All Doctor Who fans round the world were shocked to hear the passing of Anthony Ainley who played the Master in Doctor Who from 1981-1989 who worked along Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy respectively, passed away on 3rd May due to undisclosed causes.

Anthony first appeared in the story Keeper of Traken - marking his appearance as Tremas - father of Nyssa and shortly at the end of the story made his debut as the Master.

He continued to play the Master from Logopolis which was Tom Bakers swan song till the final TV story Survival - he returned in 1998 to play the Master yet again in the BBCs PC Game Destiny of the Doctors which he said he enjoyed doing the most.

Along side filming of Doctor Who, Anthony enjoyed attending Doctor Who conventions - most notable appearances were at Battlefield Events held in Coventry and recently at Vortex Destiny in Northampton

He was very popular with fans and such a gentle man, I first met him at Battlefield 4 in 2000 and was scared stiff but by the time I got to him he welcomed me graciously and shook my hand - and signed my Planet of Fire VHS - I asked if he enjoyed being in that one and he said he did

I will never forget meeting such a nice and warm gentle person and he will truly be a sad loss to Doctor Who and acting in general

click on picture to enlarge

Anthony Ainley in 2002

A full list of his performances can be found on the IMDB database which can be found by clicking here

IMDB Database

Many other websites have set up tributes - most notably Outpost Gallifrey, the BBC's site and the Independant have published one.

We express our condolances to friends and family at these difficult times.