10 Actors With Multiple Roles In Doctor Who

First Role: Bret Vyon (The Daleks' Master Plan)

Second Role: Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (The Web of Fear - Battlefield)

Speaking of the Lethbridge-Stewart family, here we have its most famous member.

Nicholas Courtney played the iconic Brigadier in countless episodes from 1968 to 1989 (with a final appearance in a 2008 episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures), and to this day, he's one of the most beloved supporting characters in the whole show.

That being said, this wasn't Courtney's first Doctor Who role, and furthermore, he almost missed out on playing the Brigadier altogether.

The actor first entered the Whoniverse in 1965's The Daleks' Master Plan, opposite William Hartnell's First Doctor. In this story, he played Bret Vyon, a space security agent who fought back against the Daleks, and was ultimately shot dead.

Courtney's performance was well-received, and as a result, he was offered the chance to play Ben Knight in 1968's The Web of Fear, with another actor set to portray Lethbridge-Stewart. But when the actor assigned to play Lethbridge-Stewart was forced to abandon the role, it fell into Courtney's lap instead.

And the rest is Doctor Who history. Courtney passed away in 2011, but like with Swift, his episodes will live on, and brilliantly, his death even played a small role in The Wedding of River Song. In this episode, the Doctor cannot accept the fact that it is time for him to die, but after he finds out that the Brigadier has died - mirroring Courtney's real-life death - he accepts his fate and heads to Lake Silencio.