Peter Woodthorpe (25 September 1931 – 13 August 2004) was an English actor who supplied the voice of Gollum in the 1978 Bakshi version of The Lord of the Rings and the BBC's 1981 radio serial. He also provided the voice of Pigsy in the cult series Monkey and played Max, the pathologist, in early episodes of Inspector Morse.
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Early life
Born in York, Woodthorpe was educated at Archbishop Holgate's Grammar School. He was a national serviceman in the Royal Navy as part of naval intelligence.
Career
In 1955, Woodthorpe portrayed Estragon in the first British production of Waiting for Godot. He had then just finished his second year reading Biochemistry at Magdalene College, Cambridge, and expected to return after a run of a few weeks. When the play was successful, faced with the choice of dropping out either from Cambridge or from the play, he chose to stay with the play and his acting career. In 1960, he played Aston in the first production of Harold Pinter's The Caretaker at the Arts Theatre, in London, prior to transferring to the West End's Duchess Theatre on 30 May 1960. He also starred as Oxford in the Broadway musical Darling of the Day. He was later a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, appearing in productions of Much Ado About Nothing, Henry V, The Merchant of Venice and The Lower Depths.
In 1964 and 1965, he made three films for cinematographer-turned-director Freddie Francis: The Evil of Frankenstein (1964), Hysteria (1965) and The Skull (1965), the first two for Hammer Films and the last for Amicus Productions. His characters in these films were all sleazy, corrupt and manipulative types (a hypnotist, a nudie photographer and a corrupt landlord).
