Sylvester McCoy is known for his work as Radagast in The Hobbit film series.
31 Facts About Sylvester McCoy
2.
McCoy was born Percy James Patrick Kent-Smith in Dunoon, on the Cowal peninsula, to an Irish Catholic mother and an English father who had been killed in action in World War II a couple of months before McCoy was born; he met his father's family at the age of 17.
3.
Sylvester McCoy worked in the box office of The Roundhouse for a time, where he was discovered by Ken Campbell.
4.
Sylvester McCoy came to prominence as a member of the experimental theatre troupe "The Ken Campbell Roadshow".
5.
Sylvester McCoy's best known act was as a stuntman character called "Sylveste McCoy" in a play entitled An Evening with Sylveste McCoy, where his stunts included putting a fork and nails up his nose and stuffing ferrets down his trousers, and setting his head on fire.
6.
Some years later, Sylvester McCoy added an "r" to the end of "Sylveste", in part because of the actors' superstition that a stage name with thirteen letters was unlucky.
7.
Sylvester McCoy appeared in Eureka, often suffering from the inventions of Wilf Lunn and as Wart, assistant to StarStrider in the CITV series of the same name.
8.
Sylvester McCoy portrayed, in one-man shows on the stage, two famous movie comedians: Stan Laurel and Buster Keaton.
9.
Sylvester McCoy appeared as Henry "Birdie" Bowers in the 1985 television serial about Scott's last Antarctic expedition, The Last Place on Earth.
10.
Sylvester McCoy had a small role in the 1979 film Dracula opposite Laurence Olivier and Donald Pleasence, and has sung with the Welsh National Opera.
11.
Sylvester McCoy became the Seventh Doctor after taking over the lead role in Doctor Who in 1987 from Colin Baker.
12.
Sylvester McCoy remained on the series until it ended in 1989, ending with Survival.
13.
Sylvester McCoy played the Doctor in the 1993 charity special Dimensions in Time, and again in 1996, appearing in the beginning of the Doctor Who television movie starring Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor.
14.
Sylvester McCoy used his natural Scottish accent and rolled his rs.
15.
In November 2013 Sylvester McCoy co-starred in the one-off 50th anniversary comedy homage The Five Doctors Reboot.
16.
Sylvester McCoy reprised the role of the Doctor in the 2022 special "The Power of the Doctor".
17.
Sylvester McCoy has acted extensively in theatre in productions as diverse as pantomime and Moliere.
18.
Sylvester McCoy played Grandpa Jock in John McGrath's A Satire of the Four Estaites at the Edinburgh Festival.
19.
Sylvester McCoy played the role of Snuff in the macabre BBC Radio 4 comedy series The Cabaret of Dr Caligari.
20.
Sylvester McCoy missed out on a role in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and was the second choice to play the role of Bilbo Baggins in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy.
21.
Sylvester McCoy appeared as the lawyer Dowling in a BBC Production of Henry Fielding's novel, The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling.
22.
Sylvester McCoy has appeared with the Royal Shakespeare Company in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and in King Lear in 2007, playing the Fool to Ian McKellen's Lear, a performance which made use of Sylvester McCoy's ability to play the spoons.
23.
Sylvester McCoy reprised the role for the 2008 television movie of the production.
24.
Sylvester McCoy only performed with the company briefly, for the week of the show's run performing at the Sheffield Lyceum.
25.
In 2009 Sylvester McCoy played the character of Mr Mushnik in the Chocolate Factory's production of Little Shop of Horrors.
26.
Sylvester McCoy has made guest appearances in the television series The Bill, the Rab C Nesbitt episode "Father" as Rab's mentally ill brother Gash Sr.
27.
In January and February 2016, Sylvester McCoy appeared in the three-part BBC series The Real Marigold Hotel, which followed a group of celebrity senior citizens including Miriam Margolyes and Wayne Sleep on a journey to India.
28.
Sylvester McCoy returned to the role of the Seventh Doctor in 1997, recording new audio for the video game Doctor Who: Destiny of the Doctors.
29.
Sylvester McCoy began filming for The Hobbit, A three-part adaptation of the book, in 2011.
30.
Sylvester McCoy portrays the wizard Radagast, alongside fellow King Lear actor Ian McKellen who reprises his role as Gandalf.
31.
Sylvester McCoy was brought up by his Catholic maternal grandmother and aunts but is an atheist.