An Actor With Decades of TV Work Has Passed Away: John Leeson Dead at 83

November 9, 2026, 10:41am

Actor John Leeson passed away peacefully last week at the age of 83.

Leeson, who was born John Ducker, provided his voice for the role of K9 in the popular sci-fi series, Doctor Who, died Nov. 1 and news of his passing was made public by his son, Guy Ducker.

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“I regret to announce the death of my father, John Ducker, a.k.a. John Leeson, at 3:03pm today after a summer of illness,” John wrote on Facebook. “The end was peaceful.

“Good night sweet prince:
And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!”‘

Born in England in March 1943, Leeson began acting in theater as a child. From there, he continued acting for several decades, appearing in TV, film, and theatre roles from the late 1960s through 2010.

In 1972, Leeson appeared in 50 episodes of the popular BBC children’s show, Rainbow. Other work from Leeson’s career included eight episodes of Beadle’s About, 12 episodes of The Sarah Jane Adventures, and Bugs.

The first movie to cast was Leeson was 1979’s Tarka the Otter, which was based on a novel from 1927. Nine years later, Leeson returned to the big screen for a role in 1988’s Miami Connection. Y.K. Kim wrote, produced, and starred in the martial arts movie.

Russell Davies, a British screenwriter who revived the Doctor Who series in the early 2000’s, paid tribute to Leeson on his Instagram account by writing in part, “When we brought K9 back in 2006, there was no question that we’d ask John to provide the voice, it was impossible to imagine anyone else. And really, what a performance, what a character: a posh dog, uppity, haughty, wry, but somehow innocent too, and so funny. “Maximum defence mode!” God he was good. Pitched perfectly so that kids could impersonate him. That’s not easy, that’s hell of a piece of acting. And he was wonderfully dedicated to that character for… gasp, six decades!”