35 DOCTOR WHO Actors & Actresses
These people who appeared onscreen represent the series to me. First five Doctors only!
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- William Hartnell was born on 8 January 1908, just south of St. Pancras railway station in London. In press materials in the 1940s he claimed that his father was a farmer and later a stockbroker; it turns out that he had actually been born out of wedlock, as his biography "Who's There?" states.
At age 16 he was adopted by Hugh Blaker, a well-known art connoisseur, who helped him to get a job with Sir Frank Benson's Shakespearean Company. He started as a general dogsbody--call-boy, assistant stage manager, property master and assistant lighting director--but was occasionally allowed to play small walk-on parts. Two years later he left Benson's group and went off on tour, working for a number of different theatre companies about Britain. He became known as an actor of farce and understudied renowned performers such as Lawrence Grossmith, Ernest Truex, Bud Flanagan and Charles Heslop. He played repertory in Richmond, Harrogate, Leeds and Sheffield and had a successful run as the lead in a touring production of "Charley's Aunt." He also toured Canada in 1928-29, acquiring much valuable experience.
On his return to England, Hartnell married actress Heather McIntyre. He starred in such films as I'm an Explosive (1933), The Way Ahead (1944), Strawberry Roan (1944), The Agitator (1945), Query (1945) and Appointment with Crime (1946).
His memorable performance on the television series The Army Game (1957) and the movie This Sporting Life (1963) led to him being cast as the Doctor on Doctor Who (1963), for which he is best remembered. His son-in-law is agent Terry Carney. His granddaughter is Jessica Carney (real name Judith Carney), who authored a biography of her grandfather, "Who's There?", in 1996. - Carole Ann Ford was born in June 1940 and first appeared in a film at the age of eight. Following acting and elocution lessons, she started doing commercials and walk-on work, and her first proper role was in the play "Women of the Streets." She continued working in theatre, film (including The Day of the Triffids (1963)) and television (including Emergency-Ward 10 (1957), Moonstrike (1963), Compact (1962) and Z Cars (1962)). Aftering leaving Doctor Who (1963), Carole worked mainly in the theatre. Her second daughter, Tara, was born in 1977. The same year she hurt her back filming a commercial, and suffered an extreme reaction to the pain-killers she was given. She subsequently became very ill, and has acted only occasionally since - though she did reprise her role as Susan in the twentieth-anniversary story The Five Doctors (1983). She is currently teaching voice, presentation skills and dialogue coaching to politicians, businessmen, after dinner speakers and actors.
- William Russell was born William Russell Enoch on 19 November 1924, in Sunderland, County Durham, England, to Eva Compston (Pile) and Alfred James Enoch. He became interested in acting at an early age. He was involved in organizing entertainments during his national service in the Royal Air Force and then, after university, went into repertory theatre. He appeared in "Hamlet" in London's West End and won a number of film roles, usually as a dashing hero. Notable TV work followed in The Adventures of Sir Lancelot (1956) for ITV and Nicholas Nickleby (1957) and David Copperfield in Fredric March Presents Tales from Dickens (1959) for the BBC, shortly after which he was cast as Ian Chesterton in Doctor Who (1963). He later continued a successful acting career, particularly in the theatre, and for a time held a senior post in the actor's union, Equity. In recent years he has been a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company.
His son is actor Alfred Enoch. - Born in 17 December 1929, Jacqueline Hill was orphaned as a toddler and raised by her grandparents. She was taken out of school at the age of 14 to enable her younger brother to continue. She then worked at Cadbury's, which had an amateur dramatics society. She was encouraged to apply for, and was awarded, a scholarship at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and entered RADA at the age of 16. She made her stage debut in London's West End in "The Shrike." Many more roles followed, including, on TV, Shop Window, Patrol Car (1954) and An Enemy of the People. It was around this time that she married top director Alvin Rakoff, who cast her opposite Sean Connery in one of ABC TV's Armchair Theatre plays. She was asked to play Barbara Wright in Doctor Who (1963) after she and producer Verity Lambert, whom she knew socially, discussed the role at a party. Soon after leaving the series in 1965 she gave up acting to raise a family. However, she resumed her career in 1979 and gained further TV credits on, amongst other programmes, Romeo & Juliet (1978), Tales of the Unexpected (1979), and the 1980 Doctor Who (1963) story "Meglos" (as a character called Lexa).
- After studying for a teaching diploma at the Central School of Speech and Drama, Maureen O'Brien became a founding member of the Everyman Theatre in her native Liverpool. About three months later she was persuaded to audition for the part of Vicki on Doctor Who. She was reluctant to accept the role, but did so partly to be with her London-based boyfriend (later her husband). It was a decision she later regretted as, although she liked the people she worked with, she did not enjoy the job and the enormous publicity it brought her. After leaving Doctor Who she worked as a supply teacher at a girl's school in Kennington, then returned to the theatre. This was followed by a three-year spell in Canada. Since returning to the UK in the mid-seventies, she has had further success in theatre, TV, radio and film, and as a writer of crime fiction.
- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Peter Purves was born in New Longton, Lancashire on 10 February 1939. After leaving school he took a four-year teacher-training course. In 1961, after only one year as a teacher, he turned to acting, initially with the Barrow-in-Furness Repertory Company and later with the Wimbleton Theatre Company.
An early TV role was in the BBC's legendary police series Z Cars (1962) and more TV work followed, including a play called The Girl in the Picture (1964) and an episode of The Villains (1964). In 1965 he auditioned for the part of a Menoptra in the Doctor Who story "The Web Planet", but was turned down. However, the director, Richard Martin, later cast him as Morton Dill in Flight Through Eternity (1965), and this led to him playing regular character Steven Taylor.
After Doctor Who (1963), Purves became a regular presenter on the children's magazine programme Blue Peter (1958). More presenting work followed, primarily on sports-based programmes. He has also been managing director of a video production company.- Plymouth-born Adrienne Hill trained in acting at the Bristol Old Vic, then spent some time with the Old Vic Company in London, followed by eight years' work in repertory theatre. Having been spotted by Doctor Who production assistant Viktors Ritelis while understudying for Maggie Smith in a play called "Mary, Mary", she was invited to audition for the role of Princess Joanna in "The Crusade." Although she did not win that part, director Douglas Camfield remembered her and cast her as Katarina. In the late sixties she had continued success, particularly in radio, and landed a regular role in the BBC's "Waggoner's Walk." She then moved abroad with her husband when his work took him first to Holland and later to the USA. In the late seventies, after her marriage broke up, she returned to England and studied for a degree. During the eighties she launched a new career as a drama teacher, while continuing to do occasional acting work.
- Jackie Lane was born 10 July 1941 in Manchester, England. In 1963 she was playing the part of the secretary in "Compact" when she was offered the part of the Doctor's grand-daughter, Susan, but decided that she did not want to be tied down to a year's contract. In 1966, however, having had only sporadic work in between, she accepted an offer from John Wiles, who had seen her as a Cockney character in a play, to portray Dorothea Chaplet. When, four months later, her contract expired, it was not renewed. She then gave up acting, and went to work as a secretary in the Australian embassy in Paris. She returned to England some time later and is now head of an acting agency's voice-over department.
- Anneke Wills made her acting debut at age eleven in a film called Child's Play (1954). She then studied at a drama school, the Arts Educational, for about four years, winning many children's TV and theatre roles. Subsequently, she enrolled at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, but did not complete the course. More TV work followed, including roles in Armchair Theatre (1956), The Saint (1962) and The Avengers (1961). In 1962, she starred in Some People (1962) alongside Kenneth More, David Hemmings, Ray Brooks & Angela Douglas, a film inspired by the Duke of Edinburgh's Award scheme. Four years later, she became famous on TV as "Polly Wright", the Doctor's companion in Doctor Who (1963) (her then-husband, Michael Gough, having recently played the "Celestial Toymaker"). Later, she won another regular TV role in the crime drama Strange Report (1969) which also starred Anthony Quayle and Kaz Garas. After the cast turned down the opportunity to make a second series in America, she gave up acting and moved to Norfolk, where she ran a craft shop. In 1977, she left England and lived at various times in Belgium, India - where she stayed in a religious retreat and returned to the stage in some Shakespeare productions - and in the USA. She settled in Canada, where she directed a production of the play "Rashomon", but worked mainly as an interior decorator. Recently, she returned to the UK and settled in Devon.
- Actor
- Producer
Michael Craze was born on 29 November 1942 in Cornwall and got into acting quite by chance as, at the age of twelve, he discovered through Boy Scout Gang Shows that he had a perfect boy soprano voice. This led him to win parts in "The King and I" and "Plain and Fancy", both at Drury Lane, and "Damn Yankees" at the Coliseum. Once he had left school, he went into repertory and got into TV through his agent. His first televison was a show called "Family Solicitor" for Granada which was followed for Granada which was followed, amongst others, by a part in ABC TV's 1960 series "Target Luna" (written by Malcolm Hulke and Eric Price and produced by Sydney Newman). When he was twenty Michael wrote, directed and acted in a film called "The Golden Head" which won an award at the Commonwealth Film Festival in Cardiff. Following Doctor Who, Michael worked on several ITV productions, including one episode (The Last Visitor) of Hammer Films' first TV series "Journey to the Unknown" in 1968. In the eighties Michael acted only occasionally and also managed a pub.- Patrick Troughton was born in Mill Hill, London and was educated at Mill Hill School. He trained as an actor at the Embassy School of Acting in the UK and at Leighton Rollin's Studio for for Actors at Long Island, New York in the USA. During World War II he served in the Royal Navy and after the war ended he joined the Old Vic and became a Shakespearean actor. He won his most famous role as the second Doctor in Doctor Who (1963), in 1966 and played the role for three years. His hobbies included golf, sailing and fishing. He was a father of six (David, Jane, Joanna, Mark, Michael and Peter), a stepfather to Gill and Graham and a grandfather to Harry Melling, Jamie and Sam Troughton.
- Actor
- Additional Crew
Frazer Hines has a particular distinction in the world of Doctor Who (1963) as the most prolific companion in the original 26-year run of the series; only the first four Doctors, William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker, appeared in more episodes. He was born and raised in England and is of Scottish descent on his mother's side, who came from Port Glasgow. He came to prominence as a child actor, appearing in several films before he was fifteen, including X the Unknown (1956) and Charlie Chaplin's A King in New York (1957). In 1957 he played Napoleon in the six part BBC serial Huntingtower and followed this with the role of Jan in the seven part BBC serial The Silver Sword (1957-8). Other credits as a child actor include Run to Earth (1958) and William Tell (1958). Other television roles in the sixties include the characters of Tim Birch in Emergency Ward 10 (1963-4), and Roger Wain in Coronation Street (1965).
His big break came when he was cast to play the part of Jamie McCrimmon in the BBC series Doctor Who, a companion of the second Doctor, played by Patrick Troughton. Frazer appeared in the series regularly from 1966 to 1969, earning himself a place in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest running companion of the Doctor. He returned to the show twice, as a cameo in the 30th anniversary show 'The Five Doctors' (1983), and alongside Patrick Troughton (second Doctor) and Colin Baker (sixth Doctor) in 'The Two Doctors' (1985).
In 1972, Frazer was cast in the soap opera Emmerdale Farm as Joe Sugden, a role he played regularly until 1994. Since leaving the show he has concentrated on a career in the theatre, appearing in many plays, and he currently believes he holds the record for the second most consecutive pantomime appearances - the record holder being Christopher Biggins with 38 appearances. His most recent theatre tour was in John A Penzotti's Five Blue Haired Ladies Sitting On A Green Park Bench (2011).
Frazer has continued his association with Doctor Who and has appeared in and narrated several of the audio adventures published by Big Finish. He has also provided audio commentaries for several of his stories when released on DVD, and has narrated some of the soundtrack releases put out by BBC Audio and AudioGO.
In 1996 Frazer released his autobiography, Films, Farms and Fillies, but at the time of publication, the publishers were in the process of being sold, and so his book only received a rather lack-lustre paperback release. In 2010 therefore, he released a reissued hardback edition of the book, retitled Hines Sight, which corrected many of the typographical and production errors of the first release. This edition was then released in paperback in 2011, and as an audio edition in 2012. In 2013 he released a photographic book of images from his life called Fifty Shades of Frazer. Both are available from his website.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Born on 2 January 1948, Deborah Watling grew up in an acting family. She attended stage school after failing her O level exams, but left after three weeks and got herself an agent. She then landed the part of Alice in a BBC play "The Life of Lewis Carroll" (aka Alice (1965)). This was followed by other roles, including film parts, with Cliff Richard in Take Me High (1973) and with David Essex in That'll Be the Day (1973). She was offered the role of Victoria in Doctor Who (1963) as Innes Lloyd had remembered the Radio Times cover for "The Life of Lewis Carroll" and asked Deborah to play the part. Following Doctor Who, Deborah opened her own boutique before landing a part in The Newcomers (1965). Since then she has appeared in numerous TV roles including Danger UXB (1979), Hello Young Lovers (1978), and Doctor in Charge (1972) and has done much work in the theatre.- Wendy Padbury trained at the Aida Foster Stage School and made her TV debut on the BBC arts programme "Monitor" soon after starting the course. More TV work followed and, by the age of seventeen, she had landed a regular role in the ATV soap opera Crossroads (1964). Soon after this, she applied for the role of "Zoe" on Doctor Who (1963). After several rounds of auditions and a screen test at Lime Grove, she was given the job. Although the production team tried to persuade her to stay on at the end of season six and she was tempted to do so, she decided to leave at the same time as her co-stars, Patrick Troughton and Frazer Hines. She then worked in the theatre and, in the early seventies, appeared in three seasons of the Southern TV children's series Freewheelers (1968). Since the mid-seventies, she has divided her time between raising a family and continuing her acting career.
- Nicholas Courtney was born in Egypt, the son of a British diplomat. His early years were spent in Kenya and France and he was called up for National Service at the age of 18. After 18 months of duty in the British forces, Courtney joined the Webber Douglas drama school. He spent two years there and then did repertory theatre in Northampton. His next move was to London.
During the 1960s, he played some roles in popular TV series. In 1965, he made an appearance on Doctor Who (1963), during the tenure of William Hartnell. The director, Douglas Camfield, remembered him and, in 1967, cast him as "Captain Knight" in "Doctor Who" episode "The Web of Fear". He took the part of "Lethbridge-Stewart", which was to become his most famous role, when the actor originally cast in the part had to drop out. At this time, Patrick Troughton was the star of the series.
Shortly after this, Courtney was offered the chance to play the role regularly and accepted. This guaranteed him work until 1975, when the character was written out of the series. He became a good friend of Jon Pertwee during his time on the programme, and returned in 1983, 1988 and 1989. His other television work has included a comedy with Frankie Howerd. Courtney has maintained a close association with "Doctor Who", narrating the documentary Doctor Who: Thirty Years in the TARDIS (1993) and attending conventions and appearing in spin-offs. - John Levene (real name John Anthony Woods) left home at the age of 21 and travelled to London. He was working in a men's clothing store when he met Telly Savalas (who was making the film "The Dirty Dozen") and he was inspired to become an actor. He joined an agency which provided walk-on actors. He had to change his name because every variation on it was being used by a member of the British actor's union, Equity.
His physical stature at 6' 2" earned him the non-speaking role of a Cyberman in The Invasion: Episode One (1968), but director Douglas Camfield gave him the role of Corporal Benton when the actor originally cast in the part was sacked. This was to become his best-known role and he played the part of Benton regularly in the series until 1975, when he was written out. In 1977, Levene quit acting and in the 1980s he moved to the USA. - Actor
- Writer
- Music Department
Jon Pertwee is best known for his portrayal of the Third Doctor on the BBC's science-fiction television series Doctor Who (1963) from 1970 to 1974. He was also the first to play the role following the transition of BBC One from black and white to colour. His 60-year entertainment career included work in radio, films and cabaret. This was despite the inauspicious beginning of having been thrown out of drama school as a young man and told he had no future as an actor.
Jon Pertwee was born John (after the apostle and disciple) Devon (after the county) Roland (after his father) Pertwee (an Anglicised version of the true family name, Perthuis de Laillevault) on 7 July 1919 in the Chelsea area of London. He was the second son of famous playwright, painter and actor Roland Pertwee, and his actress wife Avice - his writer brother Michael Pertwee being three years his senior. The Pertwee family had a long connection with show business and the performing arts, and it was at Wellington House preparatory school in Westgate-On-Sea in Kent that Jon, as a small and rebellious child, was encouraged in that direction. Later, at Frensham Heights co-educational school, Jon had his first taste of "real" theatre with real women in the school stage productions of "Twelfth Night" and "Lady Princess Stream". In 1936 he auditioned for, and was accepted by, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). He was later kicked out for refusing to play the part of the wind in a play.
Jon Pertwee died on 20 May 1996 of a heart attack. The BBC announced his death. He was survived by his wife Ingeborg Rhoesa, his son Sean Pertwee, a popular and talented actor, and his daughter Dariel Pertwee, an accomplished stage actress.- Actress
- Cinematographer
Caroline John was a classically trained actress who did some significant and prestigious stage work, but she is best remembered for one television role which she played for less than a year (and only four serials) - that of Dr. Elizabeth Shaw in Doctor Who (1963). Of the many satellites that have orbited the official incarnations of 'the Doctor' between 1963 and the present, John was arguably one of the brightest. Not only was she one of the most attractive of the companions but she also stood out for her resourcefulness and intelligence.
The daughter of an actor and a dancer, John was trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London before making her stage debut with the Royal Court Theatre. She then acted in repertory and had a three-and-a-half year stint with the National Theatre Company under the auspices of its artistic director Laurence Olivier, performing in such plays as "Othello", "The Master Builder" and (as Ophelia) in "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead". John joined Lambda in the late 1960s, touring through Italy, Yugoslavia and Romania with D.H. Lawrence's play "Daughter-in-Law".
Having submitted a glamorous modelling shot of herself to outgoing producers Peter Bryant and Derrick Sherwin, John successfully auditioned for the role of Dr. Liz Shaw and was first featured at the beginning of Season Seven in Spearhead from Space: Episode 1 (1970). Like her immediate predecessor, Zoe Heriot, who was an astrophysicist, her character was meant to be a super-intelligent character (the Brigadier famously describes her as being "an expert on meteorites, with degrees in medicine, physics and a dozen other subjects") who would help the new Doctor (Jon Pertwee) and also shared his moral principles. Her strong and independent personality contrasted markedly from the stereotype of the screaming, helpless scatter-brains the 20th century series is usually accused of having as companions. In a 1987 interview, John revealed that she was on occasion given leeway to ad lib if it helped to liven up a scene that didn't come off as originally written. However, script editor Terrance Dicks, new producer Barry Letts and Jon Pertwee all disliked the character of Liz Shaw, considering her too clever and grown-up to be relatable to the younger members of the audience. They also perceived it to be necessary to more fully explain the 'technobabble' to audiences. This required a suitably naïve character to ask the relevant questions. Consequently, John was dropped from the show at the end of the season in favour of Katy Manning's Jo Grant, a reversion to the show's earlier format. Terrance Dicks later commented that he thought John was actually too good an actress to play a companion to the Doctor. Although he'd written her out of the show, Barry Letts later cast John in his BBC version of The Hound of the Baskervilles (1982). John occasionally reprised her role of Liz Shaw for direct-to-video spin-offs, an audio series and for the seminal 1983 reunion special The Five Doctors (1983).
Post- Doctor Who (1963), she had a regular spot on Harry Enfield's Television Programme (1990) and guested in such shows as Poirot (1989), Silent Witness (1996) and Midsomer Murders (1997). She also maintained a steady flow of theatrical engagements and was latterly noted for her solo tour-de-force as Mildred Asher in "Nightingale", a play written by Lynn Redgrave, which ran at the New End Theatre in London and at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles in 2006.- Best known for his regular role as Captain Mike Yates during the Jon Pertwee era of the BBC science fiction series Doctor Who (1963), Richard Franklin joined the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1963 and his first professional acting work was with the Century Theatre. He was offered small roles on television and, in addition, spent a year and a half with the Birmingham Repertory Theatre.
More work on television, radio and commercials followed and in 1971 he made his first appearance on Doctor Who (1963) as UNIT officer Yates in Terror of the Autons: Episode One (1971), a popular serial which also saw the introduction of the long-running villain the Master (played by Roger Delgado). Incidentally, Ian Marter, who later played companion Harry Sullivan in the series opposite Tom Baker, had also been a strong contender for the role of Yates. Franklin appeared regularly in the series until 1974, appropriately enough making his last appearance in Pertwee's last serial Planet of the Spiders: Part One (1974), although he briefly returned for a scene in The Five Doctors (1983). He still works as an actor. - Actress
- Writer
Katy Manning trained as an actress at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art. In 1971, she became known to millions of British television viewers when she joined Doctor Who (1963) as the companion Jo Grant, which she played for three seasons opposite Jon Pertwee as the Doctor until 1973. Straight after, she hosted her own show, entitled Serendipity (1973) about arts and crafts, before appearing in Armchair Theatre (1956), Whodunnit? (1972) - also starring Jon Pertwee - and Target (1977) amongst others.
In 1982, she moved to Australia to live when her twin son and daughter were very young and has been a special guest at many Australian Doctor Who (1963) conventions. She continued her acting career and took part in many Australian stage productions, including "Run For Your Wife" and "Educating Rita", among others. After living in Australia for several years, she moved to the USA, but returned to Australia on a regular basis to take part in stage plays. She became an Australian citizen on 15 September 2004 and hosted her own show called 'Preview with Katy Manning' from 2001 to 2008. In 2010, she reprised her role as Jo Jones (nee Grant) in the Doctor Who spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures (2007).
Manning has two children, twins born in 1978, with Dean Harris. She also famously appeared in the soft porn magazine "Girl Illustrated" in 1976, posing naked with a Dalek. Barry Crocker has been her partner since 1989. Manning is still most famous for her role in Doctor Who (1963) and has contributed to many documentaries and DVD commentaries connected to her time on the series. After moving back to the UK in 2009, she continues to appear on television and in both feature films and short films.- Actor
- Writer
- Additional Crew
Born of a Spanish father and French mother in Whitechapel. Although most often called upon to play the villain (due to his dark good looks and sinister beard), he also had a career as a voice actor on BBC Radio appearing on such programs as the "Morning Story". He was a notable 'The Master' in many series of Doctor Who (1963).- Actress
- Writer
Elisabeth Sladen was born in Liverpool, England. She attended drama school for two years before joining the local repertory theatre in her home town of Liverpool. She met actor Brian Miller during her first production there and they were later married after meeting again in Manchester, three years later. Early television work included appearances on Coronation Street (1960), Doomwatch (1970), Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em (1973), Public Eye (1965) and Z Cars (1962). Between 1974 and 1976, she had a regular role on Doctor Who (1963) as Sarah Jane Smith, a part she has since reprised in K-9 and Company: A Girl's Best Friend (1981); The Five Doctors (1983); the Doctor Who radio serials The Paradise of Death (1993) & Doctor Who and the Ghosts of N-Space" (1996); the Children In Need skit Doctor Who: Dimensions in Time (1993); the spin-off video drama Downtime (1995) and, most recently, in the new Doctor Who (2005) series.
Other work on television has included "Stepping Stones" (1977), Send in the Girls (1978), Take My Wife... (1979), Gulliver in Lilliput (1982), Alice in Wonderland (1986) and Dempsey and Makepeace (1985). In 1980, Sladen appeared in the cinema film Silver Dream Racer (1980). Since the birth of her daughter Sadie in 1985, she has spent most of her time being a mother and housewife, but has made occasional television appearances, including in The Bill (1984) and Peak Practice (1993).
Fan reaction of her reappearance as Sarah Jane Smith on Doctor Who (2005) resulted in the production of a second Doctor Who spin-off just for her, The Sarah Jane Adventures (2007).- Actor
- Writer
One of Britain's most recognizable (and most larger-than-life) character actors, Tom Baker is best known for his record-setting seven-year stint as the Fourth Doctor in Doctor Who (1963). He was born in 1934 in Liverpool, to Mary Jane (Fleming) and John Stewart Baker. His father was of English and Scottish descent, while his mother's family was originally from Ireland. Tom, along with his younger sister, Lulu, and younger brother, John, was raised in a poor Catholic community by his mother, a house-cleaner and barmaid, who was a devout Catholic, and his father, a sailor, who was rarely at home.
At age fifteen, Baker left school to become a monk with the Brothers of Ploermel on the island of Jersey. Six years later, he abandoned the monastic life and performed his National Service in the Royal Army Medical Corps., where he became interested in acting. Baker then served on the Queen Mary for seven months as a sailor in the Merchant Navy before attending Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama in Kent, England, on scholarship.
Baker acted in repertory theaters around Britain until the late 1960s when he joined up with the National Theatre, where he performed with such respected actors as Maggie Smith, Anthony Hopkins and Laurence Olivier, who helped him get his first prominent film role as Rasputin in Nicholas and Alexandra (1971). His performance in this film earned him two Golden Globe Award nominations, one for best actor in a supporting role and another for best new star of the year. A couple of years earlier, Baker had made his theatrical film debut in The Winter's Tale (1967).
Despite appearances in a spate of films, including The Canterbury Tales (1972), The Vault of Horror (1973), The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973) and The Mutations (1974), Baker found himself in a career lull and working as a labourer at a building site. However, the BBC's Head of Serials, William Slater, who had directed Baker in BBC Play of the Month (1965), recommended him to producer Barry Letts, who was looking for a replacement for Jon Pertwee as the Fourth Doctor in Doctor Who (1963). Baker's performance in The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973) convinced Letts that he was right for it. It brought Baker international fame and popularity. He played the role for seven years, longer than any actor before or since.
After leaving Doctor Who (1963) in 1981, Baker returned to theatre and made occasional television and film appearances, playing Sherlock Holmes in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1982), Puddleglum in The Chronicles of Narnia story The Silver Chair (1990) and Hallvarth, Clan Leader of the Hunter Elves, in Dungeons & Dragons (2000).- Ian Marter left university in 1969 and joined the Bristol Old Vic as an acting stage manager. In 1970, producer Barry Letts considered him for the role of Captain Mike Yates in Terror of the Autons: Episode One (1971), but it ultimately went to Richard Franklin. However, Letts remembered him and two years later cast him as John Andrews in Carnival of Monsters: Episode One (1973).
When Jon Pertwee decided to leave the series during the following year, Letts considered casting an older actor in the part of the Doctor. This meant that any physical action sequences might have to be performed by a younger actor (in the role of a companion to the Doctor) and Marter was thus cast as Surgeon Lieutenant Harry Sullivan. When 40-year-old Tom Baker landed the role of the Doctor, Marter became surplus to requirements and was written out in Baker's second season by the new production team of Philip Hinchcliffe and Robert Holmes, who felt the Doctor only needed one companion.
Marter spent much of the rest of his life novelising Doctor Who (1963) stories for Target Books. He died suddenly and prematurely in 1986. - Actress
- Director
- Writer
Louise Jameson is a classically trained actress whose first love is the stage, but she also became known to millions of British television viewers through her roles in such hugely popular television series as Doctor Who (1963), Tenko (1981), Bergerac (1981) and EastEnders (1985).
Jameson had formal acting training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and embarked on a considerable amount of stage work, including two-and-a-half years at the Royal Shakespeare Company. She also achieved several roles in television, including Z Cars (1962) and Emmerdale Farm (1972), and the horror film Disciple of Death (1972). She auditioned for the role of a nurse in Angels (1975) and the role of Purdey in The New Avengers (1976).
In 1976, Jameson got her big break into television when she won the role of Leela, the alien savage companion of Tom Baker's Doctor in the BBC's Saturday evening science-fiction adventure series Doctor Who (1963). Jameson joined the series midway through its 14th season and when it was at the height of its popularity under producer Philip Hinchcliffe; her debut in The Face of Evil: Part One (1977) was seen by 10.7 million viewers. She also attracted much tabloid attention due to her skimpy leather costume, with many people calling her the sexiest companion yet. Despite the series' huge popularity, Doctor Who had been coming under increasing fire from Mary Whitehouse for its violent and horrific content. Hinchcliffe was replaced by Graham Williams at the end of the season and the new producer was told by the BBC to lighten the tone of Doctor Who.
Jameson completed another season of Doctor Who but her relationship with Tom Baker was strained. She decided to leave the series during the production of Image of the Fendahl: Part One (1977), when she was offered another prestigious stage role as Portia in The Merchant of Venice at the Bristol Old Vic, and she left at the end of The Invasion of Time: Part Six (1978).
In 1981, Jameson appeared as a regular in another popular BBC series, Tenko (1981), where she was cast by Pennant Roberts, who had auditioned her for Doctor Who and directed her first story. In 1985, she became a regular in the BBC's Jersey-based detective drama Bergerac (1981) as star John Nettles's love interest.
Between 1998 and 2000, Jameson played Rosa di Marco in the BBC's top soap opera EastEnders (1985), although Jameson later said she found the heavy schedule and lack of rehearsal time left her dissatisfied.
As well as her acting roles, Jameson has been a prison visitor in her spare time. One of her achievements was encouraging Leslie Grantham to become an actor while he was serving a murder sentence. She has directed youth productions of the works of William Shakespeare for local festivals and she has run a Sunday Drama College, based in her home town of Tunbridge Wells.- Actor
- Additional Crew
After leaving school, John Leeson worked in a bookshop, and then as a porter in the Leicester Royal Infirmary Hospital. He joined the Leicester Dramatic Society and ultimately applied for and won a place at RADA. On leaving the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he worked in repertory and pantomimes, including "Toad of Toad Hall," in which he met his future wife. His first work in television was as a walk-on in a BBC play, "The Wedding Feast." "The Spanish Farm" (1968), "Dad's Army" and numerous situation comedies followed. He played the original Bungle the bear in the children's series "Rainbow" (1972), set questions for "Mastermind" and did a lot of freelance voice work for the BBC. The part of K-9's voice came his way after he bumped into the director, with whom he had worked previously, in a pub. Since his time in "Doctor Who," Leeson has continued to act and provide voiceover services for the BBC and many other companies. In 1995 he appeared in the "Doctor Who" spin-off video drama "Downtime," playing a disc jockey.- Mary Tamm was an English actress from Bradford, with Estonian and Russian descent. She is primarily remembered for portraying Romana I, the first incarnation of the female Time Lord Romana in the long-running science fiction television series "Doctor Who" (1963-1989). Tamm portrayed the character throughout the story arc "The Key to Time" (1978-1979). Her version of the character was well-educated, haughty, and somewhat arrogant, but inexperienced as an adventurer. Romana I was then replaced by Romana II (played by Lalla Ward), who was depicted as a more confident, and wittier incarnation.
Tamm was born to emigrant parents, who had fled Stalinist persecution in their native Soviet Union. Tamm's father was Estonian, and Tamm's mother was a Russian opera singer. Four of Tamm's paternal uncles died while serving prison sentences in the gulag labor camps. Tamm learned only the Estonian language at her home, and went on to attend Estonian-language school on Saturdays. She learned English as a second language, when enrolled in a primary school.
In 1961, the 11-year-old Tamm won a scholarship to attend the Bradford Girls' Grammar School, a private school active since 1875. She soon joined the city's Civic Theatre, as a child actress. By the time she reached adulthood, she wanted to become a full-time actress. She studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) from 1969 to 1971.
In 1971, Tamm started regularly performing with the Birmingham Repertory Company. In 1972, she moved to London to secure a role in a musical at the city's stage. In 1973, Tamm made her BBC television debut as the character Sally Ross in "The Donati Conspiracy". She started regularly appearing in various film and television roles at this point. She portrayed the intended victim of a human sacrifice in the "Luau" segment of the horror anthology film "Tales That Witness Madness" (1973), and she portrayed the protagonist's victimized girlfriend in the neo-Nazi-themed spy thriller film "The Odessa File" (1974).
When initially offered to play the role of a female companion in "Doctor Who" , Tamm wanted to refuse. She felt that the companions of the series were damsels in distress with limited character development. She changed her mind when the producers assured her that Romana would be a member of the Doctor's own species, and as capable as the Doctor himself. Tamm was disappointed when she realized that Romana was essentially a sidekick, and often in peril. She decided to leave the series after a single story arc, though she left the show on relatively good terms. Tamm was annoyed when rumors about her supposed pregnancy were spread by a former producer of the show.
In the 1980s, Tamm had leading roles in several short-lived dramas and in the sitcom "The Hello, Goodbye Man". In the early 1990s , she was a regular guest panelist on the morning quiz show "Crosswits". From 1993 to 1996, Tamm portrayed a recurring character in the soap opera Brookside. In 2005, Tamm was cast as Pandora in the "Gallifrey" audio plays produced by Big Finish Productions. In the 2010s, she returned to the role of Romana in seven "Doctor Who" audio adventures. They were released posthumously in 2013.
In 2009, Tamm published the first volume of her autobiography, under the title "First Generation". She was working on a second volume at the time of her death from cancer in July 2012. The second volume was published posthumously in 2014. Tamm was survived by her only daughter, Lauren. Though long gone, Tamm remains popular in the science fiction fandom. - Actress
- Soundtrack
Lalla Ward born Sarah Ward, daughter of Lord Bangor - Edward Ward - and his writer wife, Marjorie Banks. She always wanted to act, paint and draw, and so joined the Central School of Speech and Drama in 1967. When she left in 1970, it was straight into a part in the Hammer film Vampire Circus (1972).
Following this she worked extensively on stage, in films - including England Made Me (1973), Rosebud (1975) and Crossed Swords (1977) (aka The Prince and the Pauper) - and on television - including appearances in Thundersky (1975), Hazell Meets the First Eleven (1978), Thundersky (1975) and several episodes of The Duchess of Duke Street (1976). She also appeared in a film called Got It Made (1974), which was later reissued as "Sweet Virgin" with sex scenes added featuring other actors. This led to her winning a libel action against Club International magazine, which ran a selection of nude photographs from the film purporting to be of her.
Her guest appearance in the story The Armageddon Factor: Part One (1979) led to her being chosen to play Romana when the original actress, Mary Tamm, left after one season. Ward quit Doctor Who in 1980, and in December of that year married Tom Baker. The marriage lasted 16 months. Ward continued to act, with roles in Schoolgirl Chums (1982) and Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (1980) for the BBC and "The Jeweller's Shop" and "The Rehearsal" on stage. She also developed her love of painting and wrote and illustrated several books.
In 1992, she married eminent biologist Dr. Richard Dawkins, author of such books as "The Selfish Gene" and "The Blind Watchmaker", and gave up acting to concentrate on writing and on her family.- Actor
- Writer
Matthew Waterhouse was born the son of a company solicitor. He joined the BBC as a clerk, working in the news and information department, while also pursuing an acting career. His first TV role was as a public schoolboy in "To Serve Them All My Days" (1980). He had not even started working on that programme when he auditoned for and won the role of Adric in Doctor Who. Since his departure in the series he has worked mainly in the theatre, appearing as Puck in "A Midsummer's Night Dream", as Peter Pan in "Peter Pan", and as Edmund in "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe." He has also starred in a one-man show, "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", adapted by him from Mark Twain's novel.- Actress
- Music Department
Sarah Sutton was born on 12 December 1961 and began her acting career at the age of seven when, while attending the Elm Hurst Ballet School, she was picked to play the part of Roo in a Phoenix Theatre production of "Winnie the Pooh". By the age of eleven she had landed a number of TV roles, including in "Menace: Boys and Girls Come Out to Play" (1973), "Late Call" (1974) and "Oil Strike North" (1975). Her biggest success came when she won the lead in the children's drama serial "The Moon Stallion" (1978). She went back to her acting studies at the Guidhall School of Music and Drama as a part-time student. It ws shortly after taking a Caribbean holiday that she was called to audition for the part of Nyssa in Doctor Who. Following her stint on the series she returned to theatre work, touring in the play "Policy for Murder" (1986). She subsequently got married and had a baby daughter, Hannah, which contributed to her taking a break from acting. She did however win a small role in the TV play "Unnatural Pursuits." She hopes to return to full-time acting when her daughter is older.- Janet Mahoney - now better known by her stage name of Janet Fielding - was born in Brisbane, Australia, in 1953. She gained A levels in Physics, Chemistry and Maths and joined Queensland University, where she first took up acting. After leaving university she worked with an English writer/director named Albert Hunt, who in 1977 brought her to England in one of his shows.
Once in England, she joined Ken Campbell at the Science Fiction Theatre of Liverpool and appeared in productions including "The Warp" and "The End is Nigh." Following this she won a small part in an episode of the Hammer House of Horror (1980) series. She was then cast in Doctor Who (1963) as the Australian airline stewardess Tegan Jovanka in Tom Baker's final serial Logopolis: Part One (1981), and became the longest-running companion of Peter Davison's Doctor, appearing until Resurrection of the Daleks: Part Two (1984). After leaving the series, she appeared in episodes of the ITV series Shelley (1979) and Minder (1979) and in productions of "The Collector" and the pantomime "Aladdin" in the theatre.
In 1991, she gave up acting to work as an administrator in the pressure group Women in Film and Television, where she stayed for three-and-a-half years. She then became a director of Marina Martin Associates, an actors' agency, representing amongst others the Eighth Doctor, Paul McGann. - Anthony Ainley was a notable British actor and a member of a distinguished British acting family. His brother was Richard Ainley (1910-1967) and his father Henry Ainley (1879-1945). He worked in the theatre for many years and eventually found work in various historical film dramas in the 1970s. However, his claim to fame is his casting in the role of the Master in the long running science fiction series, Doctor Who (1963). He first appeared in the role in 1981 and would makes further appearances each year up to and including 1986. He then reprised the role one last time in 1989, for the final Doctor Who serial entitled 'Survival'. He retired from acting professionally in the late nineties and played cricket up until the time of his death in May 2004.
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- Music Department
- Director
Peter Davison was born as Peter Malcolm Gordon Moffett on 13 April 1951 in Streatham, London. A decade later, he and his family - his parents, Sheila and Claude (an electrical engineer who hailed from British Guiana), and his sisters, Barbara, Pamela and Shirley, moved to Knaphill, Woking, Surrey, where Davison was educated at the Winston Churchill School. It was here that he first became interested in acting, taking parts in a number of school plays, and this eventually led to him joining an amateur dramatic society, the Byfleet Players.
Upon leaving school at the age of sixteen, having achieved only modest academic success with three O Levels of undistinguished grades, he took a variety of short-lived jobs ranging from hospital porter to Hoffman press operator. He was still keen to pursue an acting career, however, and so applied for a place at drama school.
Davison was accepted into the Central School of Speech and Drama and stayed there for three years. His first professional acting work came in 1972 when, after leaving drama school in the July of that year, he secured a small role in a run of "Love's Labour's Lost" at the Nottingham Playhouse. This marked the start of a three-year period in which he worked in a variety of different repertory companies around Great Britain, often in Shakespearean roles. He then made his television debut, playing a blond-wigged space cowboy character called Elmer in "A Man for Emily", a three-part story in the Thames TV children's series The Tomorrow People (1973) (April 1975). Appearing alongside him in this production was his future wife, American actress Sandra Dickinson, whom he had first met during a run of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in Edinburgh. They married on 26 December 1978 in Dickinson's home town of Rockville, Maryland, USA.
Davison spent the following eighteen months working as a file clerk at Twickenham tax office. He also took the opportunity to pursue an interest in singing and songwriting, which led him to record several singles with his wife. He later provided the theme tunes for a number of TV series, including Mixed Blessings (1978) and Button Moon (1980). Davison played the romantic lead, Tom Holland in Love for Lydia (1977), a London Weekend Television (LWT) period drama serial transmitted in 1977.
Davison's greatest acting breakthrough came when he played Tristan in the BBC's All Creatures Great and Small (1978), based on the books of country vet James Herriot. It was a highly successful series, which ran initially for three seasons between 1978-1980. His success in All Creatures Great and Small (1978) brought him many other offers of TV work. Among those that he took up were lead roles in two sitcoms: LWT's Holding the Fort (1980), in which he played Russell Milburn, and the BBC's Sink or Swim (1980), in which he played Brian Webber. Three seasons of each were transmitted between 1980-82, consolidating Davison's position as a well-known and popular television actor.
In 1980, Doctor Who (1963) producer John Nathan-Turner, who had worked with Davison as the production unit manager on All Creatures Great and Small (1978), cast him as the Fifth Doctor in the series. Taking over from Tom Baker, who had been in the role for an unprecedented seven years, Davison was seen as a huge departure as he was by far the youngest actor to date. Davison announced he was taking the lead role in Doctor Who (1963) on the BBC's lunchtime magazine program Pebble Mill at One (1972) on 3 December 1980, when he discussed with the presenter a number of costume ideas sent in by viewers and was particularly impressed by a suggestion from one of a panel of young fans assembled in the studio that the new Doctor should be "like Tristan Farnon, but with bravery and intellect".
His appearance in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1981), was recorded on 19 December 1980 and transmitted on 2 February 1981, by which time the viewing public were well aware that he would soon be taking over the lead role in Doctor Who. There was in fact only a month to go before he would make his on-screen debut in the series - albeit a brief one, in the regeneration sequence at the end of Logopolis: Part Four (1981).
His first full story was in Castrovalva: Part One (1982), the first story of season nineteen transmitted on 4 January 1982. Another significant change for the series was that it was taken off Saturdays for the first time, instead being broadcast on Mondays and Tuesdays. Davison was an immediate hit as the Doctor, with ratings picking up considerably from Tom Baker's final season. Several episodes from Davison's first season achieved over 10 million viewers, which would be the last time these numbers would be achieved in the original run of Doctor Who (1963). One particular success from Davison's first season was the stylish return of the Cybermen in Earthshock: Part One (1982), which became the most popular Cybermen story since the 1960s.
As the incumbent Doctor, Davison took part in the major celebrations of the 20th anniversary of Doctor Who (1963) in 1983, which included the multi-Doctor special The Five Doctors (1983). Nevertheless, Davison found himself dissatisfied with his second season on Doctor Who (1963), feeling that the writing, directing, budgets and tight recording schedules in the studio were frequently letting it down. With this in mind and fearing typecasting, he finished his tenure at the end of his third season in The Caves of Androzani: Part Four (1984). He left on a high, as it has been repeatedly voted one of the best stories ever by fans.
Davison became a father when, on December 25, 1984 (one day before the couple's sixth wedding anniversary), Dickinson gave birth to a daughter, Georgia Elizabeth, at Queen Charlotte's Hospital in London. Ten years later, however, the marriage broke down and they separated and later divorced. Most of Davison's work since then has been in the medium for which he is best known: television.
His credits include regular stints as Henry Myers in Anna of the Five Towns (1985), as Dr. Stephen Daker in A Very Peculiar Practice (1986), as Albert Campion in Mystery!: Campion (1989) and as Clive Quigley in Ain't Misbehavin (1994) all for the BBC, and as Ralph in Yorkshire TV's Fiddlers Three (1991). In addition, he has reprized his popular role of Tristan Farnon on a number of occasions for one-off specials and revival seasons of All Creatures Great and Small (1978).
Davison has returned several times to the world of Doctor Who (1963). In 1993 he appeared as the Fifth Doctor in Doctor Who: Dimensions in Time (1993), a brief two-part skit transmitted as part of the BBC's annual Children in Need Charity appeal, and in 1985 he narrated an abridged novelization of the season twenty-one story "Warriors of the Deep" for BBC Worldwide's Doctor Who audio book series. In addition, he has appeared in a number of video dramas produced by Bill Baggs Video. In 2003 and 2004 he appeared as quiet and unassuming detective "Dangerous Davies" in The Last Detective (2003), the Meridian TV adaptations of Leslie Thomas's novels.- Actor
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- Director
Born in Statford-on-Avon, Mark Strickson was brought up in the small village of Ilmington. His father was a professional musician and Strickson had learned to play several instruments - as well as singing in the Trinity Church choir - by the time he went to grammar school, where he continued his musical training. After finishing school, Strickson went to RADA, where he studied music and acting.
His first acting job was as part of the Mikron Theatre Company, who travelled the canals of Britain on a narrow boat performing up and down the country. Strickson wrote and composed many of the plays performed by the company over the two years he worked with them. Leaving the theatre for a while, Strickson gained his first television roles in "Celebration" and "Strangers", both for Granada television. For the BBC he appeared in "Angels", and "Juliet Bravo" before being auditioned for the role of Turlough in Doctor Who in 1982. Strickson found himself in the enviable position of having to choose between the role of Turlough and the part of an ambulance driver in "Angels", which he had also been offered.
After leaving Doctor Who in 1983, Strickson played the young Scrooge in a remake of Dickins' "A Christmas Carol" (1985). In 1988 he emigrated to Australia with his wife, actress Julie Brennan, where he took a break from acting to study for a degree in zoology. He returned to UK in 1995, and in 1996 he produced a number of wildlife films for television.- Actress
- Director
Nicola Bryant was born the daughter of a heating engineer, in 1960, in Surrey, England. She began her training in dance and music at the age of three, studying classical ballet, then jazz and tap dance, the piano, flute and guitar, and finally acting at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art. Here, apart from developing her acting skills, she continued her hobbies of golf and music. It was also during her time at drama school, that Nicola married the Broadway singer, Scott Kennedy, although they later separated. Her final production at Webber Douglas was "No, No, Nanette", in which she played the lead.
Bryant was spotted by an agent, Terry Carney (William Hartnell's son-in-law), and asked to audition for the part of Peri in Doctor Who (1963), which she got. On leaving Doctor Who, Nicola appeared in Blackadder's Christmas Carol (1988), Doctor Who: Dimensions in Time (1993), which was a Doctor Who spoof and the highly successful three "Stranger" videos and The Airzone Solution" with Colin Baker.
In 1992, she went to Los Angeles for several months before returning to the UK. In 1995, she appeared as Martine in The Biz (1995), a children's series, which has run for three series so far. She also has sung with Colin Baker, Anthony Ainley, Nicholas Courtney and a number of British pop stars on the "Doctor In Distress" record. Nicola lives in Notting Hill, where her understanding neighbours allow her to write music at all hours of the day and night.