Anthony Ainley (born Anthony Holmes; 20 August 1932 – 3 May 2004) was a British actor. He is best known for portraying the Master in the BBC television series Doctor Who from 1981 to 1989.[1][2]
Anthony Ainley | |
|---|---|
 Ainley at a convention in Baltimore, Maryland, in March 1987 | |
| Born | Anthony Holmes 20 August 1932 London, England |
| Died | 3 May 2004 (aged 71) Harrow, London, England |
| Education | Royal Academy of Dramatic Art |
| Years active | 1942, 1965–1989, 1997 |
| Father | Henry Ainley |
| Relatives | Richard Ainley (half-brother) |
Early life and education
editAnthony Ainley was born Anthony Holmes in London[3][4][5] on 20 August 1932, the illegitimate son of actor Henry Ainley and Clarice Holmes. His older brother Timothy was born in 1931 during his parents' affair. His older half-brother was actor Richard Ainley. Clarice struggled as a single mother and placed her two sons in the Actors’ Orphanage around 1938. During World War II, Anthony and Timothy were evacuated to the United States, where they resided with the Edwin Gould Foundation in New York. In 1945, they returned to new orphanage premises in London.[4]
He attended Cranleigh School from 1947[4] to 1950.[citation needed] After undertaking his national service in the Parachute Regiment,[4] he started working as an insurance clerk.[5][4] He was involved in amateur dramatic productions, and while rehearsing an early 1950s production of Rookery Nook he was coached by future Doctor Who star William Hartnell.[4] He subsequently trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art,[5][4] where in 1963 he began using the stage name Anthony Ainley. He acted in productions of Twelfth Night, You Never Can Tell and The Importance of Being Earnest.[4] At RADA he won the Fabia Drake Prize for Comedy.[6][4]
Career
editAinley made his screen debut with a bit part in the propaganda comedy film The Foreman Went to France (1942).[4][5]
Ainley's swarthy appearance tended to get him parts as villains, though an early regular role on British television was as Det. Sgt Hunter, sidekick to William Mervyn's Chief Inspector Rose in the second series of It's Dark Outside in 1966. Other notable roles include a subaltern in the 1969 film version of Oh! What a Lovely War,[7] Dietz in the 1974 film version of The Land That Time Forgot,[7] Reverend Fallowfield in the Tigon film The Blood on Satan's Claw (1971),[7] Henry Sidney in Elizabeth R (1971),[7] Clive Hawksworth in Spyder's Web (1972),[7] Rev. Emilius in the BBC's adaptation of The Pallisers (1974),[7] Johnson in the first episode of the BBC programme Secret Army (1977), and Sunley in The Avengers episode "Noon Doomsday" (1968). He was also one of the Hong Kong policemen who discover James Bond's supposed corpse in the opening sequence of You Only Live Twice (1967). Ainley played the role of the wealthy young peer Lord Charles Gilmour in the LWT series Upstairs, Downstairs (1973).[7]
Doctor Who
edit
Reportedly, it was his performance as Rev. Emilius (in The Pallisers) that led to him being offered the role of the Master by John Nathan-Turner, who had worked on The Pallisers seven years before becoming producer of Doctor Who.[3] Ainley first portrayed Nyssa's father Tremas in the 1981 serial The Keeper of Traken, which led to him becoming a new embodiment of The Master. From then on, he appeared in most seasons up until the cancellation of the original series in 1989, including its final serial, Survival.[8]
Ainley's incarnation of The Master spanned four different incarnations of the Doctor. His appearances included the following serials: The Keeper of Traken (1981), Logopolis (1981), Castrovalva (1982), Time-Flight (1982), The King's Demons (1983), The Five Doctors (1983), Planet of Fire (1984), The Mark of the Rani (1985), The Ultimate Foe (1986) and Survival (1989).
He later reprised the role for the 1997 BBC computer game Destiny of the Doctors.[4]
Ainley's great love of the role is often cited in documentaries and DVD commentaries. Script editor Eric Saward claimed that he introduced himself over the phone by saying "This is the Master" and then would laugh. In the commentary and documentary for The Mark of the Rani, both Colin Baker and Kate O'Mara say that "He only ever wanted to play the Master." Baker remarked that he could afford this luxury because he had built up a private income by the mid-1980s and had inherited a considerable sum of money from his father. In "Cat Flap: Making of Survival", Sylvester McCoy confirms that all he ever wanted to be was the Master, and he kept his role active, even when not on set. "He was as scary off camera as he was on it."[citation needed]
Personal life
editAinley neither married nor had children.[3][4] He joked on the DVD commentary for The Keeper of Traken (which was recorded shortly before his death) that he did not like the three rings of marriage: the engagement ring, the wedding ring and the bickering.
Ainley was a keen sportsman. Initially he was a rugby player, he played at fly-half for the Old Cranleighans, Richmond and Middlesex.[9] Later he turned his attentions to cricket, citing Sophie Aldred (who played Ace) as his friend once he learned that she played the game. He appeared on many occasions for the Stage and London Theatres C.C. mainly as an opening batsman.[10][2][5][4][3][11][12][13]
Death
editAinley died at Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow, London, on 3 May 2004.[2][4][5] The Times' obituary for him listed the cause of death as cancer. He was known to be reclusive, remaining out of the public eye for most of his life after Doctor Who was put on hiatus in 1989.[citation needed]
Biography
editFilmography
edit
Film
edit| Year | Title | Role | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1942 | The Foreman Went to France | Uncredited | [3] | |
| 1966 | Naked Evil | Dick Alderson | [5] | |
| 1967 | You Only Live Twice | Hong Kong Policeman #2 | Uncredited | |
| 1968 | Inspector Clouseau | Bomber LeBec | ||
| Joanna | Bruce | |||
| 1969 | Oh! What a Lovely War | 3rd Aide | ||
| 1971 | Assault | Mr. Bartell | ||
| The Blood on Satan's Claw | Reverend Fallowfield | |||
| 1974 | The Land That Time Forgot | Dietz | [11] | |
Television
edit| Year | Title | Role | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1965 | It's Dark Outside | Det. Sgt. Hunter | 5 episodes | |
| 1967 | The Golden Age | Uncredited | 1 episode: A Divided Country | |
| Champion House | Leslie Molesworth | 1 episode: The Second Freedom | ||
| 1968 | The Avengers | Edward Sunley | 1 episode: Noon-Doomsday | |
| The Champions | Landing party lookout #1 | 1 episode: The Dark Island | ||
| 1969 | Who-Dun-It | Paul Verrier | 1 episode: The Fall of a Goddess | |
| 1970 | Department S | Supervisor | 1 episode: A Ticket to Nowhere | |
| Biography | Trelawny | 1 episode: Byron | ||
| 1971 | Doomwatch | Senior House Officer | 1 episode: No Room for Error | |
| Play for Today | Surgeon | 1 episode: The Rainbirds | ||
| Elizabeth R | Henry Sidney | 1 episode: The Marriage Game | ||
| Out of the Unknown | Frank Bowers-One | 1 episode: Welcome Home | ||
| Brett | Gerard Delamore | 2 episodes | ||
| Hassan | Ishak | TV movie | ||
| 1972 | The Adventurer | Kerston | 1 episode: The Bradley Way | |
| The Shadow of the Tower | Sir William Courtney | 1 episode: The Man Who Never Was | ||
| Clouds of Witness | Dennis Cathcart | 1 episode | ||
| Spyder's Web | Clive Hawksworth | 13 episodes | ||
| BBC Play of the Month | Ferdinand Gadd | 1 episode: Trelawny of the Wells | ||
| 1973 | Warship | Phillip Tashing | 1 episode: A Standing and Jumping War | |
| Orson Welles Great Mysteries | Lafarge | 1 episode: The Ingenious Reporter | ||
| Upstairs, Downstairs | Lord Charles Gilmour | 3 episodes | ||
| 1974 | The Pallisers | Rev. Emilius | 7 episodes | |
| 1975 | Anne of Avonlea | Stephen Irving | 1 episode | |
| 1976 | The Flight of the Heron | Lord George Murray | 1 episode | |
| The Fortune Hunters | Leslie Symington | TV movie | ||
| Within These Walls | James Buckingham | 1 episode: Visitors | ||
| 1977 | Nicholas Nickleby | Sir Mulberry Hawk | 4 episodes | |
| Secret Army | Johnson | 1 episode: Lisa – Codename Yvette | ||
| Target | Alexander Trist | 1 episode: Carve Up | ||
| 1978 | The Devil's Crown | Pope Innocent III | 1 episode: Tainted King | |
| Lillie | Lord Carrington | 2 episodes | ||
| 1980 | Mackenzie | Richard Wilcox | 3 episodes | |
| 1981 | Doctor Who | Tremas | 4 episodes; serial The Keeper of Traken | |
| 1981–1986, 1989 | The Master | 27 episodes; serials The Keeper of Traken, Logopolis, Castrovalva, Time-Flight, The King's Demons, The Five Doctors, Planet of Fire, The Caves of Androzani, The Mark of the Rani, The Ultimate Foe, and Survival | ||
| 1982 | Portreeve | 2 episodes; serial Castrovalva | ||
| Kalid (as Leon Ny Taiy) | 1 episode; serial Time-Flight | |||
| 1983 | Sir Gilles Estram | 1 episode; serial The King's Demons | ||
| The Boy Who Won the Pools | Mr. Simmons | 2 episodes | ||
| 1997 | Destiny of the Doctors | The Master | Video game; Final role | [4] |
References
edit- ↑ Ware, Peter. "Fact File: Utopia". BBC. Archived from the original on 8 November 2012. Retrieved 8 January 2025.
- 1 2 3 4 Melvin, Alex (21 May 2004). "Doctor's nemesis dies". Harrow Times. Archived from the original on 3 July 2025. Retrieved 3 July 2025.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Hadoke, Toby (15 May 2004). "Obituary: Anthony Ainley". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 7 March 2016.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Wright, Mark, ed. (18 April 2018). "Ghost Light, The Curse of Fenric and Survival". Doctor Who: The Complete History. Vol. 46. Panini Comics, Hachette Partworks.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Hayward, Anthony (9 May 2004). "Anthony Ainley". The Independent. Archived from the original on 11 March 2025. Retrieved 5 May 2017.
- ↑ "Anthony Ainley". thestage.co.uk. 17 May 2004. Retrieved 3 June 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Anthony Ainley". IMDb. Retrieved 5 May 2017.
- ↑ "Doctor Who Classic Episode Guide – Survival – Details". BBC. 29 October 2014. Archived from the original on 9 December 2006.
- ↑ Stephen, Donald. "Obituary: Anthony Ainley". Old Cranleighans Magazine.
- ↑ Haigh, Gideon, ed. (2006). Peter The Lord's Cat and Other Unexpected Obituaries From Wisden. London: John Wisden + Co. p. 3.
- 1 2 Lynch, Steven (October 2015). "Death becomes him". The Cricket Monthly. Archived from the original on 5 January 2026.
- ↑ "Lives Remembered". The Times. Retrieved 3 June 2026.
- ↑ "Weird but true... curious cricketing tales from the annals of Wisden". The Independent. 23 August 2006. Archived from the original on 15 May 2025. Retrieved 3 June 2026.
- ↑ "Anthony Ainley - The Man Behind the Master". Fantom Publishing. Retrieved 2 June 2024.