GOODBYE, MICHAEL GOUGH...

Michael Gough as the ever loyal Alfred Pennyworth in the four pre-Christopher Nolan BATMAN movies. Image: WARNER BROTHERS.

Another loss to worldwide film and TV fans came today with the sad news of the passing of the excellent character actor Michael Gough, at the age of either 94 or 95 (Gough was never sure of his exact date of birth).

Perhaps best known to younger aged audiences from the late eighties and nineties for his portrayal of the ever loyal British Butler, Alfred Pennyworth, to Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer and George Clooney's versions of the Dark Knight: Batman, and his alter-ego, Bruce Wayne, in the popular world box office champion BATMAN movies, plus Tim Burton fantasies like the acclaimed Johnny Depp starring SLEEPY HOLLOW, and older classics like the HAMMER HORROR version of DRACULA (starring alongside Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee in the title role), Gough, in a long career that saw him playing both subtly heroic and creepily bad characters in equal measure, will be further remembered for his other acting appearances in such classic series, both mainstream and cult, as COLDITZ, BLAKE'S 7, THE AVENGERS (as the villainous inventor of the Cybernaut robots) , THE CHAMPIONS, THE PROTECTORS, CROWN COURT, SMILEY'S PEOPLE (alongside Sir Alec Guinness) and ORLANDO to name but a few on his considerable CV. And for DOCTOR WHO fans he will always be fondly remembered, and terrifying to them, as the malevolent Celestrial Toymaker, existing in another dimension, who plagued William Hartnell's first Doctor and his companions in a bizarre 1966 tale involving strange games and deadly fictional characters, as well as later returning for the shows Twentieth Anniversary season as another character, the once benevolent Time Lord turned traitor, Councillor Hedin, in the 1983 Peter Davison Gallifrey-set conspiracy thriller tale, ARC OF INFINITY.

As the enigmatic Mandarin dressed Celestrial Toymaker, Gough would play a deadly game with the first DOCTOR WHO, William Hartnell, in THE CELESTRIAL TOYMAKER. Image: BBC TV.

We thank Michael Gough for his superb contributions to the best of KOOL TV, which will always be remembered and appreciated by his worldwide legions of fans.