Nicholas Courtney
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| Nicholas Courtney | |
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 Nicholas Courtney at The Television & Movie Store, Norwich, England, on 19 January 2008. |
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| Born | William Nicholas Stone Courtney December 16, 1929 Cairo, Egypt |
| Official website | |
Nicholas Courtney (born William Nicholas Stone Courtney on December 16, 1929) is a British television actor, most famous for playing Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early life
Courtney was born in Cairo, Egypt, the son of a British diplomat and educated in France, Kenya and Egypt. He served his National Service in the British Army, leaving after 18 months as a private, not wanting to pursue a military career. He next joined the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, and after two years began doing repertory theatre in Northampton. From there he moved to London.
Prior to Doctor Who Courtney made guest appearances in several cult television series, including The Avengers, The Champions and Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased).
[edit] Doctor Who
Courtney's first appearance in Doctor Who was in the 1965 serial The Daleks' Master Plan, where he played Space Security Agent Bret Vyon opposite William Hartnell as the Doctor. Director Douglas Camfield liked Courtney's performance, and when Camfield was assigned the 1968 serial The Web of Fear, he cast Courtney as Captain Knight. However, when David Langton (who was to play the character of Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart) gave up the role to work elsewhere, Camfield recast Captain Knight and gave the part to Courtney instead.
Lethbridge-Stewart reappeared later that year in The Invasion, promoted to Brigadier and in charge of the British contingent of UNIT, an organization that protected the Earth from alien invasion. It was in that recurring role that he became most famous, appearing semi-regularly from 1970 to 1975. Courtney made return appearances in the series in 1983, and his last Doctor Who television appearance was in 1989 in the serial Battlefield (although like many other former cast members, he returned to the role for the charity special Dimensions in Time). Coincidentally, he appeared with Jean Marsh in both his first and last Doctor Who television appearances, notwithstanding his role in the aforementioned Dimensions in Time.
Courtney has played Lethbridge-Stewart, either on television or in audio plays, alongside every subsequent Doctor up to and including Paul McGann. He did not appear with Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor nor, as yet, with David Tennant as the Tenth. While he has acted with David Tennant in the Big Finish audio dramas Sympathy for the Devil and UNIT: The Wasting, Tennant was playing a different character, Colonel Ross Brimmicombe-Wood, on both occasions.
[edit] Since Doctor Who
Courtney continued to act extensively in theatre and television after his main Doctor Who appearances, guest-starring in such popular television programmes as Minder, All Creatures Great and Small, Only Fools and Horses and Yes, Prime Minister. In 1982 he was cast alongside Frankie Howerd in the World War II-set comedy series Then Churchill Said to Me but the series remained untransmitted for over a decade due to the outbreak of the Falklands War. He also had a regular role in the comedy French Fields between 1989 and 1991. He has also appeared in the Big Finish Productions audio drama Earthsearch Mindwarp, based on a James Follett novel, broadcast on the digital radio station BBC 7.
Courtney's most recent role is that of Inspector Lionheart opposite fellow Doctor Who actor Terry Molloy in the audio series The Scarifyers, from Cosmic Hobo Productions. The first Scarifyers adventure, The Nazad Conspiracy, was broadcast on BBC 7 in 2007.
He regularly makes personal appearances at science fiction conventions and is also the honorary president of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society. His theatrical agent is former Doctor Who actress Wendy Padbury.
In 1998, Courtney released his autobiography, titled Five Rounds Rapid! after an infamous line of dialogue the Brigadier had in the 1971 Who serial The Dæmons. He recorded his memoirs, subtitled A Soldier in Time for release on CD in 2002 by Big Finish. An updated autobiography, Still Getting Away With It, was published in 2005, with co-author Michael McManus. He lives in London with his second wife, Karen.
[edit] External links
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Courtney, Nicholas |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | William Nicholas Stone Courtney (full name) |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | English actor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 16, 1929 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Cairo, Egypt |
| DATE OF DEATH | |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |
