A Sylvester McCoy Fan Page

Early Life

Sylvester McCoy was born Percy James Patrick Kent-Smith on the August 20th 1943 to an Irish mother, Molly Sheridan and English father Percy James Kent-Smith living in Dunoon Scotland.  

 

His father Percy was killed in action in World War II whilst serving as a Royal Navy Submarine Officer a month before his son was born, on July 18th 1943. As a result, Molly took her son to live in Ireland, Dublin for much of his young life, until fate befell him again at the loss of his mothers life in an asylum, he was then sent back to Dunoon under the care of his Grandmother, Mary Sheridan and various relatives. 

 

He was schooled at Dunoon Grammer School, St Muns under the Headmistress of the School called Rosy O' Grady. Whilst at school,

he found out some thing ver peculiar, as through his life, he had been always been known as Kent, and asked by his teachers if anyone had any middle names, to do with further education purposes,  once at home, after asking his Grandmother if he had

any, it was revealed that his full name was Percy James Patrick Kent ’hyphen’ Smith, to which he was horrified! Percy is an English name, also a posh name, and with living in Scotland at the time, he feared that he would be made fun of by his peers, and felt like crying nor felt able to tell his teacher his full name the following day. Once over, he stuck by the name he had always known until later in his life.

 

At the age of eleven, his headmistress was keen that her students took decent jobs after leaving school, and organised talks with them by various professions, Doctors, Firemen, priests, who would all ask the students if that is what they would like to do. Kent put his arm up for all of them and was surprised when his headmistress allowed him to have the afternoon off school to go and visit the priest who had given them the talk about joining the priesthood. Kent and a fellow class mate, who also had put his hand up, went along to see the priest, once there, and to Kent’s surprise, his friend got cold feet, but ever the darer, Kent knocked on the door and began the next chapter in his life.

 

At the age of twelve, Kent left St Muns to continue his education at Blair’s Collage, a seminary in Aberdeen, training to become a priest. Whilst there, he found a love for Classical music and history, showing that there was more out there than in Dunoon. Kent excelled at his training, albeit the hindrance of developing ‘house maids knee’ due to praying, and became interested in his final years to continue his religious teachings to become a Dominican Monk. 

 

After sending out all the necessary forms to become a monk, he soon found that he was a year to young to become one, and instead back in his home town, joined the last year of his education at the age of 17 at a mixed Grammar school, where to his delight, he discovered the opposite sex and decided to rather ‘chase skirts, than to wear one!’ That of which put an end to his life of religious teachings.

 

 

Career

 

Once schooling was over, Kent decided to take a holiday in London, which turned into his permanent residence. Taking a job in an insurance company, he stayed there until the age of twenty seven after becoming bored with it and realising that the job wasn’t for him, he then went to work at the Roundhouse theatre in London, selling tickets and keeping the books.

 

He had been working with Brian Murphy, known to audiences around the world as George Roper in Tvs’ suburban sitcoms Man about the House and George and Mildred, when an actor in the name of Ken Campbell, approached first Murphy and asking him if he knew of any actors for a mad show he was setting up. Murphy, who had been looning around with Kent, assumed he was an actor and had replied to ’Ask the guy at the box office. He’s completely out of his head’. Kent was a hippy in them days, with long hair and a beard, which added to what Campbell was looking for, for his show. 

 

The show, to which Kent agreed to do under his better judgement as he can’t say no to anything, turned out to be ‘The Ken Campbell Roadshow’ A kind of entertainment buskers act, where Kent and the rest of the troop, performed daring and considered today, stupid acts to the public. Mostly in workingman’s clubs, and out on the street,  Kent’s performances consisted of various of things, mock fightin with another member of the troop, wearing only their underwear and boots, escaping from tied up mailbags whilst wrapped up in chains and handcuffs, setting bombs off his chest, setting fire to head, stuffing live ferrets down his trousers to see how long they could be kept down there and banging a nail up his nose. He also became very talented at playing the spoons and singing, taking his stage name ‘Sylvester’ from an old folk song

‘My Brother Sylveste’, ’McCoy’ coming from the old ’Navy recruitment’ joke. His stage name as it acquired, came about because the roadshow had been booked at a circus, Campbell had improvised an act for it with Sylvester/Kent as the star, playing a character called ‘Sylvester McCoy, The Human Bomb’. A critic watching the act assumed that ‘Sylvester’ was indeed a real person, Liking the irony of this, Kent adopted this stage name as his own, and became he is best known now as, Sylvester McCoy!

 

During his time with the Ken Campbell Roadshow, McCoy was introduced to bona fide theatre work and was invited many times to perform in subsequent plays and musicals, of which has never left him as to this day, he still loves and enjoys performing at the Theatre. McCoy also has appeared and starred in many television shows in Britain, his debut in a children’s show called ’Vision On’ in 1965, kick started McCoy’s career on screen. 

 

He has appeared in near fifty T.V shows spanning five decades and has appeared in twenty films, most notably of the two, he is best known for his Role as The Seventh Doctor in BBC’s Sifi time travelling show Doctor Who for TV, and as Radaghast the Brown in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit Trilogy, a prequel to Lord of the Rings. 

 

 

Doctor Who

 

Sylvester got his break for his part as the Seventh Doctor in 1987, as he was appearing on the stage as the Pied Piper, a role that was written just him, Doctor Who’s producer at the time, John Nathan Turner had gone to see Sylvester perform and decided right then and there that Sylvester was his next Doctor after it was announced that the previous Doctor, Colin Baker would be leaving his role.

 

Around the same time, Sylvester had in fact heard on the radio that Baker would be leaving, and after many people had said that he would make a great Doctor, he phoned his agent to ask for an interview and screen test. Sylvester won the role by a land side at his screen test, after competing against a few other talented actors, one including his friend who started him on his path as an actor, Ken Campbell. Sylvester, when asked how he became the Doctor admits that his trade mark hat that he wore as the Doctor was what finally landed him the job as he was wearing it for his audition, and JNT took a fancy to it for it to be part of the Doctors costume, to which Sylvester had replied, ‘Well if the hat is to be in Doctor Who then so shall I’

 

Sylvester was signed up to be the Doctor within a short time, but due to unforeseen circumstances at the BBC and their higher uppers, his first season was slammed by the critics badly, nethertheless, Sylvester went on to film another two series of Doctor Who, making his Doctor at first clownish to much darker by the end. Doctor Who was cancelled at the end of his final episode of his third series in nineteen eighty nine, by the BBC higher uppers, who in truth had wanted to cancel the series for quite a while, Sylvester had become known to be the one who cancelled Doctor Who, he didn’t reprise his role as the Doctor for another seven years until the Doctor Who TV Movie aired in nineteen ninety six, where his Doctor regenerated into the eighth, Paul McGann.

 

 

Recent Career

 

After Doctor Who, Sylvester kept himself busy with the multiple television shows and films, always there, but not quite in the limelight except for his most ardent fans, He appeared on stage and in film playing The Fool to Ian McKellen’s Macbeth for the Royal Shakespeare company production of Macbeth, travelling extensively around the world with the company.

 

It was while in a performance in Australia that Sylvester caught the attention of Peter Jackson, a lifelong fan of Sylvester’s Doctor, who was involved in the production of the Lord of the Rings films and asked Sylvester if he would audition for a screen test for the role of Bilbo Baggins. He readily agreed and did the audition, but due to a fluke of filming commitments from another actor up for the role, Sylvester just missed out on the role, he later found out that the role was narrowed down to two, himself and Ian Holm. Holm of course got the part, but Sylvester was not at all forgotten. When Jackson decided to film The Hobbit Trilogy, he knew Sylvester would be perfect for the role of the wizard, Radaghast the Brown, which in the original book only has a small mention, but Jackson made sure that Radaghast would have a bigger and better part in it. Sylvester once again auditioned for Radaghast and was cast post haste and now making Sylvester for certain in the lime light and generating hoards of new fans to him.

 

Sylvester, still busy as ever, continues to appear in tevelvision and film roles, as well as attending thousands of conventions to meet his generations of fans around the world, which suits him down to the ground as from his days in the seminary, he decided to become a missionary monk as it would have filed his need to travel across the globe, which is now what is brilliant acting has done for him.

 

Sylvester, a native of Scotland but now resides in London, with his Dutch wife Agnes, a retired nurse, who he has been with since his days in the Ken Campbell Roadshow, and two sons, Sam and Joe, both who were teens at the time of his Doctor, they themselves at the time preferring to watch the A-Team than their dads Doctor on television, they frequent Sylvester on his trips around the world quite often, which only assuming is to ‘keep their dad out of trouble’ as no matter how old Sylvester gets, he has the energy and spirit of an energetic puppy, as anyone who has had the pleasure meeting him knows only too well!