Shane Rimmer was one of ‘those guys.’ One of the myriad cadre of character actors which seemed to populate British TV in the ’60s and ’70s.
Actually, that’s not quite specific enough. Although Canadian by birth, Rimmer was one of those reliables shown (along with true ex-pat David Bauer) when a British-based production needed to show an American face. His connection to Doctor Who fell entirely along these lines when he appeared in The Gunfighters, the first serial to take place entirely in America.
As that ‘American’ voice and face, he appeared in numerous Bond movies from You Only Live Twice through The Spy Who Loved Me. He also had a lengthy association with Gerry Anderson both as a voice actor and writer during both his Supermarionation years and his live-action series UFO, The Protectors (which the Tour just finished as a re-watch), and Space: 1999.
Shane Rimmer died yesterday (as of this writing) at age 89–part of the conforting fabric to British TV and movies of the age.
