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Sylvester McCoy
Sylvester McCoy was considered for the role of Bilbo Baggins in Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings".
It's all to do with the writing: "Doctor Who" (1963) has always been to do with the writing. Each writer brings their own individual story, and with that their own take on the Doctor.
Sylvester McCoy
Percy James Patrick Kent-Smith
20 August 1943, Dunoon, Strathclyde, Scotland
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Sylvester McCoy was born Percy James Patrick Kent-Smith on 20 August 1943, the son of Molly Sheridan and Percy James Kent-Smith, an Irish couple living in Dunoon, Scotland. His father was killed in the Second World War a couple of months before he was born, and he was brought up by his mother, his grandmother - Mary Sheridan - and aunts. He attended St. Mun's, a local Dunoon school. The headmistress, Rosie O'Grady, was keen that her young charges obtain decent jobs upon leaving the school and so organized regular talks from people in all manner of professions.
McCoy expressed an interest in every job, and as a result eventually found himself given an afternoon off school to go to see a local priest about entering the priesthood. He left school, joined Blair's College, a seminary in Aberdeen, and between the ages of twelve and sixteen trained to be a priest. It was while at Blair's College that he realized that there was more to life than could be found in Dunoon and discovered classical music and history, which fascinated him. He eventually decided to become a monk and applied to join a Dominican order, but his application was rejected as he was too young. He went instead to Dunoon grammar school, where he discovered the delights of his female fellow pupils and quickly decided that he didn't want to be a priest or a monk after all.
On finishing his education he took a holiday down to London, from which he never returned. McCoy approached a youth employment center looking for a job and impressed by the fact that he had attended a grammar school, they instantly found him a job in the City working for an insurance company. He trained in this job and stayed there until he was twenty-seven before deciding that it wasn't really for him. With the help of a cook at London's Roundhouse Theatre, McCoy gained a job there selling tickets and keeping the books in the box office.
Sylvester McCoy joined the Ken Campbell Roadshow. McCoy, along with Bob Hoskins, Jane Wood, and Dave Hill would start performing a range of plays with the umbrella theme of "modern myths." McCoy found himself in a double-act with Hoskins. After Hoskins left, and being booked at a circus, director Ken Campbell improvised a circus-based act about a fictitious stuntman called Sylvester McCoy and thought it would be amusing if the program stated that this character was played by "Sylvester McCoy." While at the Royal Court Theatre, one of the critics missed the joke and assumed that Sylvester McCoy was a real person.
McCoy like the irony of this, and adopted the name of his stage identity. During one of their UK engagements, the Roadshow team was invited up by Joan Littlewood, who was directing a production of "The Hostage," before the performance of her play. This led McCoy to bona fide theater, and he was subsequently invited to appear in numerous plays and musicals.
He was starring at the National Theatre in "The Pied Piper", a play written especially for him, that McCoy learned that the BBC was looking for a new lead actor to replace Colin Baker in "Doctor Who" (1963). He later won the role as the seventh Doctor. Sylvester McCoy's costume for "Doctor Who" was changed from a fawn jacket and paisley scarf to a dark brown jacket and an altogether more muted and subdued image in his final season on the show.
After "Doctor Who," McCoy worked extensively in theater and on television. In theater he appeared in "The Government Inspector" twice in tours during 1993 and 1994, and in between these he starred as the Narrator, Thomas Marvel, in the stage version of H.G. Wells's "The Invisible Man." In 1995 he starred in Zorro: The Musical."
On television his credits include "Frank Stubbs Promotes" (1993) and "Rab C. Nesbitt" (1990). He also created the character of Crud in the cult television series Ghoul-Lashed () for Sky TV. In 1996 he was contracted to reprise his role as the Doctor, handing over to an eighth incarnation of the Time Lord in the earthly form of his friend Paul McGann. Also in 1996, McCoy devised and presented Reeltime Pictures' _I Was a Doctor Who Monster (1996) (V)_ - a special video tribute to the men and women who had played the monsters of "Doctor Who."
McCoy is technically the longest-serving Doctor Who, after reprising the role in 1996. His term as the Doctor stretched from 1987 until 1996, a total of 8.5 years. No new work was produced by McCoy as the Doctor between 1989-1996 however, meaning that Tom Baker is still the longest continuously-serving Doctor, at 7 years (1974-1981).
Adept at playing both the xylophone and the spoons. He can also juggle and once gained a reputation for stuffing live ferrets down his trousers.
McCoy and Timothy Dalton appeared together on stage in 1986 in London, and complained to each other that long-term work was so hard to tfind. A year later, McCoy was Dr Who and Dalton was James Bond.
Became the Official 7th Doctor Who
He became the first non-English actor to portray the character of Doctor Who, and the first to speak with an accent other than Received Pronunciation English.
Is one of three "Doctor Who" actors who portrayed The Doctor on TV to appear in an episode of "Casualty" (1986). The others are Colin Baker (I) and Christopher Eccleston.
He is the only actor to appear in both "Doctor Who" (1963) and Doctor Who (1996) (TV).
He was raised primarily in Dublin, Ireland.
He is the the only Doctor to have played the role during two regenerations. When Colin Baker left the role he refused to do the regeneration scene. So Sylvester donned Colin Baker's costume and a blonde wig and stood in as Baker. This is the reason that for only the second time in the series (See Peter Davison's regeneration) the Doctor's face is obscured as he changes his appearance.
His father Percy Kent-Smith was a Royal Navy submarine officer and was killed in the second world war on July 18 1943 just a month before Sylvester was born.
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"I don't relax. I sit down and contemplate all the energetic things I should do."
There was always that negative feeling when we went into work - not from John (John Nathan-Turner), but those above him. There was always a battle going on. They didn't really want it. They were keeping it on because it was there and they couldn't really figure out a way to get rid of it. John was leaving and they didn't know how to replace him really. This time he had said he was, and that was it - it didn't carry on. They couldn't find anyone to volunteer to take it over. They could have asked me! (On "Doctor Who" (1963))
It had a great pace, it moved really quickly and was witty. Christopher Eccleston was quite alien as the Doctor - he looked wonderful. He had this manic grin - we were not sure if he was on the edge of insanity or not, which was rather good. He ran into danger with such gusto. He galloped at it joyfully. Billie Piper was quite fantastic. The relationship between the two was quite extraordinary. In a way this Doctor was not the brightest brain in the universe - he's a bit like an Oxford don in that he's full of brains but with not much nous. There was a great scene when he was searching for a giant round object and Rose had to point out he was standing in front of the London Eye. He seemed to need Rose more than any other Doctor needed his companion, because she could really help him. (On "Doctor Who: Rose (#1.1)" (2005)
Variety has always been in my mind; to do something totally different . I've had a parallel career since the beginning. On one track the TV and film, the other theatre, but they never crossed. Even when I did "Doctor Who" (1963) I was still doing stuff at the National and on tour but going back. So I've always done plays and had this schizophrenic experience but neither have affected each other as the casting director and so on very rarely cross over. It did affect my telly career and made it not quite as exciting - in those days the swap over between roles was harder to do. The only thing "Doctor Who" (1963) added was a knot on my wage - I got paid a bit more.
Theatre is the principal job of an actor. An actor's job is to tell a story to someone in a room. TV and film can be great and I really love doing it, but it is a different way of telling a story. Film is like painting with a tiny Japanese paintbrush, second by second. But the reward is painting with a broad brush with a live audience; you get the response, then it affects your next mood - you can sense the mood and their laughter. It's alive. TV is not dead but you are part of a jigsaw. On stage you look much larger than you are. You can have subtle changes of timing; how you place a punchline in a joke or movement or emotion according to an audience.
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