Doctor Who Actor John Leeson, Voice of K-9, Passes Away at Age 83

Posted in: BBC, TV | Tagged: doctor who

Doctor Who actor John Leeson (John Ducker), who voiced the canine companion K-9 on the long-running show, has passed away at the age of 83.

Published Sun, 01 Nov 2026 14:58:08 -0600 by Ray Flook

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On Sunday, The Whoniverse learned that actor John Leeson (real name: John Ducker), who voiced the robotic canine companion K-9 on the long-running Doctor Who, had passed away at the age of 83 after a “summer of illness,” according to the family. “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. The end was peaceful. ‘Good night, sweet prince, And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest,” Leeson’s son, Guy Ducker, wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday. Ducker is survived by his son, Guy, and his wife, Judy Griffiths, whom he married in 1969.

Debuting as the voice of K-9, alongside Tom Baker’s Fourth Doctor, in 1977’s “The Invisible Enemy,” Leeson would go on to voice the character in a number of the franchise’s episodes – and for a number of Doctors – through 2008. He would go on to voice K-9 in spinoffs K-9 and Company (1981), The Sarah Jane Adventures (2007-2010), K9 (2009-2010), and even the 2015 LEGO Dimensions video game. Outside of Doctor Who, Leeson’s television work included roles in Blake’s 7, Dad’s Army, Doctors, ‘Allo ‘Allo!, The Bill, Sorry!, and many others – as well as work in film and radio.

Image: Big Finish Screencap

“I went to see Graham Williams. I’d been introduced to Graham by Derek Goodwin, and I saw the blueprints for K9. K9 hadn’t then been built, and there was this sort of Scottie tartan collar round [his neck]. I said, ‘Well, do you want him Scottish?’ and he said, ‘Oh no, heaven forfend, we don’t want Scottish,’ so I said, ‘What do you want?’ He said, ‘Well really K9 is the receptory and the deliverer of all information. He’s an absolute know-all, but we want his voice to sound as if it comes out of a tiny little elliptical speaker in a cheap radio,” Leeson shared during a 2014 interview, sharing how he first came up with K-9’s voice.

He continued, “So I put a few voices down on a tape and then I had panic calls from the BBC to say, ‘Have you accepted the job?’ I assumed there was a queue yards long to play K9, I wasn’t to know, so I said, ‘Yes, yes, fine, I didn’t know it was just me they wanted.’ I just put up [my voice] a few levels, clipped it as much as possible, made it sound like a machine. It couldn’t sound like a dog, because K9 isn’t a dog, but I made it sound as mechanical as possible.” Here’s a look at what Guy Decker posted on Facebook on Sunday regarding his father’s passing:

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