Guy Doleman (22 November 1923 – 30 January 1996) was a New Zealand actor, who worked various in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. He was best known for playing Colonel Ross in the Harry Palmer spy film trilogy starring Michael Caine in the 1960s. He also played the first iteration of Number Two on the cult classic series The Prisoner.
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Early life
Doleman was born in Hamilton, Waikato in 1923. As a young adult, he moved to Australia, and began his acting career on the radio.
Career
During the 1940s and 1950s, Doleman was one of the busiest actors in Australia, appearing in the majority of films made there at the time, and being busy on radio, particularly in the drama Hagen's Circus, which made him a radio star in that country. Radio historian Peter Philp grouped Doleman with Peter Finch, Grant Taylor, Rod Taylor and Lloyd Berrell as part of "a wild but very colourful group of actors... who in their own way helped forge a wonderful ambience which was unique to Sydney radio." He appeared in many early Australian films including The Phantom Stockman.
In 1952 he won a £300 Actor's Choice Award for his performance in the radio drama The Coward. He used this money to go to Hollywood for a film in September 1953, where he tested for some films.
He was cast in Long John Silver (1954) but passed on the role because it meant he had to wear contact lenses – Rod Taylor took the part instead. Doleman played minor roles in His Majesty O'Keefe and Alfred Hitchcock's Dial M for Murder (both 1954), and played Australian characters in Smiley (1956) and its sequel Smiley Gets a Gun (1958), The Shiralee (1957), and On the Beach (1959). He appeared on three episodes of the British-Australian bushranger television series Whiplash. In 1959, he starred in the play The Piccadilly Bushman at the Comedy Theatre in Melbourne.
In the early 1960s, Doleman moved to London, appearing on BBC and ITV television programming. He played Number Two in ITV's The Prisoner (1967). He was the first of a pair of Number Twos who appeared in the first episode, "Arrival"; the second being played by George Baker. He starred as intelligence officer Colonel Ross in the three film adaptations of Len Deighton's Harry Palmer novels, starring Michael Caine, released between 1965 and 1967. He also played supporting villain Count Lippe in the James Bond film Thunderball (1965), starring Sean Connery.
In the early 1970s, Doleman returned to Hollywood, and after a several-year hiatus returned to acting in an episode of The Six Million Dollar Man. He played guest roles in TV series like Matt Houston and The Colbys; and in Australian films like A Dangerous Summer (1982) and Goodbye Paradise (1983). His last acting role was in 1992 episode of Murder, She Wrote.
Death
Doleman died of lung cancer in Los Angeles on 30 January 1996, aged 72.
Theatre credits
Little Lambs Eat Ivy, Minerva Theatre, Kings Cross, NSW, May 1949
Edward, My Son, Theatre Royal, Sydney, NSW, 16 September 1949
All for Mary national tour 1956-57
The Piccadilly Bushman national tour Sept 1959 – Feb 1960
Select radio credits
The Coward (1952)
Chips (1954)
The Orchard Walls (1954)