News has been coming in this afternoon about the death of actor Stephen Thorne.  Stephen will be mostly remembered by Doctor Who fans for portraying Omega in The Three Doctors (1972),

Azal in The Daemons (1971) and…

Eldrad in The Hand of Fear (1976)

Here is how the news broke…

It's with great sadness that Chris Benjamin has just asked me to announce the death of his oldest and dearest friend, actor #StephenThorne He leant his magnificent voice to many productions, and those who knew him, know what a gentle man he was. Many thoughts to his family. RIP pic.twitter.com/QpD3mScGkk

— Lisa Bowerman (@TheLisaBowerman) May 26, 2019

Stephen Thorne (born 2 March 1935) was a British actor of radio, film, stage and television. He was born in London in 1935.

He trained at RADA and after a time in rep he played several seasons with the Old Vic Company and the RSC in Stratford and London including a tour to Russia. He has worked extensively in radio with over 2000 broadcasts for the BBC including Uncle Mort in the Radio 4 comedy series by Peter Tinniswood.

His television credits include Z-Cars, Crossroads and Doctor Who. In Doctor Who he has played three major villains (Omega, Azal and Eldrad), as well as an Ogron. On radio he appeared as Aslan in The Magicians Nephew, as Treebeard in the BBC Radio 4 adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, and also in their adaptation of Terry Pratchett‘s Guards! Guards! in which he portrayed Fred Colon (and also Death). He is also renowned for audio book narration. He also played the character of Lionheart in The Scarifyers following Nicholas Courtney’s death.

Other television work includes Death of an Expert Witness, David Copperfield and Last of the Summer Wine. He voiced Aslan in the animated version of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Thorne has reprised the character on the BBC radio adaptation of the same name. He has given many poetry readings on radio, television and tape and in venues from Westminster Abbey to various pubs.

He has recorded over 300 unabridged audiobooks including children’s stories which have earned critical acclaim in both the UK and the US. Awards include a Talkies Award 1996 for Enigma by Robert Harris and several Golden Earphones Awards from Audiofile Magazine.