William Nicholas Stone Courtney (16 December 1929 – 22 February 2011) was an Egyptian-born British actor. He was known for his long-running role as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart in the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who. Early life Courtney was born in Cairo, Egypt, the son of a British diplomat father and half-American mother. His paternal grandfather was the journalist William Leonard Courtney. He was educated in France, Kenya and Egypt. On his maternal side, Courtney was descended from New Zealand politician John Cuff. He did his national service in the British Army, leaving after 18 months as a private, not wanting to pursue a military career. He moved to England to join London's Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art. After two years doing repertory theatre in Northampton, he became resident in London in 1961. Courtney's first television work was in the 1957 series Escape. He made guest appearances in several cult television series, including The Avengers (1962, 1967), The Champions (1968), Randall and Hopkirk (1969) and as a racing driver in Riviera Police (1965), and briefly appeared as a TV panel chairman in the film Take a Girl Like You (1970), hosting a debate between John Bird and John Fortune. Doctor Who Director Douglas Camfield originally considered Courtney for the role of Richard the Lionheart in the Doctor Who serial The Crusade (1965), a role that ultimately went to Julian Glover. Camfield made sure to keep Courtney in mind for future casting, however. Courtney made his first appearance in the series when Camfield cast him in the 1965 serial The Daleks' Master Plan, where he played Space Security Agent Bret Vyon opposite William Hartnell as the First Doctor. Camfield liked Courtney's performance, and when the director was assigned the 1968 serial The Web of Fear, he cast Courtney as Captain Knight. However, when David Langton gave up the role of Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart to work elsewhere, Camfield recast Captain Knight and gave the part to Courtney instead. The Lethbridge-Stewart character returned in the next season in "The Invasion", promoted to the rank of brigadier, and in charge of the British contingent of UNIT. The organisation had been charged with protecting the Earth from alien invasion. Years later actor and writer Ian Marter (who played UNIT medical officer Harry Sullivan alongside Tom Baker) named a Russian military base used in The Invasion, but unnamed on screen, "Nykortny" in his novelisation of the