minor participation in Aces High (1976), Joseph Andrews (1977), Sweet William (1980), Clash of the Titans (1981), Richard's Things (1980), Victory (1981) and The Remains of the Day (1993). He did enjoy a prime role in the nuclear drama A State of Emergency (1985) starring opposite Martin Sheen and Peter Firth.
Pigott-Smith remained a strong, vibrant present on the stage throughout his career. In later years, he played in such contemporary plays as "Benefactors" (1984), "Coming in to Land" (1987) opposite Ms. Smith and "Amadeus" as composer Salieri. He also portrayed Leontes in "The Winter's Tale" (1988) and scored critical acclaim in the 1999 version of "The Iceman Cometh" (both London and Broadway) and with Ms. Mirren in an over four-hour production of "Mourning Becomes Electra." Into the millennium, he was seen in "Julius Caesar" (as Cassius, 2001), "A Christmas Carol" (as Scrooge, 2002), "Women Beware Women" (2006), "Enron" (2009), "Educating Rita" (2010), "A Delicate Balance" (2011), "King Lear" (title role, 2011), "The Tempest" (as Prospero, 2012), the Chorus in "Henry V" in 2013, and earned both Olivier and Tony nominations here and abroad for his powerful portrayal of King Charles III (2015). Tim became an RSC Associate Artist in 2012, and served on both the RSC board (from 2005 until 2011) and as a governor from 2005 until his retirement in 2016.
On film in later years, he often appeared in official high-ranking parts. His list of movies include Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York (2002), The Four Feathers (2002), the historical Greek biopic Alexander (2004) starring Colin Farrell, V for Vendetta (2005), Flyboys (2006), Quantum of Solace (2008), Alice in Wonderland (2010), RED 2 (2013), Jupiter Ascending (2015) and Whisky Galore (2016). He also graced such TV shows as "Downtown Abbey" and recreated his stage triumph in the title role of King Charles III (2017) which earned him a second BAFTA-TV nomination.
Tim was in rehearsals for an upcoming stage performance of "Death of a Salesman" as Willy Loman in London when he died suddenly of natural causes on April 7, 2017, at age 70. He was survived by his actress wife Pamela Miles and their son Tom Pigott Smith, a concert/studio violinist.Marco
(The Masque of Mandragora)- Actor
- Additional Crew
Gregory de Polnay was born on 17 October 1943 in Chelsea, London, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Mansfield Park (1999), Doctor Who (1963) and Dixon of Dock Green (1955). He has been married to Candice Caroline White since 1998.D.84
(The Robots of Death)