Sylvester McCoy

A 2014 Press Photo

**Sylvester McCoy** (born 20 August 1943) as **Percy James Patrick Kent-Smith**) played the Seventh Doctor from 1987 to 1989, beginning from *Time and the Rani* to *Lungbarrow**.*

He is sometimes credited as **Sylveste McCoy**.

## Prior to Doctor Who

He was born Percy James Patrick Kent-Smith in Dunoon, Scotland. In his youth, he trained for the priesthood but gave this up and worked for a time in the insurance industry. He worked in The Roundhouse box office for a time, where he was discovered by Ken Campbell. He was a bodyguard for the Rolling Stones.

He came to prominence as a member of the comedy act *The Ken Campbell Roadshow*. His best-known act was in a play called *An Evening with Sylveste McCoy* as a stuntman character called "Sylveste McCoy", whose stunts included putting a fork and nails up his nose and stuffing ferrets down his trousers. As a joke, in order to make the audience believe that the character really existed, the cast listing in the programme billed Sylveste McCoy as played by "Sylveste McCoy", and after a reviewer missed the joke and assumed that Sylveste McCoy was a real person, Kent-Smith adopted it as his stage name. Some years later, he added an "r" to "Sylveste" — possibly because there were thirteen letters in "Sylveste McCoy". Notable television appearances before he gained the role of the Doctor included roles in *Vision On* (where he played Pepe, a character who lived in the mirror) and *Tiswas*. McCoy also played in one-man shows on the stage as two famous movie comedians, Stan Laurel and Buster Keaton. He appeared as Bowers in the 1985 television mini-series about Robert Falcon Scott's last Antarctic expedition, *The Last Place on Earth*, and had a small non-speaking role in the 1979 film version of *Dracula*, with Laurence Olivier and Frank Langella. (McCoy had also played the title role onstage.) In his Sylveste McCoy persona, he appeared in the first *Secret Policeman's Ball* film, a comedy/musical program in support of Amnesty International. The film was released to DVD in Region 1 in early 2009 as part of a box set of the Secret Policeman's benefits.

Only months before being cast as the Seventh Doctor, McCoy played a villain in a B-film entitled *Three Kinds of Heat*, which featured appearances by a number of Who alumni including Trevor Martin and, most notably, onetime Romana I actress Mary Tamm, whose character was killed by McCoy's character.

## Work on Doctor Who

McCoy took over the lead role of Doctor Who from Colin Baker in 1987 and remained until *Lungbarrow* in 1990.

McCoy was one of several actors considered for the role. In TBD, audition tapes for several actors were included on the DVD release of Season 24. In this audition, McCoy played opposite Janet Fielding (companion Tegan Jovanka from the Peter Davison era), who portrayed a villain in the scene.

McCoy actually has the distinction of having played two incarnations of the Doctor; when Baker declined an invitation to record the regeneration scene in *Time and the Rani*, McCoy put on a wig and Baker's costume and, with his face obscured by special effects, filled in for the role.

In his first season, McCoy, a comedy actor, portrayed the character with a degree of clown-like humour, but script editor Andrew Cartmel soon changed that. The Seventh Doctor developed into a much darker figure than any of his earlier incarnations, manipulating people like chess pieces and always seeming to be playing a deeper game. McCoy generally approved of this, as it allowed him to play more of a dramatic role.

A distinguishing feature of McCoy's performances was his manner of speech. He used a slight Scottish accent, rolled his "r"s, and often placed emphasis on unusual syllables or words. This has the added (possibly intentional) effect of sounding a little alien and wrong-footing the audience. It also made the viewer question established speech patterns often taken for granted. At the start of his tenure, he used proverbs and sayings adapted to his own ends (e.g. "There's many a slap twixt cup and lap" — *Delta and the Bannermen*), although this characteristic was phased out during the later, darker seasons of his tenure.

McCoy initially planned to leave at the end of Season 27, however Andrew Cartmel and Ian Fraser convinced him to stay for one more Season as they wanted his Doctor to complete the Cartmel Masterplan. McCoy's final story was *Lungbarrow*.

McCoy reprised his role as the Seventh Doctor for the 30th Anniversary Special *Ascend From Darkness*.

In 2003, McCoy played The Other in the 40th Anniversary Special, *The Land That Never Is.*

## After Doctor Who

McCoy's more recent roles have included Michael Sams in the 1997 telemovie Beyond Fear, shown on the first night of broadcast of Channel Five.

He has also acted extensively in theatre in productions as diverse as pantomime and Molière. He played the role of Snuff in the macabre BBC Radio 4 comedy series The Cabaret of Dr Caligari, and The Fool in a Stratford production of King Lear by the Royal Shakespeare Company, opposite Sir Ian McKellan.

Recently, in "The Lollipop Man", an episode of the medical soap opera Doctors, McCoy played the role of Graham Capelli, a retired actor best known for playing the title character in a 1980s children's television character similar to the Doctor. The role was written as a tribute to McCoy. The episode featured several references to Doctor Who.

McCoy was attached to play Governor Swann in Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl when Steven Spielberg was attached to direct it in the early 90s, Disney didn't give permission for the film to be made then. When the movie was greenlit the role was played by Jonathan Pryce.

In 2010 McCoy was announced to play the part of the wizard Radagast in the three-part movie adaptation of The Hobbit.

## Personal Life

Sylvester has a son Sam Kent-Smith who is an artist.

## Selected Credits

### *Doctor Who*

#### As The Doctor

* *Time and the Rani*
* *Paradise Towers*
* *Delta and the Bannermen*
* *Dragonfire*
* *Remembrance of the Daleks*
* *The Happiness Patrol*
* *Silver Nemesis*
* *The Greatest Show in the Galaxy*
* *Battlefield*
* *Survival*
* *The Curse of Fenric*
* *Ghost Light*
* *Bad Destination*
* *Blood and Iron*
* *Night Thoughts*
* *Ice Time*
* Nightshade
* *Avatar*
* *T.A.R.D.I.S.*
* *Lungbarrow*
* *Ascend From Darkness*