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CalliArcale
Guest
<p>John Scott Martin has passed away at the age of 82. He is best known to Whovians as the lead Dalek operator for nearly the entire run of the original series. (His first Dalek role was in "The Chase", but he had previously served on the show as a Zarbi operator in the 1965 serial "The Web Planet".) He may in fact be the longest serving Dr Who actor, having had frequent appearances from 1965 right up through 1988. </p><p>In addition to his Dalek and Zarbi work, he also operated a Mechanoid, a robot ("Colony in Space"), a Mutt, a Gell Guard, a Kriz, and The Nucleus of the Swarm. His actual face made several appearances as well, as he filled assorted extra roles through the years. </p><p>He may also have appeared as one of the Daleks in "Curse of Fatal Death", but I was unable to find a cast listing for the Dalek operators, and no Dalek operators are credited in the new series. (This might mean that modern Daleks are radio operated, but I don't know. It is not as common to credit non-speaking performers nowdays.)</p><p>Pink Floyd fans may know him as the dancing instructor in the film version of "The Wall". </p><p>Martin passed away at his home. He had developed Parkinson's Disease in his latter years, but had nevertheless expressed a desire to play a Dalek on the new series, but I don't believe he had the opportunity.</p><p>A fun quote from him:</p><p><font size="2">"I always thought playing a Dalek was as interesting as playing a cow in a pantomime - there was potential to put some personality into it. We had to believe that the Dalek was not a human being, yet it was still a being. That's not to say it wasn't really nasty." </font></p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em> -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>