Actor Nicholas Courtney died 22 February 2011 after a short illness. Born William Nicholas Stone Courtney on 16 December 1929 in Cairo, Egypt (his father was a British diplomat on assignment), he is best known for playing “the Brigadier” in more than 100 episodes of Doctor Who.
He spent his youth in Kenya and France. After a brief stint in the British military (National Service), he attended the the Webber Douglas drama school for two years. He then performed in repertory theatre in Northampton, and then moved on to London. His first television role came in 1957, but his career took off in the early 1960s. In 1965, he made an appearance in Doctor Who, and the director, Douglas Camfield, remembered him. In 1968, Camfield cast Courtney as Colonel (later Brigadier) Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart in the Doctor Who episode “The Web of Fear”. He played the role through 1975, when the character was written out, but then returned in the 1980s, and again for a two-parter in the Doctor Who spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures in 2008.
His other genre roles include: Chronotrip (2002), Wartime (1987), Doomwatch (1972), Endless Night (1972), Journey to the Far Side of the Sun (1969), My Partner the Ghost (1969), The Champions (1968), and The Brides of Fu Manchu (1966).
Courtney’s first marriage ended in divorce in 1978. He is survived by his second wife, Karen, whom he married in 1994, and two children from his first marriage.