It is with great sadness that we report the death of Jeremy Wilkin, who passed away on 19th December 2017 at the age of 87.
Jeremy was no stranger to Gerry Anderson fans, having provided the voices for countless characters in many Supermarionation series, starting with Thunderbirds in which he took over the role of Virgil Tracy from David Holliday. In addition to voicing Virgil and other characters in the second series, Jeremy also provided many guest character voices in the feature films Thunderbirds Are Go and Thunderbird 6.
After Thunderbirds, Jeremy continued his association with Gerry Anderson by providing the voices of Captain Ochre and Captain Black (prior to being mysteronised) in Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, along with many other voices in each episode. Jeremy would also lend his impressive range of voices to the final Supermarionation series’ Joe 90 and The Secret Service.
When Gerry Anderson made the move from puppetry to live action, Jeremy was cast in Journey to the Far Side of the Sun and later an episode of The Protectors, but it is for his regular role as Skydiver Navigator Lt. Gordon Maxwell in UFO that he is perhaps best known to Gerry Anderson fans.
Outside the world of Gerry Anderson, Jeremy had an impressive filmography that included appearances in everything from Doctor Who – Revenge of the Cybermen to big screen outings with Roger Moore’s James Bond in The Spy Who Loved Me.
In 2015, Jeremy delighted fans by appearing at the Andercon convention at the Leicester Athena with his fellow Thunderbirds actors and made another appearance with them later that year at a convention in Maidenhead hosted by Fanderson. Delegates enjoyed the humorous moment when Jeremy and fellow Thunderbirds actor Matt Zimmerman discovered that they had been in the same stage play together in the 1950s.
Gerry Anderson blogger Andrew Clements recalls meeting Jeremy at the Maidenhead event “Jeremy was an absolutely fascinating man. I commented on something he had said during an interview panel and from that small comment we ended up having a long conversation about everything from ancient history to modern languages, including those he was learning at the time. He even came and found me later in the day to provide an answer to something neither of us could remember previously. It was a little moment in a long weekend, but I’ll never forget how he took the time to speak with me and many other fans throughout the event.”
We would like to extend our sympathies to Jeremy’s family and friends at this time.
Donations in Jeremy Wilkins’s memory can be made at the following website: https://david-wilkin.muchloved.com/
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