Peter Dyneley

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Peter Dyneley (13 April 1921 - 19 August 1977) was a British actor, born in Hastings, East Sussex, England.

Although appearing in many smaller roles in both film and television, he is best remembered for his performance as the voice of Jeff Tracy in the Gerry Anderson 1960s TV series Thunderbirds and the subsequent movies Thunderbirds Are GO (1966) and Thunderbird 6 (1968). Dyneley also provided the uncredited voice-over countdown in the opening sequence of the TV series ^[1], although in recent years, British actor Brian Cobby has claimed that it is his voice.^[2]^[3]^[4] (See Thunderbirds Controversy)

Other roles include:

Catch Hand
Colonel March of Scotland Yard
Crane
Espionage
Host Squad
International Detective
The Goodies

Born on April 13, 1921 in Hastings, Peter Dyneley acted mostly in stage productions prior to 1954 when he began acting in films. Many of his plays and films were done with his wife, Jane Hylton. Peter appeared as a guest star in many television series. He spoke fluent French, German and Spanish and was five feet, eleven inches tall. Peter died on August 19, 1977. Details of his death are unknown. His wife died of a heart attack only a few months later.

British, but performed with an American accent in both "Thunderbirds" and "The Manster," a cult horror flick

His wife, Jane, died of a heart attack on 28 February 1979

The following should be noted for those who confuse the name of the actor that did the voice-over for the opening credits of "Thunderbirds":

Thunderbirds' producer Gerry Anderson has stated (as long believed by many of the TV series' fans) that the countdown was recorded by the late Peter Dyneley, who provided the voice of Jeff Tracy throughout the series' 32 episodes and two feature films -

Question: An actor by the name of Brian Cobby has claimed that he was the voice of the famous ‘5-4-3-2-1 Thunderbirds are go!’ countdown, whereas the voice sounds just like Jeff Tracy voice artist Peter Dyneley. Can you please confirm, just for the record, who the actual voice artist was? Ian Fryer, Bradford, W Yorks

Answer: Sorry, but I haven’t got a clue who Brian Cobby is, Ian! Does anyone really believe that we’d hire a different actor to record those eight words in preference to the talented team of artists we’d already assembled to perform in the series? I remember the countdown as being one of the hardest voice recording sessions as it wasn’t just a case of someone coming in and reading out the lines. The actor had to really emote, and only an actor who had been involved in the production and understood what it was about could really do it. No, anyone who’s heard the Thunderbirds countdown knows that it is Peter Dyneley.[