Guy Doleman

New Zealand actor

Guy Doleman (22 November 1923 – 30 January 1996) was a New Zealand born actor, active in Australia, Britain and the United States. He is possibly best remembered for being the first actor to play Number Two in the classic cult series The Prisoner.

Doleman was born in Hamilton, Waikato, New Zealand, later moving to Australia.

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 Australia. 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." 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. He had moved to London by the early 1960s. Later he returned to Australia. He is perhaps best known for his role as "Count Lippe" in the James Bond film Thunderball (1965) and as "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 Number Two in the TV series The Prisoner (1967). Doleman's was the first of a pair of Number Twos who appeared in the first episode, "Arrival"; the second being played by George Baker.

Doleman died of lung cancer in Los Angeles on 30 January 1996, aged 72.