ROGER DELGADOAs well as his best-known role as The Master in Doctor Who, Roger Delgado was a familiar figure in other British TV series before his death on 18 June 1973.
His striking saturnine appearance and sly expression elevated him into the ranks of the best small-screen villains.
While some actors earnestly bemoan their struggles to shake off their typecasts, Mr Delgado insisted he enjoyed being seen as 'the most evil man in the universe'.
But when the cameras stopped filming it was his light-hearted and amiable – yet surprisingly shy - character that made him so popular among fellow actors and film crews.
Born in Whitechapel, London, on 1 March 1918, Delgado’s parents christened him with the less catchy name Roger Caesar Marius Bernard de Delgado Torres Castillo Roberto.
A self-confessed Cockney at heart, he overcame his nationality barriers – his mother was Belgian and his father Spanish - to be accepted to fight in World War II.
The war over, he joined the York repertory company, from which he progressed to the BBC Drama Repertory before dipping his toes into radio and television.
Even on radio – without the advantage of his striking looks - his aptitude for making villainous characters come to life was clear as he played seismologist Gomez in the BBC radio serial The Slide.
Mr Delgado made his film debut in 1953 in Captain’s Paradise before adding such credits as The Power and the Glory, Battle of the River Plate, First Man into Space, Terror of the Tongs and The Mummy's Shroud.
Over on the small screen, he landed parts in The Three Musketeers, Quatermass II, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) and The Saint, before winning the lucrative part of Spanish envoy Mendoza in the ITV film series, Sir Francis Drake.
With his popularity soaring he made his Doctor Who debut as The Master in Terror of the Autons .
He proved to be a natural in the role and went on to appear in a string of other Doctor Who programmes including The Dæmons, The Claws of Axos, The Sea Devils, The Time Monster, The Mind of Evil and Frontier in Space.
While in Turkey, shooting what was to be his first comedy role in feature film Bell of Tibet, 55-year-old Delgado was killed in a car crash, along with a film technician.
His death dealt a heavy blow to his Doctor Who co-stars including Jon Pertwee, who played the Doctor at the time, and of course his family – to whom he had been famously devoted.
Notify me with new activity on this notice
