Roy Dotrice

Roy Dotrice, OBE, (26 May 1923 - 16 October 2017) was a British actor.
== Biography==
Born in Guernsey (one of the English Channel islands), Dotrice lied about his age to enlist in the Royal Air Force during World War II. He spent four years in a German prisoner of war camp. He began acting upon his return to England and is a fifty year veteran of the stage and screen. He achieved critical success as John Aubrey in the one-man play Brief Lives, beginning in 1965. Dotrice played the role in 1,782 performances over several decades, earning him a place in the Guinness Book of Records for the greatest number of solo performances by an actor in a play. He also achieved critical acclaim for his portrayal of Leopold Mozart, the father of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, in the highly-acclaimed and successful 1984 movie Amadeus. He was made a Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2008 Honours List.
Dotrice began a long-running relationship with the science fiction and fantasy genre by playing the role of Commissioner Simmons in two episodes of Space 1999 in 1975. He would go on to appear in genre and near-genre shows such as Picket Fences, Sliders, Angel, Babylon 5 and Hercules:The Legendary Journeys. He played Zeus on Hercules: The Legendary Journies and Wesley's father on Angel. His last film role was as King Balor in the 2008 film Hellboy II: The Golden Army, where all of his dialogue was in Gaelic.
Dotrice first met George R.R. Martin while they were both working on the 1988 TV series Beauty and the Beast. Dotrice played the role of Jacob "Father" Wells, the leader of an underground community, while Martin worked on the show as a writer, script-editor and producer. They became friends and Beauty and the Beast was the last television production that author Martin worked on before turning his attention to writing the A Song of Ice and Fire book series. Martin later asked Dotrice to read the audiobook editions of the novels. Dotrice originally read volumes 1-3 and 5; he was unable to work on volume 4 due to time commitments, however, in response to huge demand from fans, a Dotrice-narrated recording of the fourth book was released in late 2011, shortly after the fifth book. Dotrice is thus the actor who was most familiar with the source material for Game of Thrones at the time of his casting. His reading of the first volume, A Song of Ice and Fire, earned him a second Guinness World Record, this time for the largest number of characters (224) voiced in an audiobook.
In the series Dotrice was originally hired to play Grand Maester Pycelle. George R.R. Martin confirmed his casting on 23 June 2010. Unfortunately, Dotrice suffered from health problems which necessitated a four-month convalescent period, just before production was due to begin. As a result Dotrice had to withdraw from the series and was replaced by Julian Glover, a former colleague of his from a previous project.George R.R. Martin's blog explaining Pycelle's recasting Martin and the production team were hopeful of finding another role for Dotrice to play, and on 7 August 2011 Martin confirmed that Dotrice would be playing the role of Hallyne in the second season instead.George R.R. Martin's blog He joined the cast as a guest star in "The Ghost of Harrenhal."
Roy Dotrice passed away at the age of 94 on 16 October, 2017, in the break between Season 7 and Season 8.Westeros.org - RIP Roy Dotrice] His appearance in "Blackwater" was the last film or television appearance of his career, before his death.
==Credits==
===Guest starring===
==See also==
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* Roy Dotrice's official website.
==References==
Category:Cast members of Histories & Lore
Category:Guest starring cast members of Game of Thrones
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