McCoy was born Percy James Patrick Kent-Smith[3] 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;[4] he met his father's family at the age of 17.[3] His mother suffered a mental breakdown when McCoy was eight years old, and was institutionalised thereafter.[5] Prior to adopting his stage name, McCoy was known as Kent Smith; he was unaware of his given names until he was eleven.[5]
McCoy was raised primarily in Dunoon,[3] where he attended Saint Mun's School; he then studied for the priesthood at Blairs College, a seminary in Aberdeen between the ages of 12 and 16,[3] but gave this up and continued his education at Dunoon Grammar School.[4] After school he moved to London where he worked in the insurance industry for five years.[6] He worked in the box office of The Roundhouse for a time, where he was discovered by Ken Campbell.[7]
Career
Early work
McCoy came to prominence as a member of the experimental theatre troupe "The Ken Campbell Roadshow". His best known act was as a stuntman character called "Sylveste McCoy" in a play entitled An Evening with Sylveste McCoy (the name was coined by actor Brian Murphy, who worked beside Kent-Smith at the Roundhouse Theatre and originated in the Wolfe Tones version of "Big Strong Man"[8]), where his stunts included putting a fork and nails up his nose and stuffing ferretsdown his trousers, and setting his head on fire. As a joke, the programme notes listed Sylveste McCoy as played by "Sylveste McCoy" and, conscious that he may have needed to distinguish himself from the American actor Kent Smith as his career progressed, Kent-Smith maintained the stage name. Canadian critic Milton Shulman believed McCoy's name and fictionalised biography were genuine in his review of the Roadshow.[5]
Notable television appearances before he gained the role of the Doctor included roles in Vision On (where he played Pepe/Epep, a character who lived in the mirror), an O-Man in Jigsaw and Tiswas. Every episode of the innovative ATV schools maths programme Leapfrog featured McCoy as "Bert" in wordless sequences filmed out of doors, as he attempted to form regular geometric patterns from different numbers of logs or carpet squares. He also appeared in Eureka, often suffering from the effects of inventions of Wilf Lunn, and as Wart, assistant to StarStrider in the Children's ITV series of the same name. McCoy also portrayed, in one-man shows on the stage, two famous movie comedians: Stan Laurel and Buster Keaton. While playing Laurel, who had adopted his stage name due to the perceived bad luck of his real name containing thirteen letters, McCoy realised his stage name also had thirteen letters and added an "r" to the end of "Sylveste".[5] He also appeared as Henry "Birdie" Bowers in the 1985 television serial about Scott's last Antarctic expedition, The Last Place on Earth.
McCoy became the Seventh Doctor after taking over the lead role in Doctor Who in 1987 from Colin Baker. He remained on the series until it ended in 1989, ending with Survival (his twelfth and final serial as the Doctor). As Baker declined the invitation to film the regeneration scene, McCoy briefly wore a wig and appeared, face-down until the last moment before the regeneration commenced as the Sixth Doctor, with his face concealed by regeneration special effects. He 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.
In his first season, McCoy used his background in physical comedy to portray the character with a degree of clown-like humour, but script editorAndrew Cartmel soon changed that when fans argued that the character (and plots) were becoming increasingly lightweight. 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. A distinguishing feature of McCoy's performances was his manner of speech. He used his natural Scottish accent and rolled his rs. 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 series of his tenure. In 1990, readers of Doctor Who Magazine voted McCoy's Doctor "Best Doctor", over perennial favourite Tom Baker.[9] Since 1999 he has continued acting in the role of the Seventh Doctor in a series of audio plays for Big Finish Productions.
Peter Davison, McCoy and Colin Baker at the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Celebration Weekend in 2013
In January 2021, McCoy returned to the role of the Doctor alongside Bonnie Langford as Mel Bush, in "A Business Proposal for Mel!" This short, acted as an announcement trailer for 'The Collection: Season 24' Blu-Ray set, which was released later that year.[11]
McCoy's television roles since Doctor Who have included Michael Sams in the 1997 drama Beyond Fear, shown on the first night of broadcast of Channel 5. In 1988, while still appearing in Doctor Who, McCoy presented a BBC children's programme called What's Your Story?, in which viewers were invited to phone in suggestions for the continuation of an ongoing drama.
He has also acted extensively in theatre in productions as diverse as pantomime and Molière. He played Grandpa Jock in John McGrath'sA Satire of the Four Estaites (1996) at the Edinburgh Festival. He played the role of Snuff in the macabre BBC Radio 4 comedy series The Cabaret of Dr Caligari.
McCoy appeared as the lawyer Dowling in a BBC Production of Henry Fielding's novel, The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling.
In 2001 he appeared in Paul Sellar's asylum comedy "The Dead Move Fast" at the Gilded Balloon as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, playing the role of Doctor Mallinson. In 2012 he played the part of the suicidal Mr. Peters in JC Marshall's play, Plume, at the Tron Theatre in Glasgow.[14]
McCoy performing with Sandi Toksvig in The Lovely Russell Concert in June 2008
In May 2008 he performed with the Carl Rosa Opera Company in a production of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado, playing the title role. He only performed with the company briefly, for the week of the show's run performing at the Sheffield Lyceum. Despite being set in Japan, he was able to demonstrate his ability to play the spoons by using his fan. In 2009 McCoy played the character of Mr. Mushnik in the Chocolate Factory's production of Little Shop of Horrors.[17]
He has also made guest appearances in the television series The Bill, the Rab C. Nesbitt episode "Father" as Rab's mentally ill brother Gash Sr.[18] and the Still Game episode "Oot" (AKA "Out"), where he played a hermit-type character adjusting to life in modern Glasgow, having remained in his house for over 30 years. In October 2008, he had a minor guest role as an injured ventriloquist on Casualty. In the same month McCoy guest starred in an episode of the BBC soap opera Doctors, playing an actor who once played the time-travelling hero of a children's television series called "The Amazing Lollipop Man". The role was written as a tribute to McCoy.[19][20]
McCoy in 2014
In January and February 2016, 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.[21]
Although the character of Radagast is only alluded to in The Hobbit, and only a minor character in The Lord of the Rings, the part was expanded for the films.
Personal life
McCoy and his wife, Agnes Verkaik,[24] have two sons. They were filmed for the Doctor Who serial The Curse of Fenric playing Haemovores, but their scenes were deleted from the finished release.[25] According to McCoy, his sons live in Holland and Thailand.[26]
He was brought up a Catholic by his maternal grandmother and aunts[4] but is now an atheist.[27]
^Cavan Scott; Mark Wright (2013). Doctor Who: Who-ology. BBC Books. p. 42. ISBN978-1849906197. McCoy's mastery of physical comedy led to his working relationship with producer Clive Doig, who employed him on shows ranging from Vision On to Jigsaw
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