Nicholas Courtney (1929-2011)

[jjpor]

Funny thing, really, but I don't normally get sentimental about the passing away of people I only know through the medium of television, yet I'm feeling kind of wistful as I type this, with a manly something in my manly eye, or something.

Certainly, Nicholas Courtney had a longer, fuller life than a lot of people ever have, but I can't help feeling that, you know, with all due respect to Sarah Jane Adventures, the world would somehow be a better, finer place had the Brig ever got the chance to cross paths with one of the new series Doctors.

This is a nice obituary that provides a reminder that there was much more to Nicholas Courtney than the Brigadier:

www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2011/feb/23/nicholas-courtney-obituary

And this is a fine tribute in pictures from calapine:

calapine.livejournal.com/652117.html

Comments

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean. Usually when someone famous dies, I'll think, "Oh, that's sad," but that's about it. For some reason, Nick Courtney's death feels a lot more personal. It might be because it's the first major death from "my" era of Doctor Who (well, there was also Ian Marter, but I don't really remember his death). It might be because through the years, the Brig was the only character who was always part of Doctor Who -- someone I knew really might show up again at any time. Or it might simply be that there was no other character on television quite as awesome as Brigadier Alastair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart as portrayed by Nicholas Courtney.

Thanks for the link to calapine's picspam. I really enjoyed that.

[jjpor.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you enjoyed it - so did I. Yes, it does seem like a great blow to a great many people, really, and I agree it's probably down to the fact that in all of Doctor Who there was only one character like the Brigadier, and he was simply excellently portrayed. For a character that was, let us be honest, so often badly-written or written one-dimensionally in some of the late Three stories, he was always well played, with a lot of charm and subtlety, by Courtney. I think a lot of what makes the character so likeable and memorable in this case comes from the actor rather than many of the scripts.