Sylvester McCoy

• Name — Sylvester McCoy • Birth Name — Percy James Patrick Kent-Smith • Born — 20 August 1943 • Birthplace — Dunoon, Argyll, Scotland • Known for — Seventh incarnation of the Doctor in Doctor Who • Other Names — * Sylvester McCoy • Sylveste McCoy • Kent Smith • Education — Blairs College • Occupation — * Actor • physical comedian • Years Active — 1964–present • Spouse — Agnes Verkaik • Children — 2 • Website — sylvestermccoy.tv

McCoy was born Percy James Patrick Kent-Smith on 20 August 1943 in Dunoon, Scotland, to an Irish mother, Molly Sheridan, and an English father, Percy James Kent-Smith. His father, who enlisted into the Navy in World War II, was killed in a battle off Sierra Leone in April 1943. McCoy met his father's family in London at the age of 17. His mother suffered a mental breakdown when McCoy was eight years old, and was institutionalised thereafter. McCoy was unaware of his full legal name until he was eleven; prior to adopting his stage name, he was known as "Kent" or "James". McCoy attended Saint Mun's School. He studied to be a priest at Blairs College, a seminary in Aberdeen, between the ages of 12 and 16, but gave this up and continued his education at Dunoon Grammar School. At 18, he moved to London where he worked in the insurance industry. He worked in the box office of The Roundhouse for a time, where he was discovered by Ken Campbell.

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"), where his stunts included putting a fork and nails up his nose and stuffing ferrets down 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. McCoy played Pepe/Epep, a character who lived in the mirror in Vision On. 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". He also appeared as Henry "Birdie" Bowers in the 1985 television serial about Scott's last Antarctic expedition, The Last Place on Earth (1985). McCoy starred opposite Laurence Olivier and Donald Pleasence in the horror film Dracula (1979).

• Illustration — McCoy with Sophie Aldred during filming of Remembrance of the Daleks (1988) 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. In his first season, McCoy used his background in physical comedy to portray the character with a degree of clown-like humour, but script editor Andrew 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, using his natural Scottish accent and rolling his rs. In 1990, readers of Doctor Who Magazine voted McCoy "Best Doctor", over perennial favourite Tom Baker.

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. Since 1999, he has continued acting in the role of the Seventh Doctor in a series of audio plays for Big Finish Productions. In November 2013, McCoy co-starred with Peter Davison and Colin Baker in the comedy short film The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot, which paid homage to Doctor Who 's 50th anniversary. • Illustration — McCoy with Peter Davison 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 Blu ray The Collection release of season 24. McCoy returned to the show in the 2022 special "The Power of the Doctor" as a Guardian of the Edge—a manifestation of the Thirteenth Doctor’s subconscious who takes on the Seventh Doctor's form. To mark Doctor Who 's 60th anniversary, he reprised his role as the Seventh Doctor in Tales of the TARDIS (2023), reuniting with Sophie Aldred as Ace. In a 2024 interview, McCoy stated that Russell T Davies had reintroduced past Doctors in Tales of the TARDIS as they "may be coming back" in future stories. McCoy reprised his role of the Doctor in a brief cameo during the opening ceremony of the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. As there is no current series of Doctor Who in production, this made McCoy the most recent actor to portray the Doctor on television.

McCoy appeared on the first night of broadcast of Channel 5, playing Michael Sams in the drama film Beyond Fear (1997). 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. McCoy appeared as the lawyer Dowling in a BBC Production of Henry Fielding's novel, The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling. • Illustration — McCoy performing with Sandi Toksvig in The Lovely Russell Concert in June 2008 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. 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 McCoy's ability to play the spoons. The RSC production with McKellen and McCoy was staged in Melbourne, during late July/early August 2007 and Wellington and Auckland, New Zealand, during mid to late August 2007. It came into residence at the New London Theatre in late 2007, ending its run in January 2008. He reprised the role for the 2008 television movie of the production. 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. • Illustration — McCoy in 2014 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. 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. McCoy began filming for The Hobbit, a three-part adaptation of the book, in 2011. He portrays the wizard Radagast, alongside fellow King Lear actor Ian McKellen, who reprises his role as Gandalf. 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 Hobbit films. 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. In 2017 he returned to the stage at the Edinburgh Fringe, in the production A Joke alongside Star Trek: Voyager actor Robert Picardo. In July 2026 he was revealed to have narrated the independent video game "Forest of Deceit", a 4-8 player social deduction party game.

McCoy and his wife, Agnes Verkaik, 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. According to McCoy, his sons live in Holland and Thailand. He was brought up a Catholic by his maternal grandmother and aunts, but stated in 2010 that he did not believe in God. During the COVID-19 pandemic, McCoy spent some of lockdown living in France.