Anecdotes

He was president of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society for many years before his death.

He was a close friend of his Docteur Who (1963) co-stars Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker. According to a statement on Tom Baker's website, he visited Courtney at a North London hospice only 5 days before his death.

He was the only Docteur Who (1963) actor to attend the funeral of Anthony Ainley - who played the Master on the series from 1981 to 1989 - in May 2004.

He worked with every actor to play the Doctor in Docteur Who (1963), Le seigneur du temps (1996) and Doctor Who (2005) except for Christopher Eccleston and Matt Smith. He worked with William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davison and Sylvester McCoy in numerous episodes of Docteur Who (1963) from 1965 to 1989 and with Colin Baker, Paul McGann and David Tennant in numerous Big Finish audio dramas from 2000 to 2003.

He was cast as "Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart" in Docteur Who (1963) by director Douglas Camfield, who himself had served as an officer in the British Army.

He was voted best actor of the 26th season by Doctor Who Magazine readers for Battlefield: Part One (1989).

Although he played a senior officer in many episodes of Docteur Who (1963), Courtney was actually just a private during his period of service in the British Army. His performance in the role of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart was considered so convincing that real-life army officers made it known to the production office how much they related to his performance.

Along with Patrick Troughton, he was one of only two actors to play the same character (his was Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart) in Docteur Who (1963) in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.

Courtney loved stage acting and Shakespeare. His favourite actor was Paul Scofield, a leading British classical stage actor.

He served on the Equity Council.

He often played senior British Establishment characters due to his classic British accent.

He won the Margaret Rutherford Medal at the Webber Douglas Academy in 1952.

He was tied (with Elisabeth Sladen) for the record of Doctor Who actors having appeared with the most incarnations of the title character - including the special Doctor Who: Dimensions in Time (1993), he appeared with all 7 different actors who portrayed the Doctor during the series' original run.

At one time, he had the same agent as original Docteur Who (1963) star, William Hartnell.

He finally appeared with Colin Baker's incarnation of the Doctor for a brief scene in the 1993 charity special Doctor Who: Dimensions in Time (1993).

He performed with the BBC Radio Drama Company.

He was considered for for Dr. Armstrong, Sir Percy Heseltine and The Pathologist in Lifeforce - L'étoile du mal (1985).

Played the Brigadier for 41 years from 1968 to 2009, as his final onscreen appearance is him reprising his Brigadier role again for the final time. with the first 21 years (1968 to 1989) were his regular appearances on Doctor Who before its initial cancellation in 1989, making him one of the longest serving actors to play the same character in any type of media.

His agent in his later career was another former Dr Who assistant, Wendy Padbury.

He trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Arts in London, whose alumni included his Doctor Who co-star Katy Manning, as well as Terence Stamp, Julia Ormond, Rupert Friend, Angela Lansbury, Matthew Goode, Hugh Bonneville, Daniel Hunt, Minnie Driver, Julian Fellowes and Ross Kemp.

Died 22 days after his co-star Elisabeth Sladen's 65th birthday, same month Sladen got diagnosed with cancer and two months before Sladen's death.