Trivia

McCoy and Timothy Dalton appeared together on stage in London in 1986 and complained to each other that long-term work was so hard to find. The next year, both had screen acting breaks when McCoy was cast as the Seventh Doctor in Doctor Who (1963) and Dalton was cast as James Bond in The Living Daylights (1987). However, both McCoy's tenure as the Doctor and Dalton's tenure as Bond proved short-lived as both of these iconic British franchises were cancelled in 1989 for several years and recast when they eventually returned.

He is the only actor to appear in both Doctor Who (1963) and Doctor Who: The Movie (1996).

He is the the only Doctor to have played the role during two regenerations. When Colin Baker left the role he refused to do the regeneration scene. So Sylvester donned Baker's costume and a blonde wig and stood in as Baker. This is the reason that for only the second time in the series (See Peter Davison's regeneration) the Doctor's face is obscured as he changes his appearance.

He became the first of three non-English actors to portray the character of the Doctor and the first of many actors to speak with an accent other than Received Pronunciation English: Christopher Eccleston portrayed the Ninth Doctor in 2005 with a Northern accent, David Tennant is a fellow Scot who portrayed the Doctor from 2005 to 2010 with a London/Estuary accent, Peter Capaldi is likewise Scottish and plays the Twelfth Doctor with his natural accent, and Jodie Whittaker plays the role with her Yorkshire accent.

He was considered for the role of Bilbo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003). He played Radagast the Brown in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012), The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013) and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014).

McCoy technically became the longest-serving Doctor after reprising the role in 1996. His term as the Doctor stretched from 1987 until 1996, a total of 8.5 years. However, as the series was not produced as an ongoing series from the end of Doctor Who (1963) in 1989 until the American co-production Doctor Who: The Movie (1996), in which McCoy handed over to Paul McGann, Tom Baker is still the longest continuously-serving Doctor on screen at seven years (1974-1981).

His father Percy Kent-Smith was a Royal Navy submarine officer and was killed in the second world war on July 18, 1943, only a month before he was born.

He reportedly took offence to the line written by Mark Gatiss and delivered by David Walliams in the BBC2 sketch The Pitch of Fear (1999) in which Sydney Newman says the Doctor could be played "by any f***** with an Equity Card" towards the end of its run. It was subsequently edited from the version included on a DVD at Gatiss' request. McCoy's acting work has included performances with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

He is adept at playing both the xylophone and the spoons. He can also juggle and once gained a reputation for stuffing live ferrets down his trousers.

He did not start acting until he was 28 years old.

The script editor of Doctor Who during the McCoy era, Andrew Cartmel, described McCoy as "the Dark Doctor" because he was characterized as more cunning and manipulative than previous incarnations.

He was raised primarily in Dublin, Ireland.

He has two roles in common with John Hurt: (1) Hurt played the Fool in King Lear (1983) while McCoy played him in King Lear (2008) and (2) McCoy played the Seventh Doctor in Doctor Who (1963) and Doctor Who: The Movie (1996) while Hurt played the War Doctor in Doctor Who (2005).

He is one of three actors who portrayed The Doctor on TV to appear in an episode of Casualty (1986). The others are Colin Baker and Christopher Eccleston.

In May 2005, he attended Collectormania 7 at Milton Keynes and was about to begin a stage run in Glasgow.