Roger Delgado Biography

Roger Caesar Marius Bernard de Delgado Torres Castillo Roberto (1 March 1918 - 18 June 1973) was a British actor, best known as the first actor to play the Master in Doctor Who.

Early life

Delgado was born in Whitechapel, in the East End of London; he often remarked to Doctor Who co-star and close friend Jon Pertwee that this made him a true Cockney, as he was born within the sound of the Bow bells, even though his mother was Belgian and his father was Spanish. He attended Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School, a Roman Catholic secondary school in Holland Park, and the London School of Economics. He served in the Second World War with both the Leicestershire Regiment and the Royal Signals, attaining the rank of major.

Personal life

Delgado married Kismet Shahani in 1957 and they were together until his death in 1973.

Career

Delgado worked extensively on the British stage, and on TV, film and radio. He appeared in the 1955 BBC TV serial Quatermass II, the 1956 Powell and Pressburger wartime drama Battle of the River Plate, and came to wide popular attention in Britain when he played the duplicitous Spanish envoy Mendoza in the ITC Entertainment series Sir Francis Drake from 1961 to 1962, after which he was in much demand. An in-joke in the 1971 Doctor Who story Colony in Space refers to that role, when the Brigadier tells the Doctor not to worry as the suspected sighting of the Master "was only the Spanish Ambassador". Delgado was frequently cast as a villain, appearing in many noted British action-adventure TV series by ITC, including Danger Man (1961), The Saint (1962 and 1966), The Champions (1969), and Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) (1969).

Delgado made a total of 16 guest appearances in ITC shows, the most of any actor, with his last completed role being ITC's The Zoo Gang (1974). He also appeared in The Avengers (1961 and 1969), The Power Game (1966), and Crossfire (1967). His films included The Terror of the Tongs, The Road to Hong Kong, The Mummy's Shroud and Antony and Cleopatra. He began work as the Master on Doctor Who in late 1970, his first broadcast appearance being in the January 1971 adventure Terror of the Autons. He subsequently reprised the role of the Master in many of the Third Doctor serials, including The Mind of Evil, The Claws of Axos, Colony in Space, The Dmons, The Sea Devils, The Time Monster and Frontier in Space. The Master's story arc was to have ended in The Final Game, which was planned as the final story to feature Pertwee's Third Doctor, but the story was scrapped following Delgado's sudden death and replaced with Planet of the Spiders.

Death

Delgado died on location in Turkey, whilst shooting La Cloche Tibetaine, (Tibetan Bell), a Franco/German TV mini-series. This was portraying Citroen car expeditions in 1931-32 which traversed Asia, from Peking and one starting from Beirut. Delgado appeared in one episode of this production. He was killed, along with two Turkish film technicians, when the car in which he was travelling went off the road into a ravine. He was 55 years old.

The serial he was filming in Turkey continued production and was completed after his tragic death and that of the film technicians and the series was broadcast on French and German television in 1974-75, and Delgado can be seen in episode 4 as the minor character Paco.

Jon Pertwee often remarked that Delgado's death was one of the reasons he left Doctor Who.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1952	Murder at Scotland Yard	George Grayson
1953	The Broken Horseshoe	Felix Galegos
	The Captain's Paradise	Kalikan policeman
	Blood Orange	Marlowe	Released as Three Stops to Murder in USA
1954	The Belles of St Trinian's	Sultan's Aide	Uncredited
	Third Party Risk	Detective Gonzales	Released as The Big Deadly Game in USA
1955	Storm Over the Nile	Native spy
1956	The Battle of the River Plate	Captain Varela, Uruguayan Navy
1957	Manuela	Stranger
1958	Sea Fury	Salgado
	Mark of the Phoenix	Devron
1959	First Man into Space	Mexican Consul - Ramon de Guerrera
	The Stranglers of Bombay	Bundar	Uncredited
1960	Sands of the Desert	Abu Nial
1961	The Singer Not the Song	Pedro de Cortinez
	The Terror of the Tongs	Tang Hao
1962	Village of Daughters	Francisco Predati
	The Road to Hong Kong	Jhinnah
	In Search of the Castaways	Patagonian Prisoner
1963	The Mind Benders	Dr Jean Bonvoulois	Uncredited
	The Running Man	Spanish doctor
1964	Hot Enough for June	Josef
1963	Khartoum		Uncredited
	The Sandwich Man	Abdul - Carpet Seller
1967	The Mummy's Shroud	Hasmid
1968	Star!
1969	The Assassination Bureau	Bureau Member
1972	Antony and Cleopatra	Soothsayer

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1958	The Adventures of Robin Hood	Ambassador	Episode: The Minstrel
1959 - 65	The Third Man	Luis Mendoza / Henri Banear	4 episodes
1961	Danger Man "Under the Lake"
1962	Z Cars	Gregori Katsybalis	Episode: Business Trip
1971	The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes	Silva	Episode: Madame Sara
1971 - 73	Doctor Who	The Master	37 episodes, recurring role
1974	La Cloche Tibetaine, (Tibetan Bell)	Paco	Episode 4 Filmed in Turkey. He was killed in a car crash during the production of this French/German tv mini-series series