Stephen Thorne
Biography
Stephen John Thorne (2 March 1935 – 26 May 2019) was a British actor of radio, film, stage, and television. He was best known for his regular BBC Radio 4 work and audiobook recordings, and for his portrayals of a few Doctor Who villains, including the Time Lord Omega.
He played several seasons with the Old Vic Company and the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford and London, including a tour to Russia. He worked extensively in radio with over 2000 broadcasts for the BBC, including as Uncle Mort in the Radio 4 comedy series Uncle Mort's North Country.
His television credits included Z-Cars, Crossroads, and Doctor Who. In Doctor Who, he played three major villains (Omega, Azal, and Eldrad), as well as an Ogron, before later playing the villainous Max in The Ghosts of N-Space, a Doctor Who BBC Radio story, in the mid-1990s. Also on the radio, Thorne appeared as Aslan in The Magician's Nephew, as Treebeard in the Radio 4 adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, and also in their adaptation of Terry Pratchett's Guards! Guards! in which he portrayed Fred Colon (and also Death).
Other television work included Death of an Expert Witness, David Copperfield, and Last of the Summer Wine. He voiced Aslan in the animated version of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Thorne reprised the character on the BBC radio adaptation of the same name. He gave many poetry readings on radio, television, tape and in venues from Westminster Abbey to various pubs.
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Full filmography
- Doctor Who (1963) as Kastrian Eldrad
- Doctor Who (1963) as Omega
- Doctor Who (1963) as First Ogron
- Doctor Who (1963) as Azal
- Dalgliesh (1983) as Paul Middlemass
- Shakespeare: The Animated Tales (1992) as Stephano (voice)
- Shakespeare: The Animated Tales (1992) as Hastings / Cardinal (voice)
- Tales of the Tardis (2023) as Omega
- Testament: The Bible in Animation (1996) as King of Ninevah (voice)
- Testament: The Bible in Animation (1996) as Governor (voice)
- David Copperfield (1986) as Daniel Peggotty
- Death of an Expert Witness (1983) as Paul Middlemass
- The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1979) as Aslan (voice)
- The Ties That Bind Us (2008) as Omega / Azal (archive footage)
- Doctor Who: Mawdryn Undead (1983) as Omega (archive footage) (Special Edition)
- The Fred Dibnah Story (1996) as Narrator (Voice)
- Doctor Who: Frontier in Space (1973) as First Ogron
- Doctor Who: The Hand of Fear (1976) as Kastrian Eldrad
- I Was a Doctor Who Monster! (1996)
- Doctor Who: The Three Doctors (1973) as Omega
- Police 5: The Master (1993) as Azal (archive footage)
- Doctor Who: The Dæmons (1971) as Azal
- Run for the Lifeboat (1988) as Newsreader
- The Tempest (1993) as Stephano