Jack Davenport

Accordingly, some consider him to have beaten Tom Baker's seven year record as the Doctor. Although McCoy only appeared as the Doctor for three seasons (plus the telemovie), he was considered the "current" Doctor from 1987 to 1996. He played the Doctor again in 1996, appearing in the Doctor Who television movie where he handed the role over to Paul McGann. He took over the lead role of Doctor Who in 1987, taking over from Colin Baker, and remained the lead until the series was shelved in 1989 (see List of Doctor Who serials).

Notable television appearances before he gained the role of the Doctor included roles in Vision On and Tiswas. As a joke, the programme notes listed Sylveste McCoy as played by "Sylvester McCoy", and after a reviewer missed the joke and assumed that Sylvester McCoy was a real person, Kent-Smith adopted this as his stage name. His best known act was as a stuntman character called "Sylveste McCoy", whose stunts included putting a fork up his nose and stuffing ferrets down his trousers. He came to prominence as a member of the comedy act "The Ken Campbell Roadshow".

He was born Percy James Patrick Kent-Smith in Dunoon, Scotland. He is best known for playing the seventh incarnation of the Doctor in the long-running science fiction television series Doctor Who, the last before the programme was put on hiatus in 1989. Sylvester McCoy (born August 20, 1943) is a British actor.