Obituary - Trevor Baxter, actor known for cult role in Doctor Who
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Actor known for cult role in Doctor Who
Born: November 18, 1932;
Died: July 16, 2017
TREVOR Baxter, who has died aged 84, was a genial actor with a lightness of touch who could be spotted in everything from TV’s Z-Cars (1968) to the big screen’s Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004). But it was a chance encounter with Tom Baker’s Doctor Who that gave him cult immortality.
In 1977 he was cast as one-off character Professor George Litefoot in The Talons of Weng-Chiang, one of the show’s most enduringly popular stories which is set in a Victorian London beset with deadly Chinese tongs, a giant rat and a disfigured war criminal hiding in the sewers.
Litefoot is the pathologist brought in to solve some mysterious deaths and ends up assisting the Doctor alongside theatrical impresario Henry Gordon Jago (Christopher Benjamin). Jago and Litefoot made for a fine double act – Benjamin’s wonderful comedy bluster complementing Baxter’s exquisite precision – and there was talk of a spin-off.
It never happened on television, but over 40 years later Big Finish, who have produced hundreds of original Doctor Who audio adventures featuring leading actors from the show’s past, approached Baxter and Benjamin to reprise their roles. Thirteen series of Jago and Litefoot – charming comedy dramas with colourful villains, perplexing mysteries and lashings of derring-do – have been released on CD to great success, with both actors recreating their roles seamlessly.
The son of a post office worker, Trevor Baxter was brought up in Hither Green, Lewisham, and fell in love with acting at a very young age, enrolling at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art aged just 16 (after a spell at Dulwich college).
His first job was at the County Theatre in Aylesbury – the beginning of a theatrical career that took him to the Royal Shakespeare Company (1981-82, playing Capulet in Romeo and Juliet, Duke Senior in As You Like it, Carlisle in Richard II, Agamemnon in Troilus and Cressida and Stanley to Alan Howard’s Richard III), the Manchester Royal Exchange (including What the Butler Saw with Kate Winslet, 1994), the Bristol Old Vic (Gayev in The Cherry Orchard 1987-88), the Donmar (The Tempest 1988-89), as Polonius to Alan Cumming’s Hamlet for the English Touring Theatre and Gloucester to Warren Mitchell’s King Lear (Hackney Empire and West Yorkshire Playhouse).
On television he played guest roles in popular shows like Public Eye (1966), The New Avengers (1976) and My Family (2006) and appeared in major series including The Barchester Chronicles (1982), Jack the Ripper (1988), Selling Hitler (1991) and The Politician’s Wife (1995).
He wrote too – several of his plays were staged, including Lies (Albery Theatre, 1975), The Undertaking (Fortune Theatre, 1979), and adaptations of Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Grey (2003) and Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime (2005). The Last Evensong (1985, directed by Jon Amiel) was broadcast on BBC1.
A born raconteur and well-read intellectual, he fitted his Jago and Litefoot recordings in between hospital visits and retained his twinkling sense of humour, zest for life and love of reading (filling his Kindle in preparation for dialysis sessions) until the end.
Film
Year Title Role Notes
1950 The Cruise of the Toytown Belle TV film
1961 Seven Keys Police Constable Uncredited
1962 Struck Off First Doctor TV film
1966 A Man for All Seasons First Man Uncredited
1978 A Most Public Affair Witness TV film
1979 The Life Of Henry The Fifth Archbishop of Canterbury TV film
1982 Nutcracker Charlie Barker
1983 An Englishman Abroad Pyjama Shop Manager TV film
1986 The Great White Mountain Prior TV film
Ping Pong Priest in Church
1995 Cold Comfort Farm Sneller TV film
1997 The Hunchback Chief Lawyer TV film
1998 Parting Shots Maitre d'
2004 Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow Dr. Jennings
2006 Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj Sir Wilfred Own
Television
Year Title Role Notes
1956 Tales from Soho Episode: "The Rajah's Rope"
1961 Harpers West One Compere 1 episode
Boyd Q.C. Mr. Austin QC Episode: "The Headmistress"
Doctor Faustus Scholar 1 episode
Drama 61-67 Second Lieutenant Roberts Episode: "The Face of the Enemy"
1962 BBC Sunday-Night Play Mr. Wakley Episode: "Six Men of Dorset"
Somerset Maugham Hour Verity Episode: "The Back of Beyond"
1963 Drama 61-67 Personnel Officer Episode: "Andersen"
Lorna Doone Visitor from London Episode: "The Secret"
Taxi! Doctor Episode: "The Accident"
1964 Story Parade Leo Marchant Episode: "The Flaw in the Crystal"
1965 The Wednesday Play Dr. Paul Evans Episode: "The Seven O'Clock Crunch"
1966 Thirteen Against Fate Priest Episode: "The Witness"
Mystery and Imagination Undertaker Episode: "The Body Snatcher"
Public Eye Howells Episode: "There Are More Things in Heaven and Earth"
Adam Adamant Lives! Mr. Burke Episode: "The Village of Evil"
1967 Beardsley Episode: "Black Echo"
The Seven Deadly Virtues Reverend Johnson Episode: "The Man with Two Heads"
Boy Meets Girl Vicar Episode: "The Raging Moon"
ITV Play of the Week Mr. Williams Episode: "The Small Rebellion of Jess Calvert"
Vicar Episode: "The Voysey Inheritance"
The White Rabbit M. Lecompte-Boynet Episode: "The Raising Up"
1968 Z-Cars William Orchard Episode: "Inside Information"
Mystery and Imagination Cannon Tabard Episode: "Feet Foremost"
1970 The Roads to Freedom Blythe-Hardwick Episode: "The Reprieve"
1973 The Edwardians Schomberg McDonnell Episode: "Daisy"
So It Goes Mr. Bunce 2 episodes
BBC Play of the Month Roger Garrett Episode: "The Common"
1974 Zodiac Neville Episode: "The Cool Aquarian"
Centre Play Mayor Episode: "Albert and the Mayor's Tree"
1975 BBC Play of the Month Colonial Secretary Episode: "The Apple Cart"
Thriller Winters Episode: "Where the Action Is"
Edward the Seventh Bishop of London Episode: "The Boy"
Spy Trap Gordon Beng Episode: "With Friends Like You"
Against the Crowd Mr. Stone Episode: "We Are All Guilty"
1976 Lorna Doone Baron de Whichehalse Miniseries
The New Avengers Brown-Fitch Episode: "The Eagle's Nest"
Dickens of London Reverend Townshend Episode: "Magic"
1977 Doctor Who Professor Litefoot Episode: "The Talons of Weng-Chiang"
Rough Justice Mr. Burrowes Miniseries
George and Mildred The Reverend Stopes Episode: "Jumble Pie"
1978 Rumpole of the Bailey Maurice Nooks Episode: "Rumpole and the Heavy Brigade"
1979 George and Mildred Oxfam Man Episode: "Finders Keepers?"
1982 The Barchester Chronicles Dr. Gwynne 2 episodes
1983 The Dark Side of the Sun Dr. Phillimore 2 episodes
1984 Horizon Professor Breene Episode: "The Intelligence Man"
1985 Maelstrom Dr. Albrigtsen Miniseries
1988 Jack the Ripper Lanyon Miniseries
1991 Selling Hitler Frank Giles Miniseries
1993 Paul Merton: The Series 1 episode
1995 The Politician's Wife Gordon Naylor Miniseries
2006 Doctors Sam Episode: "Three's a Crowd"
My Family Lionel Episode: "The Art of Being Susan"

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