History Creator / SylvesterMcCoy

[[caption-width-right:350:Cast an entertainer as the Doctor and you've got a master of comic relief. Cast a ''Scottish'' entertainer and you'll wind up with a [[LargeHam humongous ham on]] [[UsefulNotes/ScottishEnglish bannock bread]].]]

[=McCoy=] still regularly enjoys new adventures in ''AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho''. Because he is a darling and an entertainer at heart, [=McCoy=] is also notorious for having returned to the role often in less-than-legal circumstances, such as the Wilderness Years Creator/BBVProductions audio series about [[DoctorWhomage "The Professor & Ace"]] (as part of which Creator/RobertShearman, later to write "Dalek" for the revived series, got his first crack of the whip at the Doctor), the fanfilm ''Gene Genius'', or, as recently as 2019, ''WebVideo/DoctorWhoTheMovie''.

[[quoteright:310:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sylv_9148.png]]
[[caption-width-right:310:Cast an entertainer as the Doctor and you've got a master of comic relief. Cast a ''Scottish'' entertainer and you'll wind up with a [[LargeHam humongous ham on]] [[UsefulNotes/ScottishEnglish bannock bread]].]]

->''"There's still a part of me that believes what was great about Doctor Who in the early days was that you had a superhero who didn't wear his underpants on the outside of his trousers, who used his brain rather than his brawn."''

Sylvester [=McCoy=] (born Percy James Patrick Kent-Smith; 20 August 1943 in Dunoon, Scotland) is a Scottish actor. He came to prominence as a member of the comedy act "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=]", where his stunts included putting a fork and nails up his nose, stuffing ferrets down his trousers and setting his head on fire. He later became a pantomime performer for ''Series/VisionOn'', a long-running 70's children show targeted specifically at deaf children, primarily as a denizen of a topsy-turvy world available through a magic mirror.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: He was the second choice for Bilbo Baggons in Peter Jackson's ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' trilogy. The role, instead, would go to Sir Creator/IanHolm.

* ''Film/Dracula1979'' (1979) as Walter
* ''Series/{{Jigsaw}}'' (1979) as O-Man

He's nowadays best known for playing the magnificently [[LargeHam hammy]] Seventh Doctor on ''Series/DoctorWho''. By technicality, he's also the only actor to play two different incarnations of the Doctor, {{Fake Shemp}}ing for the recently-fired Creator/ColinBaker for the opening of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS24E1TimeAndTheRani "Time and the Rani"]]. He also has the distinction of being the last Doctor in the regular television series (he regenerated into Creator/PaulMcGann at the start of [[Recap/DoctorWhoTVMTheTVMovie the TV movie]]) until the revival in 2005. He was also the first Doctor to be webcast, voicing the 7th Doctor in the special "Recap/DeathComesToTime" (which was never intended to be particularly canonical, and has since been well and truly disproved).

Despite his tenure being cut criminally short by the network (he planned to stay on for just one more season before leaving, but the show got canned before his departing episode could even be decided on), he remained the canonical Doctor during the bulk of ''Who'''s cancellation years, long enough to appear in a lot (and we mean ''a lot''[[note]]We'd list all of them, but - and we're ''not'' exaggerating - we would, quite literally, ''be here until the end of time itself'' if we tried.[[/note]]) of ''Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse'' novels. Freed from the constraints of G-rated telly and providing the equivalent of ''Doctor Who'' methadone for the fans, the ''[[Literature/DoctorWhoNewAdventures New Adventures]]'' books (barring [[FanonDiscontinuity a few significantly less canonical ones]], like ''Lungbarrow'') had an enormous lasting impact on future writers of the TV series; most notably Creator/RussellTDavies and Creator/StevenMoffat. A Tenth Doctor story, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E8HumanNature "Human Nature"]] (and its accompanying second part, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E9TheFamilyOfBlood "The Family of Blood"]]), was adapted from an ''NA'' book of the same name. [=McCoy=] still regularly enjoys new adventures in ''AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho''. Because he is a darling and an entertainer at heart, [=McCoy=] is also notorious for having returned to the role often in less-than-legal circumstances, such as the Wilderness Years Creator/BBVProductions audio series about [[DoctorWhomage "The Professor & Ace"]] (as part of which Creator/RobertShearman, later to write "Dalek" for the revived series, got his first crack of the whip at the Doctor), the fanfilm ''Gene Genius'', or, as recently as 2019, ''WebVideo/DoctorWhoTheMovie''.

He's nowadays best known for playing the magnificently [[LargeHam hammy]] Seventh Doctor on ''Series/DoctorWho''. By technicality, he's also the only actor to play two different incarnations of the Doctor, {{Fake Shemp}}ing for the recently-fired Creator/ColinBaker for the opening of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS24E1TimeAndTheRani "Time and the Rani"]]. He also has the dubious distinction of being the last Doctor in the regular television series (he regenerated into Creator/PaulMcGann at the start of [[Recap/DoctorWhoTVMTheTVMovie the TV movie]]) until the revival in 2005. He was also the first Doctor to be webcast, voicing the 7th Doctor in the special "Recap/DeathComesToTime" (which was never intended to be particularly canonical, and has since been well and truly disproved).

Other works featuring [=McCoy=] include 1985 miniseries ''Series/TheLastPlaceOnEarth'', in which he played a member of Robert Scott's doomed South Pole expedition. He tried out for the role of Bilbo Baggins in Creator/PeterJackson's ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings''. While that role went to Creator/IanHolm, Sylvester [=McCoy=] would later get cast as Radagast the Brown Wizard in ''Film/TheHobbit'' film trilogy. In 2017 he made a quite surprising break from his typical family-friendly roles as "The Old Man of the Hoy" in ''Series/{{Sense8}}'', an extremely paranoid Sensate whose first line is "Holy shit!"

!!Tropes associated with this actor include:

* DisappearedDad: A very sad example, in that his father was killed in action in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII a month ''before'' [=McCoy=] was born. His parents had only been married for about a year prior to his father being killed.
* EmbarrassingMiddleName: The whole thing. For much of his life he thought his name was just "Kent Smith". His mother didn't tell him his full name until mid-way through school. He was named after his father. It made him cry.
* FunPersonified: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_Omz0lhapA Doctor Who spoon dance!]]
** He's also got the unique habit at conventions to be completely unable to sit on a chair at the stage, frequently wandering around his audience and happily taking questions himself. Of course, this habit endears him even more to his audience.
* {{Keet}}: To the point where he had to have both of his hips replaced because of it.

* LargeHam: [[https://youtu.be/QhlmNkk5r0k?t=93 Just watch him perform one of the Eleventh Doctor's speeches]]. He manages to out-ham Creator/MattSmith by several ''light years''.

Despite his tenure being cut criminally short by the network (he planned to stay on for just one more season before leaving, but the show got canned before his departing episode could even be decided on), he remained the canonical Doctor during the bulk of ''Who'''s cancellation years, long enough to appear in a lot (and we mean ''a lot'') of ''Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse'' novels. Freed from the constraints of G-rated telly and providing the equivalent of ''Doctor Who'' methadone for the fans, the ''[[Literature/DoctorWhoNewAdventures New Adventures]]'' books (barring [[FanonDiscontinuity a few significantly less canonical ones]], like ''Lungbarrow'') had an enormous lasting impact on future writers of the TV series; most notably Creator/RussellTDavies and Creator/StevenMoffat. A Tenth Doctor story, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E8HumanNature "Human Nature"]] (and its accompanying second part, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E9TheFamilyOfBlood "The Family of Blood"]]), was adapted from an ''NA'' book of the same name. [=McCoy=] still regularly enjoys new adventures in ''AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho''. Because he is a darling and an entertainer at heart, [=McCoy=] is also notorious for having returned to the role often in less-than-legal circumstances, such as the Wilderness Years Creator/BBVProductions audio series about [[DoctorWhomage "The Professor & Ace"]] (as part of which Creator/RobertShearman, later to write "Dalek" for the revived series, got his first crack of the whip at the Doctor), the fanfilm ''Gene Genius'', or, as recently as 2019, ''WebVideo/DoctorWhoTheMovie''.

He's nowadays best known for playing the magnificently [[LargeHam hammy]] Seventh Doctor on ''Series/DoctorWho''. By technicality, he's also the only actor to play two different incarnations of the Doctor, {{Fake Shemp}}ing for the recently-fired Creator/ColinBaker for the opening of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS24E1TimeAndTheRani "Time and the Rani"]]. He also has the dubious distinction of being the last Doctor in the regular television series (he regenerated into Creator/PaulMcGann at the start of [[Recap/DoctorWhoTVMTheTVMovie the TV movie]]) until the revival in 2005. He was also the first Doctor to be webcast, voicing the 7th Doctor in the special "Recap/DeathComesToTime" (which was never intended to be particularly canonical, and has since been well and truly {{jossed}}).

Sylvester [=McCoy=] (born Percy James Patrick Kent-Smith; 20 August 1943 in Dunoon, Scotland) is a Scottish actor. He came to prominence as a member of the comedy act "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=]", where his stunts included putting a fork and nails up his nose, stuffing ferrets down his trousers and setting his head on fire. He later became a pantomime performer for the long-running children's show, ''Series/VisionOn'', primarily as a denizen of a topsy-turvy world available through a magic mirror.

Despite his tenure being cut criminally short by the network (he planned to stay on for just one more season before leaving, but the show got canned before his departing episode could even be decided on), he remained the canonical Doctor during the bulk of ''Who'''s cancellation years, long enough to appear in a lot (and we mean ''a lot'') of ''Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse'' novels. Freed from the constraints of G-rated telly and providing the equivalent of ''Doctor Who'' methadone for the fans, the ''[[Literature/DoctorWhoNewAdventures New Adventures]]'' books (barring [[FanonDiscontinuity a few significantly less canonical ones]], like ''Lungbarrow'') had an enormous lasting impact on future writers of the TV series; most notably Russell T. Davies and the [[Creator/StevenMoffat Grand Moff]] himself. A Tenth Doctor story, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E8HumanNature "Human Nature"]] (and its accompanying second part, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E9TheFamilyOfBlood "The Family of Blood"]]), was adapted from an ''NA'' book of the same name. [=McCoy=] still regularly enjoys new adventures in ''AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho''. Because he is a darling and an entertainer at heart, [=McCoy=] is also notorious for having returned to the role often in less-than-legal circumstances, such as the Wilderness Years BBV audio series about [[{{Expy}} "The Professor & Ace"]] (as part of which Rob Shearman, later to write ''Dalek'' for the revived series, got his first crack of the whip at the Doctor), the fanfilm ''Gene Genius'', or, as recently as 2019, ''WebVideo/DoctorWhoTheMovie''.

Has the dubious distinction of being the shortest actor to play The Doctor at 5'6", a record he now shares with fellow 5'6" Creator/JodieWhittaker.

Other works featuring [=McCoy=] include 1985 miniseries ''Series/TheLastPlaceOnEarth'', in which he played a member of Robert Scott's doomed South Pole expedition, and ''Series/VisionOn'', a 1970s TV series targeted specifically at deaf children. He tried out for the role of Bilbo Baggins in Creator/PeterJackson's ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings''. While that role went to Creator/IanHolm, Sylvester [=McCoy=] would later get cast as Radagast the Brown Wizard in ''Film/TheHobbit'' film series, first appearing in 2012, and in the 2013 and 2014 films as well. In 2017 he made a quite surprising break from his typical family friendly roles as "The Old Man of the Hoy" in ''Series/{{Sense8}}'', an extremely paranoid Sensate whose first line is "Holy shit!"

He tried out for the role of Bilbo Baggins in Creator/PeterJackson's ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings''. While that role went to Creator/IanHolm, Sylvester [=McCoy=] would later get cast as Radagast the Brown Wizard in ''Film/TheHobbit'' film series, first appearing in 2012, and in the 2013 and 2014 films as well. In 2017 he made a quite surprising break from his typical family friendly roles as "The Old Man of the Hoy" in ''Series/{{Sense8}}'', an extremely paranoid Sensate whose first line is "Holy shit!"