Nicholas Courtney

Nicholas Courtney (born William Nicholas Stone Courtney on December 16 1929) is a British television actor, most famous for playing Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who.

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Courtney was born in Cairo, Egypt, the son of a British diplomat and educated in France, Kenya and Egypt. He served his National Service in the British Army, leaving after 18 months as a private, not wanting to pursue a military career. He next joined the Webber Douglas drama school, and after two years began doing repertory theatre in Northampton, and from there moved to London.

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Courtney's first appearance in Doctor Who was in the 1965 serial The Daleks' Master Plan, where he played Space Security Agent Bret Vyon opposite William Hartnell as the Doctor. The director Douglas Camfield liked Courtney's performance, and when Camfield was assigned the 1968 serial The Web of Fear, he cast Courtney as Captain Knight. However, David Langton, who was to play the character of Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart, gave up the role to work elsewhere, so Camfield recast Captain Knight and gave the Colonel's part to Courtney instead.

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Lethbridge-Stewart reappeared later that year in The Invasion, promoted to Brigadier and in charge of the British contingent of UNIT, an organization that protected the Earth from alien invasion. It was in that recurring role that he became most famous, appearing semi-regularly from 1970 to 1975. Courtney made return appearances in the series in 1983 and his last Doctor Who television appearance was in 1989 (in the serial Battlefield).

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Courtney has played Lethbridge-Stewart, either on television or in audio plays, alongside every subsequent Doctor up to and including Paul McGann. As yet, he has not appeared with Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor nor David Tennant as the Tenth. While he has acted with David Tennant in the Doctor Who Unbound audio play Sympathy for the Devil, Tennant was playing a different character at the time.

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Courtney continued to act extensively in theatre and television after he left Doctor Who, guest-starring in such popular television programmes as Minder, The Bill, Only Fools and Horses and Yes, Prime Minister. He also had a regular role in the comedy French Fields between 1989 and 1991.

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He regularly makes personal appearances at science fiction conventions and is also the honorary president of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society. His theatrical agent is former Doctor Who actress Wendy Padbury.

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Courtney's autobiography, published in 1998, was titled Five Rounds Rapid!, after a popular catchphrase of the Brigadier's. He lives in London with his second wife, Karen.

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December 16: December 16 is the 350th day of the year (351st in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 15 days remaining....

1929: 1929 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar)....

British: The word British has several different uses. See the article on Britain for more details on the development and use of the word Britain....

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