Sylvester McCoy

Birthday: 20 August 1943, Dunoon, Strathclyde, Scotland, UK

Birth Name: Percy James Patrick Kent-Smith

Height: 168 cm

Sylvester McCoy was born in Dunoon, Scotland. He spent much of his childhood in Dublin, Ireland. Before becoming an actor, as Percy Smith he trained as a priest, sold insurance and acted as a bodyguard for the Rolling Stones. He started his acting career as a part of the Ken Campbell Roadshow, at first using the name Kent Smith before changing it f... Show more »

It's all to do with the writing: Doctor Who (1963) has always been to do with the writing. Each writ...Show more »

It's all to do with the writing: Doctor Who (1963) has always been to do with the writing. Each writer brings their own individual story, and with that their own take on the Doctor. Show less «

[on Doctor Who (1963)] You never had any time to think about the overall story. You learned the line...Show more »

[on Doctor Who (1963)] You never had any time to think about the overall story. You learned the lines and tried not to bump into the monsters. Show less «

[on Doctor Who (1963)] I'm very proud to be part of it. I'm a national institution. I'm in a museum....Show more »

[on Doctor Who (1963)] I'm very proud to be part of it. I'm a national institution. I'm in a museum. I thought you had to be dead to be in a museum, but I'm in a museum somewhere. Show less «

If you really want to become well known, appreciated, applauded by your peers and by an audience, st...Show more »

If you really want to become well known, appreciated, applauded by your peers and by an audience, stick to the theatre. Show less «

[on the cancellation of Doctor Who (1963)] They kept that from us, I wasn't told until about eight m...Show more »

[on the cancellation of Doctor Who (1963)] They kept that from us, I wasn't told until about eight months after we'd finished the previous series. I was told when we should have been told when they were starting the new one, but it happened and that was it. I'm an actor and that what happens in my profession - you do a job and it finishes and you go onto another one, but it was a bit sad as I felt I hadn't finished with the Doctor. It's lived on in the conventions and with Big Finish where I've been making audio versions of the show which have been successful all over the world, so that's carried it on. Colin Baker, Paul McGann and others have been playing their Doctors on these audio books. That's kept it going, the fans have kept it going and it's kept me travelling around the world in between acting jobs, it's been terrific. Show less «

[on whether or not he's been typecast] The actors who played the Doctors tended not to get typecast....Show more »

[on whether or not he's been typecast] The actors who played the Doctors tended not to get typecast. The ones who suffered in Doctor Who (1963) were the companions, they are the ones who didn't necessarily go on to do a variety of other work. Show less «

[on Doctor Who (1963)] There was always that negative feeling when we went into work - not from John...Show more »

[on Doctor Who (1963)] There was always that negative feeling when we went into work - not from John (John Nathan-Turner), but those above him. There was always a battle going on. They didn't really want it. They were keeping it on because it was there and they couldn't really figure out a way to get rid of it. John was leaving and they didn't know how to replace him really. This time he had said he was, and that was it - it didn't carry on. They couldn't find anyone to volunteer to take it over. They could have asked me! Show less «

If you're a really intelligent being, you're not going to be violent, because violence is not intell...Show more »

If you're a really intelligent being, you're not going to be violent, because violence is not intelligent. It's a basic, Neanderthal thing that we carry with us. I feel very strongly that the Doctor should not be violent. He should find another way. Show less «

Like all actors, you bring a lot of yourself to the Doctor. Life has made me kind of clown-like and ...Show more »

Like all actors, you bring a lot of yourself to the Doctor. Life has made me kind of clown-like and comic. I see things in a comic way. But I'm also angry. Comedy does come from anger. It's the flipside of the coin, isn't it? Show less «

I will miss him dearly. When I was a child Jon Pertwee on radio entertained and delighted me, and ma...Show more »

I will miss him dearly. When I was a child Jon Pertwee on radio entertained and delighted me, and made me laugh. As a young man he amazed and excited me with his performance as Doctor Who (1963). When I took the role I met him for the first time and he became my great mate. Show less «

Theatre is the principal job of an actor. An actor's job is to tell a story to someone in a room. TV...Show more »

Theatre is the principal job of an actor. An actor's job is to tell a story to someone in a room. TV and film can be great and I really love doing it, but it is a different way of telling a story. Film is like painting with a tiny Japanese paintbrush, second by second. But the reward is painting with a broad brush with a live audience; you get the response, then it affects your next mood - you can sense the mood and their laughter. It's alive. TV is not dead but you are part of a jigsaw. On stage you look much larger than you are. You can have subtle changes of timing; how you place a punchline in a joke or movement or emotion according to an audience. Show less «

The idea of bringing politics into Doctor Who (1963) was deliberate, but we had to do it very quietl...Show more »

The idea of bringing politics into Doctor Who (1963) was deliberate, but we had to do it very quietly and certainly didn't shout about it. We were a group of politically motivated people and it seemed the right thing to do. Our feeling was that Margaret Thatcher was far more terrifying than any monster the Doctor had encountered. Show less «

In a way Doctor Who (1963) is a strange role, because normally you don't have that comparison. The o...Show more »

In a way Doctor Who (1963) is a strange role, because normally you don't have that comparison. The only other similar kind of roles are Shakespearean roles - you have good Hamlets and you have bad Hamlets, one's not as good as another and so on. It was a bit of a problem to deal with at first. Show less «

[on "Sachsgate"] I think the BBC should put their money where their mouth is and give the job to And...Show more »

[on "Sachsgate"] I think the BBC should put their money where their mouth is and give the job to Andrew Sachs. Because the very first Doctor was an older man - and he came down to Earth with his granddaughter. So there's Andrew Sachs and his granddaughter - the BBC could give them a nice, good acting role, and a good paycheque. Show less «

The fame affected my family, my children especially. We couldn't go on holiday in Britain. I went so...Show more »

The fame affected my family, my children especially. We couldn't go on holiday in Britain. I went somewhere to open something once and they treated me like royalty. Their body language was like that. If you stood in a certain way, they move towards you. If you turned, they angled towards you. And I watched these people moving like this, and then I was introduced to the ladies who made the tea, and they were all in descending order of height. They bobbed as I went past, much to my horror. I said, 'Don't! I'm only an actor.' Show less «

Fame! We all want it. By Christ, I was hungry for it, I must admit. But you don't really know what i...Show more »

Fame! We all want it. By Christ, I was hungry for it, I must admit. But you don't really know what it entails... The fame that came with Doctor Who (1963) was so sudden. Overnight, one became like a pop star... In a sense, you had to watch your p's and q's. You could no longer be yourself in public. You had to become this other, false human being, to protect yourself. If you wandered in and just opened your mouth and said something that you would say in everyday life that would have no consequence at all, suddenly it would reverberate through the crap newspapers. I was put under siege by the press. It was an infringement of my human rights. Show less «

[on Doctor Who: Rose (2005)] It had a great pace, it moved really quickly and was witty. Christopher...Show more »

[on Doctor Who: Rose (2005)] It had a great pace, it moved really quickly and was witty. Christopher Eccleston was quite alien as the Doctor - he looked wonderful. He had this manic grin - we were not sure if he was on the edge of insanity or not, which was rather good. He ran into danger with such gusto. He galloped at it joyfully. Billie Piper was quite fantastic. The relationship between the two was quite extraordinary. In a way this Doctor was not the brightest brain in the universe - he's a bit like an Oxford don in that he's full of brains but with not much nous. There was a great scene when he was searching for a giant round object and Rose had to point out he was standing in front of the London Eye. He seemed to need Rose more than any other Doctor needed his companion, because she could really help him. Show less «

By the time you got to the third or fourth story of the season, you had no idea what it was about. Y...Show more »

By the time you got to the third or fourth story of the season, you had no idea what it was about. You just got the script, learned the lines and tried not to bump into the monsters. You had no overall concept, because there was no time. Show less «

[when asked what he hoped to accomplish in the role of the Doctor] I hope to have fun, keep it as wo...Show more »

[when asked what he hoped to accomplish in the role of the Doctor] I hope to have fun, keep it as wonderful as it was when the other six Doctors were doing it and enjoy it, really. Show less «

[on Doctor Who: Ghost Light: Part One (1989)] It was well done but God knows what it meant.

Variety has always been in my mind; to do something totally different . I've had a parallel career s...Show more »

Variety has always been in my mind; to do something totally different . I've had a parallel career since the beginning. On one track the TV and film, the other theatre, but they never crossed. Even when I did Doctor Who (1963) I was still doing stuff at the National and on tour but going back. So I've always done plays and had this schizophrenic experience but neither have affected each other as the casting director and so on very rarely cross over. It did affect my telly career and made it not quite as exciting - in those days the swap over between roles was harder to do. The only thing Doctor Who (1963) added was a knot on my wage - I got paid a bit more. Show less «

I don't relax. I sit down and contemplate all the energetic things I should do.