Peter Woodthorpe (25 September 1931 – 13 August 2004) was an English actor who supplied the voice of Gollum in the 1978 Bakshi version of The Lord of the Rings and the BBC's 1981 radio serial. at Magdalene College, Cambridge, and expected to return after a run of a few weeks. When the play was successful, faced with the choice of dropping out either from Cambridge or from the play, he chose to stay with the play and his acting career. In 1960, he played Aston in the first production of Harold Pinter's The Caretaker at the Arts Theatre, in London, prior to transferring to the West End's Duchess Theatre on 30 May 1960. He also starred as Oxford in the Broadway musical Darling of the Day. He was later a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, appearing in productions of Much Ado About Nothing, Henry V, The Merchant of Venice and The Lower Depths. His characters in these films were all sleazy, corrupt and manipulative types (a hypnotist, a nudie photographer and a corrupt landlord).

Other television appearances include as the writer Honoré de Balzac in the BBC series Notorious Woman (1974) and as the corrupt Councillor George Webb in the episode "Not a Very Civil Civil Servant" of London Weekend Television's action drama The Professionals (1978). In 1984, he and Lennard Pearce (who starred on the programme as Grandad Trotter, Reg's father, and appeared alongside him in that episode) were seen together again in the Minder episode "The Balance of Power".

After 1994, he recorded the voices of Toad, Great White Stag and Whistler in a BBC Young Collection audiotape version of the Animals of Farthing Wood.

Death

Woodthorpe died at the age of 72 on 13 August 2004 in Banbury, Oxfordshire, following a short illness.

Partial filmography

  • Father Came Too! (1963) – Farmer
  • The Evil of Frankenstein (1964) – Zoltan
  • Hysteria (1965) – Marcus Allan
  • The Skull (1965) – Travers
  • The Blue Max (1966) – Corporal Rupp
  • The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968) – Cardigan's Valet
  • The Lord of the Rings (1978) – Gollum / Smeagol (voice)
  • The Mirror Crack'd (1980) – Scout Master
  • Only Fools and Horses (1983) - Reg Trotter
  • To Catch a King (1984) – Elric Becker
  • A Christmas Carol (1984) – Old Joe
  • Minder (1984) - Lent
  • Eleni (1985) – Grandfather
  • Inspector Morse (1987–1988, TV Series) – Dr. Max DeBryn
  • Testimony (1988) – Alexander Glazunov
  • Massacre Play (1989) – Straccalino
  • Red Hot (1993) – Professor Lusis
  • The Madness of King George (1994) – Clergyman
  • The Animals of Farthing Wood (1994) Toad, The Great White Stag, Whistler (Audiotape only)
  • England, My England (1995) – Kiffen
  • Jane Eyre (1996) – Briggs
  • The Odyssey (1997) – Mentor
  • Merlin (1998) – Soothsayer
  • The Strange Case of Delphina Potocka or The Mystery of Chopin (1999) – 3rd Official

References

  • Obituary in The Guardian
  • Obituary in The New York Times