Actor John Leeson, best known as the voice of K9 in Doctor Who, has died aged 83 after what his family described as a “summer of illness”. He died on Sunday afternoon, they said.
His son, film editor Guy Ducker, announced the death on Facebook, identifying his father as John Ducker, also known by his stage name John Leeson. He said the actor’s death at 3.03pm had been peaceful.
“Good night, sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest,” Mr Ducker wrote.
Leeson first appeared as K9 in The Invisible Enemy in 1977 and continued to voice the Doctor’s loyal robotic companion through much of the original Doctor Who series.
He returned to the role several times after leaving the programme, including in the spin-off K9 and Company, the 20th-anniversary special The Five Doctors and a number of audio dramas.
Leeson also reprised K9 when Doctor Who returned to television in 2006, appearing alongside David Tennant’s Doctor and Elisabeth Sladen’s Sarah Jane Smith in School Reunion.
Tennant paid tribute to the actor, saying Leeson had given K9 “something no special effect could supply” — a distinctive personality that generations of viewers came to love.
“That unmistakable voice could make K9 sound clever, wonderfully particular and quietly heroic sometimes within a single ‘Affirmative’,” Tennant wrote.
He added that Leeson’s return in School Reunion had helped bring “a piece of Doctor Who’s past into its present”, while welcoming a new generation to the friendship between the Doctor, Sarah Jane and K9.
Former Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies described Leeson as “a true gent” and praised his performance as a character who was “posh”, “uppity”, “haughty” and “wry”, but also innocent and funny.
Davies said there had been “no question” of asking anyone else to provide K9’s voice when the character returned in 2006. He also recalled Leeson’s dedication to the role over six decades.
Born in Stoneygate, Leicester, on March 16, 1943, Leeson also voiced the original Bungle bear in the ITV children’s programme Rainbow.
His other credits included the BBC sitcom Dad’s Army, the science-fiction series Blake’s 7 and the ITV police drama The Bill.
Earlier this year, Leeson reunited with Tom Baker for the audio drama Sir Sherlock: The Red Letter Day. The pair played Doctor Watson and Sherlock Holmes respectively.
Fans paid tribute to Leeson online, remembering his work during the Tom Baker era of Doctor Who and describing his death as a great loss.
