The best guest actors on season 26 of "Doctor Who

Nicholas Courtney was born in Egypt, the son of a British diplomat. His early years were spent in Kenya and France and he was called up for National Service at the age of 18. After 18 months of duty in the British forces, Courtney joined the Webber Douglas drama school. He spent two years there and then did repertory theatre in Northampton. His next move was to London.

During the 1960s, he played some roles in popular TV series. In 1965, he made an appearance on Doctor Who (1963), during the tenure of William Hartnell. The director, Douglas Camfield, remembered him and, in 1967, cast him as "Captain Knight" in "Doctor Who" episode "The Web of Fear". He took the part of "Lethbridge-Stewart", which was to become his most famous role, when the actor originally cast in the part had to drop out. At this time, Patrick Troughton was the star of the series.

Shortly after this, Courtney was offered the chance to play the role regularly and accepted. This guaranteed him work until 1975, when the character was written out of the series. He became a good friend of Jon Pertwee during his time on the programme, and returned in 1983, 1988 and 1989. His other television work has included a comedy with Frankie Howerd. Courtney has maintained a close association with "Doctor Who", narrating the documentary Doctor Who: Thirty Years in the TARDIS (1993) and attending conventions and appearing in spin-offs.

Born in London, Jean Marsh became interested in show business while taking dancing and mime classes as therapy for a childhood illness. After attending a charm school and working as a model, she started acting in repertory and took voice lessons. Her repertory work was supplemented by a number of film appearances as a dancer. She then spent three years in America, appearing in Sir John Gielgud's Broadway production of "Much Ado About Nothing" and numerous TV shows, including an episode of The Twilight Zone (1959). Returning to London, she won roles on stage, film and TV. It was during this period that she appeared in Doctor Who (1963), first as Princess Joanna in "The Crusade" and then as Sara Kingdom in "The Daleks' Master Plan." In the early 1970s she co-created and starred in LWT's Upstairs, Downstairs (1971). Since then she has maintained a very busy career in the theatre, on TV - including a starring role in the US sitcom Nine to Five (1982) and films such as Return to Oz (1985) and Willow (1988). She also co-created another successful series, The House of Eliott (1991).

Anthony Ainley was a notable British actor and a member of a distinguished British acting family. His brother was Richard Ainley (1910-1967) and his father Henry Ainley (1879-1945). He worked in the theatre for many years and eventually found work in various historical film dramas in the 1970s. However, his claim to fame is his casting in the role of the Master in the long running science fiction series, Doctor Who (1963). He first appeared in the role in 1981 and would makes further appearances each year up to and including 1986. He then reprised the role one last time in 1989, for the final Doctor Who serial entitled 'Survival'. He retired from acting professionally in the late nineties and played cricket up until the time of his death in May 2004.

Dinsdale Landen was educated at King's School, Rochester, and trained at the Florence Moore Drama School. This was followed by National Service with the RAF, during which time he joined a drama group. Upon demobilisation he joined Worthing rep. He enjoyed an extensive career in cinema, television and theatre. He announced his retirement from acting in 1998, upon the diagnosis of oral cancer. He died of pneumonia on 29 December 2003, aged 71, and left a widow, the actress Jennifer Daniel. At the time of his death the cancer was in remission.

He may not be a true household name, but Michael Cochrane's face is a familiar one to British Television viewers.

Cochrane's resume is an impressive one. He has starred in almost every long-running mainstream British television show since the 1970s.

Versatile and balanced, understated and elegant, this actor has always been somewhat typecast as upper-class businessmen or members of the British gentry. He has a menacing on-screen presence in villainous roles.

Cochrane remains a busy and sought-after actor on stage, screen, and indeed radio.

Marcus Gilbert was born on 29 July 1958 in Bristol. England, UK. He is an actor, known for Rambo III (1988), Army of Darkness (1992) and Uncle Silas (1989). He was previously married to Homaa Khan-Gilbert.

Dorota Kwiatkowska was born on 15 September 1957 in Warsaw, Mazowieckie, Poland. She was an actress, known for Thais (1984), Doctor Who (1963) and Testimony (1987). She was married to Charles Bodman Rae. She died on 19 December 2018 in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.

Lisa Bowerman is known for Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who: The Early Adventures (2014) and Doctor Who: The Companion Chronicles (2007).

James Ellis was born on 15 March 1931 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK. He was an actor and writer, known for Nightingales (1990), Playing the Field (1998) and Z Cars (1962). He was married to Robina Ellis and Beth Ellis. He died on 8 March 2014 in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England, UK.

Alfred Lynch was born in the East End of London in 1931. Born the son of a plumber, he quit school to become a draughtsman's apprentice. After doing his National Service in the Army he began to train as an actor, coming out as a real talent of British cinema with critically acclaimed roles in Coventry and the Royal Court in London. In the 1950s and '60s, he seemed a natural pick for the working class kitchen sink dramas given that he was short, sandy haired and a very down to earth and working class sort. He won a part in Look Back in Anger (1959), which allowed him to achieve greater fame in films during the 1960s. In the 1970s, he slowed his work down onscreen but continued to do work in theatres and had a return to the big screen in The Krays (1990) in 1990. He died of cancer after a long battle, aged 72.

June Bland was born in 1931 in Kettering, Northamptonshire, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Doctor Who (1963), The Newcomers (1965) and Bat Out of Hell (1966).

London-born Sylvia May Laura Syms hit major film appeal at a relatively young age. Born on January 6, 1934, she was educated at convent schools before receiving dramatic training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. She made her stage debut in a production of "The Apple Cart" in 1954.

A repertory player by the time she was discovered for films by the British star Anna Neagle and her director/husband Herbert Wilcox, the lovely demure blonde started out auspiciously enough in the delinquent film Teenage Bad Girl (1956) in which she played Neagle's troubled daughter. This was followed by a second Neagle/Wilcox collaboration with No Time for Tears (1957).

Excelling whether cast in stark melodrama, spirited adventure or harmless comedy fluff, Syms' film list grew impressive in the late 1950s and early 1960s working alongside the likes of John Mills and Anthony Quayle in Ice Cold in Alex (1958), Curd Jürgens and Orson Welles in Ferry to Hong Kong (1959), Lilli Palmer and Yvonne Mitchell in Conspiracy of Hearts (1960), Laurence Harvey in Expresso Bongo (1959), William Holden in The World of Suzie Wong (1960), and Dirk Bogarde in the landmark gay-themed Victim (1961), playing the unsuspecting wife of Bogarde's closeted male. After nearly a decade's absence, Sylvia returned briefly to the London theatre lights in 1964 to play the title role in "Peter Pan."

Ably portraying innocent love interests throughout the years, she graced a number of pictures without ever nabbing that one role that would truly put her over the top. She was nominated, however, three times for British Film Academy Awards--twice for best actress in Woman in a Dressing Gown (1957) and No Trees in the Street (1959) and once for supporting actress in The Tamarind Seed (1974) that starred Julie Andrews and Omar Sharif.

The 1970s saw quite a bit of TV series work and she played British prime minister Margaret Thatcher at one point on both stage and TV. She grew plumper with middle age and found herself immersed in character roles, offering support in such films as Absolute Beginners (1986), Shirley Valentine (1989) and Shining Through (1992).

The stage once again beckoned in the mid-to-late 1980's with touring performances, among many others, in "The Heiress," "The Beaux Stratagem," "The Ideal Husband," "A Doll's House," "Ghosts," "The Vortex," "Hamlet," "Anthony and Cleopatra" and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" She portrayed the Queen and Margaret Thatcher in a production of "Ugly Rumours" and was among the cast in a musical presentation of "On the Town" in 2005.

Into the millennium, Sylvia has continued to have remarkable agility. American audiences have recently seen her as the dog-doting "Princess Charlotte" in the light teen comedy What a Girl Wants (2003) with Amanda Bynes and Colin Firth, and treading water as the Shelley Winters character in the TV-remake of The Poseidon Adventure (2005). Other movies have included the role of the Queen Mum in The Queen (2006) starring Oscar-winning Helen Mirren as Queen Elizabeth II, as well as featured roles in Is Anybody There? (2008) starring Michael Caine and Booked Out (2012). She also co-starred opposite Peter Bowles in the heart-warming senior character study Together (2018).

Married once and divorced in the 1980s from Alvin Edney, daughter Beatie Edney (aka Beatrice) is a highly prolific actress in her own right, and her son, Benjamin Edney, was briefly an actor while young and appeared with his mother as her son in the western The Desperados (1969). Ms. Syms is sometimes confused with Brooklyn-born jazz/cabaret performer and recording artist Sylvia Syms (1917-1992) (née Sylvia Blagman).

Katharine Schlesinger was born in 1963 in Islington, London, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Doctor Who (1963), The Diary of Anne Frank (1987) and Screen Two (1984).

Carl Forgione was born on 3 May 1944 in Dundee, Scotland, UK. He was an actor, known for Doctor Who (1963), Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge (1994) and The Protectors (1972). He was married to Lorraine. He died on 10 September 1998 in Kensington, London, England, UK.