Nicholas Courtney
Courtney in 2010
Born	William Nicholas Stone Courtney (1929-12-16)16 December 1929 Cairo, Egypt
Died	22 February 2011(2011-02-22) (aged 81) London, England
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1957–2008
Known for	Doctor Who
Spouses	Madeleine Seignol ​ ​ (m. 1962; div. 1978)​ Karen Harding ​ (m. 1994)​
Children	2

William Nicholas Stone Courtney (16 December 1929 – 22 February 2011)^[1][2] was an Egyptian-born British actor. He was best known for his long-running role asBrigadier Lethbridge-Stewart in theBBCscience fiction television seriesDoctor Who.^[3][4][5]

Nicholas Courtney was born 16 December 1929 inCairo, Egypt, the son of Major Geoffrey William Courtney, a British army officer and diplomat, and Evelyn (née Stout).^[6][7][8] His paternal grandparents were the Oxford academic and journalistWilliam Leonard Courtney and his first wife, Cordelia (née Place).^[9][10][11] His grandfather, W. L. Courtney, had been an amateur actor during his tenure at Oxford University and was involved in the early productions in theNew Theatre by theOxford University Dramatic Society.^[12][9] Nicholas' parents separated in 1931, when his mother Evelyn left the household.^[9][6] He was raised by his father and stepmother Anne (née Perrott), who married Geoffrey Courtney in 1938.^[13][6]

Courtney was educated in France,Kenya andEgypt and attended a public school in Kent.^[14][6] On his maternal side, he was descended from New Zealand politicianJohn Cuff. He performednational service in theBritish Army, leaving after 18 months as a private, not wanting to pursue a military career. He moved to England to join London'sWebber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art.^[4] After two years of repertory theatre inNorthampton, he became resident in London in 1961.

Courtney's first television work was in the 1957 seriesEscape. He made guest appearances in several cult television series, includingThe Avengers (1962, 1967),The Champions (1968),Randall and Hopkirk (1969) and as a racing driver inRiviera Police (1965), and briefly appeared as a TV panel chairman in the filmTake a Girl Like You (1970), hosting a debate betweenJohn Bird andJohn Fortune.

DuringWilliam Hartnell's tenure as theFirst Doctor, directorDouglas Camfield originally considered Courtney for the role ofRichard the Lionheart in the serialThe Crusade (1965), a role that ultimately went toJulian Glover. Camfield kept Courtney in mind for future roles, and later that year cast him inThe Daleks' Master Plan, in which he played Space Security Agent Bret Vyon.^[14]

Camfield liked Courtney's performance, and when the director was assigned the 1968 serialThe Web of Fear, he initially cast Courtney as Captain Knight. WhenDavid Langton gave up the role of Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart to work elsewhere, Camfield recast Captain Knight and gave the part to Courtney instead.^[15] The Lethbridge-Stewart character returned in the next season inThe Invasion, promoted to the rank ofbrigadier,^[3] and in charge of the British contingent ofUNIT. The organisation had been charged with protectingEarth fromalien invasion. Years later, actor and writerIan Marter (who played UNIT medical officerHarry Sullivan alongsideTom Baker) named a Russian military base used inThe Invasion, but unnamed on screen, "Nykortny" in his novelisation of the story.^[16]

In this recurring role, he appeared semi-regularly in 101 episodes between 1970 and 1975. The character proved popular enough to return in 1983, first inMawdryn Undead and in the official 20th anniversary special "The Five Doctors". Courtney made his final appearance in the 1989 serialBattlefield (although like many other former cast members, he reprised the role for the charity specialDimensions in Time). He appeared withJean Marsh in both his first and last regularDoctor Who television appearances. Jean Marsh portrayed the character of Sara Kingdom in Courtney's first appearance,The Daleks' Master Plan, playing his character's sister. In Courtney's final appearance on the show, Marsh portrayed the villainousMorgaine in theArthurian-inspiredBattlefield. Marsh also appeared in the earlier storyThe Crusade for which Courtney had been considered.Courtney played Lethbridge-Stewart, either on television or inspin-off audio plays, alongside every subsequent Doctor up to and includingPaul McGann, as well as substituteFirst DoctorRichard Hurndall. He did not act in the revived series, but appeared in archive footage. While he acted withTenth Doctor actorDavid Tennant in theBig Finish audio dramasSympathy for the Devil andUNIT: The Wasting, Tennant was playing a different character, Colonel Ross Brimmicombe-Wood, on both occasions.

Fifteen years afterDimensions in Time, Courtney returned as Lethbridge-Stewart (now,Sir Alistair), freshly returned fromPeru, inEnemy of the Bane (2008), a two-part story in the Doctor Who spin-offThe Sarah Jane Adventures, starringElisabeth Sladen asSarah Jane Smith. TheSarah Jane Adventures production team intended that Courtney would reappear in the following year'sThe Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith so that Lethbridge-Stewart would meet theTenth Doctor, but Courtney was recovering from a stroke and unable to take part.^[17]

Following Courtney's death on 22 February 2011, Lethbridge-Stewart was written out as having also died; when the Eleventh Doctor wanted to contact him in "The Wedding of River Song", he was informed that Sir Alistair has died some months earlier at his nursing home. The Brigadier was mentioned several times in the series' golden anniversary episode, "The Day of the Doctor",^[a] and quoted once;^[b] and, with a prominent close-up of his archival portrait,^[18] Courtney is the only individual to appear in all theDoctor Who anniversary stories prior to "The Day of the Doctor".^[c]

In a 2008 interview, Courtney criticised the pacing of the new series ofDoctor Who, saying: "It’s all a bit rushed sometimes. It’s a heck of a lot to get in in three quarters of an hour, the whole story. In the old days, it used to be half an hour every Saturday for four Saturdays, or six Saturdays, so it does all seem to be a bit of a rush. In fact, it leaves me rather gasping for breath sometimes." Courtney also commented: "I think people’s attention span is more limited than it used to be."^[19]

Courtney continued to act extensively in theatre and television after his mainDoctor Who appearances, guest-starring in television programmes includingWhodunnit? in 1977, where he appeared again with Jon Pertwee,Minder (1984),All Creatures Great and Small (1980, episode "Matters of Life And Death"),Only Fools and Horses (1988) andYes, Prime Minister (1986), and the 1984 television movieTo Catch a King. In 1982 he was cast alongsideFrankie Howerd in theWorld War II-set comedy seriesThen Churchill Said to Me but the series remained untransmitted for over a decade due to the outbreak of theFalklands War. He also had a regular role in the comedyFrench Fields between 1989 and 1991.

Courtney also appeared in an episode of the long-runningBBC TV seriesThe Two Ronnies alongsideRonnie Barker andRonnie Corbett as the character of 'Captain Dickie Chapman', a fellow prisoner-of-war (POW) inColditz during World War II, in a sketch based on the original BBC serial,Colditz.

In 1985, Courtney played 'The Narrator' inThe Rocky Horror Show. In 1989 he portrayed Temple in theBBC Radio 4 adaption ofJohn Wyndham'sSurvival. He also appeared briefly in the 1990 filmBullseye!, directed byMichael Winner.

Courtney also appeared in theBig Finish Productions audio dramaEarthsearch Mindwarp, based on aJames Follett novel, broadcast on thedigital radio stationBBC 7. Courtney starred as Inspector Lionheart opposite fellowDoctor Who actorTerry Molloy in the audio seriesThe Scarifyers, from Cosmic Hobo Productions. The first twoScarifyers adventures,The Nazad Conspiracy andThe Devil of Denge Marsh, were broadcast onBBC 7 in 2007; the third, entitledFor King and Country in 2008, and fourth,The Curse of the Black Comet, in 2010. He also appeared in three episodes ofKaldor City as the newscaster Danl Packard. He regularly made personal appearances atscience fiction conventions and in 1997 was made the honorary president of theDoctor Who Appreciation Society. Courtney also appeared in BBC Radio 4's five part chilling radio drama "Outbreak of Fear" by R.D. Wingfield in the 1980s (repeated on BBC Radio 4 Extra up to August 2017 in stereo only on TV and online - not DAB).

In 1998, Courtney released his autobiography, titledFive Rounds Rapid! (ISBN 978-1852277826) after a line of dialogue the Brigadier had in the 1971Doctor Who serialThe Dæmons.^[20] He recorded his memoirs, subtitledA Soldier in Time for release on CD in 2002 byBig Finish. In 2008 he appeared in the filmIncendiary, as theArchbishop of Canterbury, alongsideEwan McGregor.

Courtney's updated autobiography,Still Getting Away With It (ISBN 978-1871330731), was published in 2005,^[14] with co-author Michael McManus.

Courtney's death was reported bySFX^[1] andThe Stage early in the morning of 23 February 2011.^[2]Doctor Who audio play producersBig Finish, with whom Courtney had worked on several releases in his continuing role as the Brigadier, confirmed the date of his death as 22 February 2011.^[21] TheBBC reported that he had "died in London at the age of 81".^[22]

According to Courtney's official website, he died following a brief illness.^[23]Doctor Who writerMark Gatiss called him "a childhood hero and the sweetest of gentlemen".^[22] FormerDoctor Who co-starTom Baker also paid tribute, having visited him on the Friday before his death. Baker wrote "We shall miss him terribly" in a newsletter on his website, in which he also indicated that Courtney had been battling cancer for a few months prior to his death.^[24]

• Nicholas Courtney atIMDb
• Obituary inThe Guardian
• Obituary inThe Independent
• Obituary inThe Telegraph
• Doctor Who 'Brigadier' Nicholas Courtney dies aged 81,BBC News

• 1929 births
• 2011 deaths
• 20th-century British Army personnel
• 20th-century British male actors
• 21st-century British male actors
• Alumni of the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art
• British male film actors
• British male stage actors
• British male television actors
• British male voice actors
• British people of New Zealand descent
• Deaths from cancer in England
• Male actors from Cairo
• Male actors from London

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