Neil McCarthy (actor)

Early life

Born in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, the son of a dentist, Neil McCarthy was educated at Stamford School and Trinity College Dublin and trained as a teacher.

Career

After his teacher training, McCarthy appeared on stage at Oxford repertory theatre, at the Edinburgh Festival and in the West End of London.

McCarthy's film credits include memorable roles as a Welsh soldier in Zulu (1964), as Sergeant Jock McPherson in Where Eagles Dare (1968), as Gates in The Ruffians (1973), as the villain Calibos in Clash of the Titans (1981) and as a robber in Time Bandits (1981). His television credits include: Man of the World, Danger Man, The Avengers, The Saint, Z-Cars, Dixon of Dock Green, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), Catweazle, My Wife Next Door (A Sense of Movement), Softly, Softly: Taskforce, Department S, Who Pays the Ferryman?, Return of the Saint, Doctor Who (in the serials The Mind of Evil and The Power of Kroll), Enemy at the Door, Shogun, The Professionals, Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, Only When I Laugh, The Gentle Touch and Emmerdale Farm, and the television adaptation of the Lord Peter Wimsey novel, The Nine Tailors.

He died of motor neurone disease in Winchester, Hampshire in 1985, aged 53.