# Peter Woodthorpe
**Peter Woodthorpe** (25 September 1931 – August 2004) was an English character actor who played Estragon in the British premiere of [Samuel Beckett](https://www.edgepedia.org/samuel-beckett)'s *Waiting for Godot* and later voiced Gollum in both the 1978 animated film of *The Lord of the Rings* and the 1981 [BBC Radio 4](https://www.edgepedia.org/bbc-radio-4) dramatization of the same book.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/aug/26/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries) Over a career of nearly five decades he made more than 40 film and television appearances and worked with the [Royal Shakespeare Company](https://www.edgepedia.org/royal-shakespeare-company), the National Theatre, the Royal Court, and on Broadway.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/aug/26/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries) • [2](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0940885/bio/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born | 25 September 1931, York, England[2](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0940885/bio/) |
| Died | August 2004, Oxfordshire, England, of illness; sources give 12 or 13 August[2](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0940885/bio/) • [1](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/aug/26/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries) |
| Breakthrough | Estragon in the British premiere of Beckett's *Waiting for Godot*, 1955, his first professional role[1](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/aug/26/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries) |
| Award | Clarence Derwent award, 1960, for Aston in the premiere of Pinter's *The Caretaker*[1](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/aug/26/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries) |
| Gollum | Voice in *The Lord of the Rings* (1978 animated film) and the BBC Radio 4 *Lord of the Rings* (1981)[3](https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Peter_Woodthorpe) |
| Screen work | More than 40 film and television appearances, including *The Blue Max* (1966) and *The Madness of King George* (1994)[1](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/aug/26/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries) |
| Standing | Associate Member of RADA; stage work with the RSC, the National Theatre, the Royal Court, and Broadway[2](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0940885/bio/) |
## Early life and Waiting for Godot
Woodthorpe was born in York and educated locally at Archbishop Holgate's Grammar School before going up to Magdalene College, Cambridge; he completed national service in Royal Naval intelligence.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/aug/26/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries) • [2](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0940885/bio/) At Cambridge he performed with the Marlowe Society, where a [King Lear](https://www.edgepedia.org/king-lear) that included what the Guardian's obituarist called a remarkable assumption of senility brought him to the attention of the director Peter Hall.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/aug/26/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries) A scholarly account of the production records that Woodthorpe was discovered playing *King Lear* at university, was still in the middle of a [Biochemistry](https://www.edgepedia.org/biochemistry) degree, and earned the acclaim of Beckett himself and of his initially doubtful fellow cast member Peter Bull.[4](https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/78067/1/21024601_Mcfrederick_thesis.pdf)
In August 1955, aged 23, Woodthorpe made his professional debut as Estragon in the first British production of *Waiting for Godot* at the Arts Theatre, opposite Paul Daneman's Vladimir, with Peter Bull as Pozzo and Timothy Bateson as Lucky.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/aug/26/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries) • [4](https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/78067/1/21024601_Mcfrederick_thesis.pdf) The cast and director admitted to one another that they did not understand the play; Hall told them he had not "the foggiest idea what some of it means" but that they would have to open without waiting to find out.[4](https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/78067/1/21024601_Mcfrederick_thesis.pdf) The Guardian obituary credits Woodthorpe's Estragon with what [Kenneth Tynan](https://www.edgepedia.org/kenneth-tynan) called "compassionate lunacy", and notes that after the production he never needed to act as an amateur again.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/aug/26/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries)
## Stage career
**Character actor.** Woodthorpe's physical presence, a fleshy face, square jaw, and plump figure, and his nasal whine of a voice made him instantly recognizable in classical and modern parts, and the obituary describes him as one of the most distinctively eccentric British character actors of his generation.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/aug/26/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries) After *Godot* he joined the English Stage Company as the water-seller Wang in Brecht's *The Good Woman of Setzuan* (1956) with [Peggy Ashcroft](https://www.edgepedia.org/peggy-ashcroft), played Noakes in the musical *Zuleika* (1957), and made his Broadway debut in May 1958 as Professor Muller in [Peter Brook](https://www.edgepedia.org/peter-brook)'s production of Dürrenmatt's *The Visit* at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/aug/26/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries)
In 1960 he won the Clarence Derwent award for Aston in the original London premiere of [Harold Pinter](https://www.edgepedia.org/harold-pinter)'s *The Caretaker*, alongside [Donald Pleasence](https://www.edgepedia.org/donald-pleasence) and [Alan Bates](https://www.edgepedia.org/alan-bates); Noël Coward called him magnificent.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/aug/26/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries) He then joined the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre company at Stratford-upon-Avon, playing Flute, Roderigo to Paul Robeson's Othello, and Junius in Olivier's *Coriolanus*, and in 1962 joined Olivier's company at the new Chichester Festival Theatre.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/aug/26/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries) By 1970 he had joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, where his parts included Dogberry in *Much Ado About Nothing*, the Dauphin in *Henry V*, the Duke in *The Merchant of Venice*, and the Actor in Gorky's *The Lower Depths*.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/aug/26/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries) Later stage work ranged from Krogstad to Claire Bloom's Nora in a 1973 West End *A Doll's House* to a 1995 National Theatre appearance in Rodney Ackland's *Absolute Hell*.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/aug/26/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries)
## Gollum
Woodthorpe's best-remembered screen and radio work is a single role played twice. He provided the voice of Gollum in [Ralph Bakshi](https://www.edgepedia.org/ralph-bakshi)'s 1978 animated film of *The Lord of the Rings*, and reprised the part in the BBC Radio 4 dramatization broadcast in 1981.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/aug/26/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries) • [3](https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Peter_Woodthorpe) In the radio series his Gollum is the first voice heard after the opening narration, and a retrospective in *The Quietus* argues that in the 1981 production he appears to be living the character, in a stalking of Frodo and Sam made more dramatic by the elf-rope sequence that causes Gollum physical pain.[5](https://thequietus.com/opinion-and-essays/anniversary/ralph-bakshi-the-lord-of-the-rings-animation-review-anniversary) An academic survey of Tolkien dramatizations likewise pairs Woodthorpe's 1981 Gollum with [Nicol Williamson](https://www.edgepedia.org/nicol-williamson)'s 1968 BBC *Hobbit* as the radio performances of the two creatures.[6](https://ejournals.eu/pliki_artykulu_czasopisma/pelny_tekst/5c6cfdc0-0103-4afe-80cc-ba8074fc5296/pobierz) IMDb trivia notes that he and Theodore Gottlieb are the two actors who have each played Gollum twice.[2](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0940885/bio/)
## Screen and radio work
Woodthorpe's more than 40 film and television credits include *The Blue Max* (1966), *The Charge of the Light Brigade* (1968), and *The Madness of King George* (1994).[1](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/aug/26/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries) His first television appearance was in *Z-Cars* in 1963; later television included the Soviet leader Malenkov in *Red Monarch* (1983) and Mr Creakle in *David Copperfield* (2000).[1](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/aug/26/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries)
## Death
Woodthorpe died in August 2004 in [Oxfordshire](https://www.edgepedia.org/oxfordshire), of illness, aged 72. IMDb gives 12 August 2004,[2](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0940885/bio/) as do Tolkien Gateway[3](https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Peter_Woodthorpe) and the biography aggregator EntityFacts,[7](https://entityfacts.com/en/person/peter-woodthorpe) while the Guardian obituary gives 13 August.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/aug/26/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries)
## References
1. [Peter Woodthorpe, obituary by Eric Shorter, The Guardian, 25 August 2004](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/aug/26/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries)
2. [Peter Woodthorpe, Biography, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0940885/bio/)
3. [Peter Woodthorpe, Tolkien Gateway](https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Peter_Woodthorpe)
4. [J. McFrederick, thesis on the first UK production of a Beckett play, University of Reading (CentAUR)](https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/78067/1/21024601_Mcfrederick_thesis.pdf)
5. [The Trouble With Ralph Bakshi's The Lord Of The Rings, The Quietus](https://thequietus.com/opinion-and-essays/anniversary/ralph-bakshi-the-lord-of-the-rings-animation-review-anniversary)
6. [Quaestiones Ora, journal article on Tolkien radio dramatizations](https://ejournals.eu/pliki_artykulu_czasopisma/pelny_tekst/5c6cfdc0-0103-4afe-80cc-ba8074fc5296/pobierz)
7. [Peter Woodthorpe, EntityFacts](https://entityfacts.com/en/person/peter-woodthorpe)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Screen people and creators › Voice performers*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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