Peter Dyneley

Peter Dyneley
Born 13 April 1921(1921-04-13)
Hastings, East Sussex, England
Died 19 August 1977(1977-08-19) (aged 56)
London, England
Years active 1954–1977

Peter Dyneley (13 April 1921 - 19 August 1977) was a British actor, born in Hastings, East Sussex, England.

Despite appearing in many smaller roles in both film and television, he is best remembered for his performance as the voice of Jeff Tracy in the Gerry Anderson 1960s TV series Thunderbirds and the subsequent films Thunderbirds Are Go (1966) and Thunderbird 6 (1968). Uncredited, Dyneley also provided the voice of the countdown that is heard at the start of the opening titles of Thunderbirds.[1]

Contents

Biography

Born on April 13, 1921 in Hastings, Peter Dyneley acted mostly in stage productions prior to 1954 when he began acting in films. Many of his plays and films were done with his second wife, Jane Hylton. Peter appeared as a guest star in many television series. He spoke fluent French, German and Spanish and was five feet, eleven inches tall. Peter died on August 19, 1977 after a long fight against cancer.[2] His wife died of a heart attack only 18 months later on 28 February 1979.

Peter spent his early years in Canada but was educated at Radley College. He had dual nationality (Canadian and British) and served in the Royal Canadian Navy during World War II. After the war he went to Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London to study opera and had a fine bass voice. While studying there, he met and married his first wife, Christine May. They had two children, Richard and Amanda. He later met Jane Hylton while on the film set of the horror film The Manster. With his Canadian background he often performed with an American accent typically in both Thunderbirds and The Manster.

Thunderbirds voice-over

In recent years, British actor Brian Cobby has claimed that he provided the voice-over countdown in the opening sequence of the TV series Thunderbirds.[3][4][5]

Thunderbirds producer Gerry Anderson has stated (as long believed by many of the TV series' fans) that the countdown was recorded by Dyneley -

Question: An actor by the name of Brian Cobby has claimed that he was the voice of the famous ‘5-4-3-2-1 Thunderbirds are go!’ countdown, whereas the voice sounds just like Jeff Tracy voice artist Peter Dyneley. Can you please confirm, just for the record, who the actual voice artist was? Ian Fryer, Bradford, W Yorks
Answer: Sorry, but I haven’t got a clue who Brian Cobby is, Ian! Does anyone really believe that we’d hire a different actor to record those eight words in preference to the talented team of artists we’d already assembled to perform in the series? I remember the countdown as being one of the hardest voice recording sessions as it wasn’t just a case of someone coming in and reading out the lines. The actor had to really emote, and only an actor who had been involved in the production and understood what it was about could really do it. No, anyone who’s heard the Thunderbirds countdown knows that it is Peter Dyneley.[1]

Films

Television

References

  1. ^ a b Gerry Anderson: "Ask Anderson" in FAB news issue 58 (Vol 12 no. 2) p.11.
  2. ^ Family update by son Richard
  3. ^ "In 1965, I did one of my most famous voiceovers: the countdown for Thunderbirds." - Waitrose Food Illustrated, Oct. 2002
  4. ^ 10 things we didn't know last week - BBC News, Nov. 2005
  5. ^ Profile published in the Insight between 2001-2004- Voice of the Speaking Clock

External links