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British actor Stephen Thorne, known to fans for his roles as Azal and Omega opposite Jon Pertwee’s Doctor, has died.

Lisa Bowerman posted the following on Twitter on May 26.

Thorne also appeared alongside Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen in the latter’s final story, The Hand of Fear. He lent his distinctive tones to Aslan in the BBC Radio adaptation of The Chronicles of Narnia, as well as for the Bill Melendez animated version of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (one of the few actors whose voice appears in both US and UK editions). He played Treebeard in Brian Sibley’s adaptation of The Lord of the Rings for Radio 4 in 1991.

Sibley told Sci-Fi Bulletin, “I am very sad to hear this news: I first worked with Stephen when I was very young, green writer for BBC Radio Schools – he was cast as the voice of Jesus in a series that I wrote and presented about the first disciples. When I began dramatising ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ (with THE MAGICIAN’S NEPHEW and THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE), I asked for him to play Aslan (on the basis that anyone who could successfully portray Jesus could play his Narnian counterpart!) and this he did splendidly, continuing in the role for my adaptations of the following five books. Only later did I realise that he had already spoken for Aslan in the animated film of THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE.

“Again I asked for him to play Treebeard in The Lord of the Rings and he was, of course, magnificent – standing at the microphone wreathed in old recording tape so as to provide the rustle of Treebeard’s leafy limbs! He was one of the readers in a radio anthology about doors that I compiled for BBC Radio 4 entitled WHEN IS A DOOR NOT A DOOR? and provided readings from Terry Pratchett’s THE HOGFATHER for an interview I broadcast with the author.

“We only once appeared at the microphone together when I dramatised some of Tolkien’s shorter fiction under the title, TALES OF THE PERILOUS REALM (that eventually became the HarperCollins title for that collection!); in the recordings of FARMER GILES OF HAM you will hear Stephen as the magnificent dragon, Chrysophylax Dives, and myself as the Giant. He was a wonderful actor with the most nuanced of radio voices and one of the finest readers of spoken books including the ‘Brother Cadfael’ novels, works by Dickens and Hardy and Robert Harris’ ENIGMA for which he received the 1996 Talkies Award for ‘Best Unabridged Novel’.”