Sylvester McCoy

Sylvester McCoy
Main Jobs	Actor
Main Time Period Active	1987-1990; 1993; 1999-2000; 2003; 2013
First DWU Credit	Time and the Rani
Latest DWU Credit	Doctor Who: Genesis

The following article is written from an Out of Universe perspective.

Sylvester McCoy (born 20 August 1943 as Percy James Patrick Kent-Smith) played the Seventh Doctor from 1987 to 1990, beginning from Time and the Rani to Blood and Iron.

He reprised the role in the 1993 30th Anniversary Special The Lords of Time, the Season 36 story The Lazarus Project, the Season 37 story Who Killed Kennedy?, and in the Season 40 stories The Horrors of War and LIVE 34, before appearing in the first Doctor Who Motion Picture.

Biography

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 Blood and Iron in 1990.

McCoy was one of several actors considered for the role. In 2010, audition tapes for several actors were included on the DVD release of the Sylvester McCoy era DVD. In this audition, McCoy played opposite Janet Fielding (companion Tegan Jovanka from the Peter Davison era), who portrayed a villain in the scene. Another audition piece was also included.

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 only wanted to do three seasons, but was contracted to do a fourth season as John Nathan-Turner had told him that the option was either 4 seasons or 2. McCoy's contract could have been extended to a fifth season, to help settle the new producer in, but McCoy had no desire to stay on for a fifth. This confirmation that McCoy’s contract would not be renewed soon made its way up the chain of command and to Michael Wearing’s office, who approved of the decision.

McCoy reprised his role as the Seventh Doctor in the 30th anniversary special, The Lords of Time, he later returned for The Lazarus Project in Season 36, Who Killed Kennedy? in Season 37, as well as The Horrors of War and LIVE 34 in Season 40.

McCoy played the Seventh Doctor in Doctor Who

In 2013, McCoy played Father Parkinson in the 50th Anniversary film Doctor Who: Genesis.

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.

When the news of Paterson Joseph leaving Doctor Who was announced and quickly spread, Sylvester McCoy said in an interview that he believed Andrew Sachs (best known for his role as Manuel in Fawlty Towers) would be best for the role. Regardless he approved of the casting of David Suchet.

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 The Curse of Fenric Battlefield Survival Ghost Light Earth Aid Ice Time Crime of the Century Blood and Iron The Lords of Time The Lazarus Project Who Killed Kennedy? (cameo) The Horrors of War (cameo) LIVE 34 As the Other The Other

Movies As the Doctor Doctor Who As Father Parkinson Doctor Who: Genesis