Actors who played the Doctor in Doctor Who

Grace Rose Nettle, Age 15 is a British Actress, Singer and Dancer. A bright, confident and fun personality with a level of maturity way beyond her years.

Grace is an all round performer, from a solo singer at the amazing London Palladium to having a lead role in an action/drama feature film. Grace enjoys every chance to express herself by being on stage or on camera.

Having joined the Mark Jermin Stage School in 2017 aged 7, Grace has a wonderful array of experience in stage and theatre. Being cast in, Nativity! The Musical, Migrations and multiple lead roles in performances such as Annie, The Little Mermaid and Seussical the Musical.

Grace has had a whirlwind of excitement booking professional work and gained a wealth of experience for such a young person. Grace has appeared in many projects and global commercial campaigns, featured in many TV roles, held a lead role in a feature film (scheduled for release in early Summer 2023), Voiceover work for the incredible Sir Quentin Blake and has also done presenting roles for Nickelodeon, Sky Kids and NatWest.

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Grace Started dancing at the age of 6 in multiple disciplines such as Acro, Ballet, Hip hop, Tap, Modern, Jazz, Contemporary & Musical theatre. Grace is proud and humbled to have won many trophies in dance competitions in both group and solo routines. In 2019, 2020 and 2021 she Represented Wales in the Dance World Cup. Grace got through with group dances and her solo routines for tap, jazz and musical theatre. Her Musical Theatre routine got her awarded Top Mini Soloist and then went on to win Third in the World.

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Jo Martin was born in Newham, London, England, UK. She is known for Batman Begins (2005), 4.3.2.1. (2010) and Chalet Girl (2011).

Richard E. Grant is an actor and presenter. He made his film debut as Withnail in the comedy Withnail and I (1987). Grant received critical acclaim for his role as Jack Hock in Marielle Heller's drama film Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018), winning various awards, including the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male. He has also received Academy Award, BAFTA, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor.

George Gallaccio was born on 23 December 1938 in Brechin, Scotland, UK. He is a producer and production manager, known for The Omega Factor (1979), Alleyn Mysteries (1990) and Bergerac (1981).

In 1944, at the age of eighteen, Holmes joined the army, fighting with the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders regiment in Burma. He rapidly earned a commission, and as such became the youngest commissioned officer in the entire British army during the Second World War. The fact that he lied about his age to get into the army was discovered at his commissioning, but apparently the only reaction was by a general who praised him, adding that he had done the same thing himself. Soon after the end of the war, Holmes returned to England and left the army, deciding to join the police. He trained at Hendon Police College, graduating the top of his year and joining the Metropolitan Police in London, serving at Bow Street Police Station.

It was whilst serving as a Police officer that Holmes first began to develop an interest in writing as a career. When giving evidence in court for prosecutions against offenders, he would often note the excitement and frantic work of the journalists reporting on the cases, and decided that he would like to do similar work. To this end, he taught himself shorthand in his spare time and eventually resigned from the Police force. He quickly found work writing for both local and national newspapers, initially in London and later in the Midlands. He also filed reports for the Press Association, which could be syndicated to a variety of sources, such as local or foreign newspapers. In the late 1950s he worked for a time writing and editing short stories for magazines, before receiving his first break in television when he contributed an episode to the famous medical series Emergency-Ward 10 (1957).

His work as a sports reporter took him to the Midlands, where he became the final editor of "John Bull Magazine," at the same time submitting material to Grenada TV for Knight Errant Limited (1959). Other early TV work included The Saint (1962) Ghost Squad (1961), Public Eye (1965), Undermind (1965) (his first science fiction) and Intrigue (1966) His first work for Doctor Who (1963) was a commission to write "The Space Trap," later retitled "The Krotons." Subsequently he went on to become one of the series' most popular writers, responsible for more than a dozen televised stories. He also had a successful period as Doctor Who (1963)'s script editor between 1974 and 1977. He scripted much TV drama during the seventies and eighties, including a The Wednesday Play (1964) and episodes of Doomwatch (1970), Dr. Finlay's Casebook (1962), Dead of Night (1972), The Regiment (1972), Warship (1973), Spy Trap (1972)" and Dixon of Dock Green (1955)," and he adapted the BBC's 1981 science-fiction thriller serial The Nightmare Man (1981)," from David Wiltshire's novel. He was working on further Doctor Who (1963) episodes when he died, after a short illness, on 24 May 1986.

Graeme Harper was originally a child actor, appearing in adaptations of The Pickwick Papers (1952) and The Silver Sword (1957) among other productions, before becoming a floor assistant at the BBC in 1965 and then an assistant floor manager in 1969. He worked on the serials Colony in Space: Episode One (1971), Planet of the Daleks: Episode One (1973) and Planet of the Spiders: Part One (1974) during the Jon Pertwee years, and The Seeds of Doom: Part One (1976) and Warriors' Gate: Part One (1981) in the Tom Baker era.

In 1980 Harper started on the BBC's director's course. The Caves of Androzani: Part One (1984) was the first job he got as a freelance director after working on Angels (1975) for Julia Smith. Harper went on to direct one further Doctor Who (1963) story, Revelation of the Daleks: Part One (1985), and was also to have directed the third story in the abandoned season twenty-three, which would have been either Philip Martin's "Mission to Magnus" or Robert Holmes's "Yellow Fever and How to Cure It".

Harper quickly became one of the industry's most competent and sought-after directors, working on almost every popular drama series in the UK. In 1993, he was scheduled to direct "The Dark Dimension", the ultimately aborted 30th anniversary Doctor Who (1963) story.

Douglas Camfield was born on 8 May 1931 in England, UK. He was a director and writer, known for Danger UXB (1979), Paul Temple (1969) and Doctor Who (1963). He was married to Sheila Dunn. He died on 28 January 1984 in Twickenham, Middlesex, England, UK.

After graduating in English Literature, Philip Hinchcliffe worked for a travel company and as a teacher before becoming a script editor for the television company Associated Television. After extensive experience of working with writers and scripts for a number of shows, he began to set his sights on moving into the production side and gained experience as an associate producer.

In the spring of 1974 he joined the BBC to take his first full production job after the corporation's head of serials, William Slater, offered him the role of producer of the popular science-fiction series Doctor Who (1963). He teamed up with script editor Robert Holmes, an experienced television drama writer, and produced three seasons of the programme which were broadcast between January 1975 and April 1977. He led the show into darker, more dramatic storylines, which resulted in unprecedented levels of both popularity and controversy for the series. Television watchdog Mary Whitehouse became a frequent critic of the series during this period, considering it too violent and horrific to be shown at a time when children would be watching. The frequency of her complaints caused growing concern amongst Hinchcliffe's superiors at the BBC, although they publicly backed the producer as he was delivering consistently high viewing figures. After Whitehouse wrote a particularly strong letter to the BBC in November 1976 about the serial The Deadly Assassin, in which she accused the BBC of ignoring its own guidance on the portrayal of violence on television, an apology from BBC Director-General Charles Curran marked a change in the BBC's policy. Hinchcliffe and the BBC agreed that he should be moved on to producing other programmes at the end of that season and his successor, Graham Williams, was ordered to lighten the tone of Doctor Who (1963).

Hinchcliffe's next series was Target (1977), a police series that was intended as the BBC's answer to ITV's popular The Sweeney (1975), although it failed to capture the same degree of popularity and only lasted for two series. Nevertheless, Hinchcliffe would spend the next two decades as one of British television drama's most successful producers, working on series such as Private Schulz (1981) and the long-running Taggart (1983).

Although he has worked on numerous productions, Hinchcliffe is still most famous for his time on the legendary television series Doctor Who (1963), which is still considered the strongest period of the show by many fans. He also wrote novelisations of The Keys of Marinus, The Seeds of Doom and The Masque of Mandragora. Since retiring from television, Hinchcliffe has recorded numerous interviews and commentaries on DVD releases remembering his time on the show. With the death of Derrick Sherwin in 2018, Hinchcliffe became the last surviving producer of the original series of Doctor Who (1963).

Christopher Baker was born on 7 June 1937 in Thornton Heath, Surrey, England. He is a director and actor, known for Star Cops (1987), Cuffy (1983) and Don't Forget to Write! (1977).

Robert Banks Stewart had an incredible career in British television drama, becoming one of its greatest ever writers, story editors and producers. He started writing in primary school, winning a Burns essay prize and contributing stories to local newspapers. At age 15, he left school to become an office boy at the Edinburgh Evening Dispatch. He did his National Service with Field Marshal Montgomery's peacetime staff. He then worked as a newspaper editor. By this time he had written several plays and done a stint as a radio commentator. He eventually left Scotland for a post as foreign corespondent for Illustrated magazine. When that publication folded, he joined the Rank Organisation, providing rewrites and producing movie and TV scripts.

Christopher Barry was born on 20 September 1925 in London. He was a director and producer, known for The Tripods (1984), Nanny (1981) and Doctor Who (1963). He died on 7 February 2014 in Oxfordshire, England, UK.

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.

A gaunt, intense character actor of striking presence, Richard Gibbon Hurndall was educated at Scarborough College and trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He acted professionally from 1930, initially in repertory theatre and later with the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon, his roles including Orlando in "As You Like It", Bassanio in "The Merchant of Venice" and Laertes in "Hamlet". Richard's powerful voice and precise diction were also perfectly suited to working in radio. Between 1949 and 1952, he was a member of the BBC radio drama repertory company. In October 1958, he took over as host of Radio Luxemburg's half-hour British version of Edward R. Murrow's "This I Believe". A year later, he was well cast as Sherlock Holmes in a BBC radio adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Sign of Four", transmitted over five weekly episodes.

From 1946, Hurndall made sporadic television appearances, but did not fully take to the medium until the mid 1960's. His incisive personality, combined with a natural ability to adopt diverse accents and dialects, led to him being cast as doctors, magistrates, aristocrats, and other authority figures of various ethnic backgrounds. By contrast, he was equally effective as a debonair underworld figure, Henry Mackleson, in Spindoe (1968). On the humorous side, he essayed a campy, effete antiques dealer in an episode of Steptoe and Son (1962) ("Any Old Iron?"); and alternated being sinister and droll, as Carne, a German general masterminding a rather unusual invasion of a Cornish fishing village at the onset of World War I, in the hilariously funny Ripping Yarns (1976) adventure, "Whinfrey's Last Case" .

His best known role was also destined to be one of his last. On the strength of his appearance in an episode of Blake's 7 (1978), Hurndall was cast as the First Doctor (formerly played by the late William Hartnell) in the 1983 feature length Doctor Who (1963) reunion special The Five Doctors (1983). The series' continuity adviser, Ian Levine, had spotted a resemblance between the two actors, an opinion with which Hartnell's widow apparently concurred. By his own admission, Hurndall entered the project with a measure of ambiguity, having had limited exposure to science fiction, or Doctor Who (1963), for that matter. Ultimately, he conformed perfectly to Hartnell's precise idiosyncratic mannerisms and intonation - a performance which proved more than adequate to the original. Sadly, Hurndall died within a few months of The Five Doctors (1983) going to air.

Seemingly omnipresent on both stage and screen, David Bradley has amassed a truly diverse gallery of memorable characters. The pugnacious-looking, gruff-voiced performer has played fools and kings, gardeners and fishermen, policemen and murderers, priests and madmen, undertakers and rabbis, a druid and a vampire hunter. On the Shakespearean stage alone, he has headlined as Henry IV, Titus Andronicus and Cymbeline, King of Britain. His numerous portrayals have included the foolish Polonius in Hamlet, the jester Trinculo in The Tempest, Mephostophiles in Doctor Faustus, and, unsurprisingly, Ebenezer Scrooge. He is quoted, saying, "Not all the characters I play are on the side of the angels....I consider myself fortunate in having a lot of variety of work whether it's on stage or on film, and the parts have been rich and varied."

Bradley was born in York where his first exposure to performing in public at the age of fourteen began inauspiciously (he fainted from an attack of nerves). Nonetheless, he found himself inexorably drawn to the acting profession after a trip to the pictures, watching Laurence Olivier in his celebrated role as Richard III (1955). Having left Catholic school, Bradley began his professional life by serving a five-year long apprenticeship with the optical instruments manufacturing firm of Cooke, Troughton & Simms, a subsidiary of Vickers. Moving on in 1966, he eventually took his first steps on the stage in musical productions with the York Boys Club and the Rowntree Youth Theatre. From there, he moved on to join the Settlement Players (getting his first grounding in roles by Shakespeare and Chekhov) and then the York Co-operative Players, where he was mentored by the producer Edward Taylor. Bradley later explained: "He's the one who encouraged me to go to drama school, and helped me with my audition speeches."

Having relocated to London, Bradley was accepted by the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and, in 1968, made his bona fide acting debut in a RADA theatrical production of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. In 1972, he successfully auditioned for Olivier and spent several seasons with the National Theatre Company. In 1978, he became an alumnus of the Royal Shakespeare Company. One of the high points of his theatrical career was receiving a Laurence Olivier Award in 1991 for his role as the fool in King Lear. More recently, in 2005, he headlined as Henry IV in Parts One and Two at London's Olivier Theatre.

On screen from 1971, Bradley toiled for some two decades in unremarkable supporting parts. His acting sharpened with the passage of time and he was given more substantial roles to play by the mid-90s. Three of his early standouts were in BBC period drama: his David Crimp, Secretary of the 'Disinterested Loan and Life Assurance Company', in an adaptation of Martin Chuzzlewit (1994); the lecherous and miserly Baronet Sir Pitt Crawley in Vanity Fair (1998) and the leering blackmailer Rogue Riderhood in Our Mutual Friend (1998), based on a lesser known novel by Charles Dickens. He also appeared with Christopher Eccleston in the political drama Our Friends in the North (1996), as independent Labour MP Eddie Wells. In Bradley's own words: "That was the biggest part I'd ever done on TV and it opened up a lot of opportunities for me on screen". In the excellent musical drama six-part miniseries Blackpool (2004), Bradley later portrayed Hallworth, a devout Christian anti-gambling crusader and vocal opponent of David Morrissey's overambitious arcade owner Ripley Holden.

After playing a succession of curmudgeons and cantankerous old geezers, Bradley took a surprising detour into the comical, co-starring opposite Dawn French and Catherine Tate in Wild West (2002) as the entrepreneurial Cornish boatman Old Jake. He also popped up as the (aptly named) gun-toting farmer Arthur Webley in the buddy cop comedy Hot Fuzz (2007) and as Cohen the Barbarian, Discworld's 'greatest warrior', in Sky One's adaptation of Terry Pratchett's quirky fantasy The Color of Magic (2008). By that time, he had also embarked on his recurring role as Argus Filch, the caretaker of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, in the Harry Potter films. Bradley later revealed that his children had steered him towards the Harry Potter franchise and 'coached' him for the role of Filch.

Returning to period drama, Bradley appeared in too few scenes as the (wise) court jester Will Somers, the only individual who would console a distraught Henry VIII after the death of Jane Seymour in Showtime's historical drama series The Tudors (2007). The following year saw him nominated by the London Film Critics Circle as Best Supporting Actor for his role as Ronnie Hepple in Mike Leigh's acclaimed 'kitchen sink' comedy-drama Another Year (2010).

If Harry Potter had not already put him on the map, Bradley's next set of performances would certainly have done the trick. In 2014, he won a BAFTA TV Award for his role as the tormented Jack Marshall, a local shopkeeper in Broadchurch (2013), unjustly accused of being a paedophile and murderer, consequently driven to suicide. Returning to the dark side side, he subsequently portrayed his most evil character to date, the duplicitous Walder Frey, Lord of Riverrun, in HBO's epic series Game of Thrones (2011). Bradley relished the role of the man audiences loved to hate, with Frey having presided over the 'red wedding' (in season three's penultimate episode), at which Robb, Talisa and Catelyn Stark and many of their bannermen were brutally slain. In the aftermath of the show, Bradley quipped to reporters at the Television Critics Association's press tour "wedding invitations have dried up".

In 2012, Bradley made his entry (not counting earlier voice-over work and podcasts) into the Doctor Who (2005) universe as Solomon, a ruthless space pirate, in the episode "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship'. He was then perfectly cast as William Hartnell --the actor who portrayed the very first Doctor in 1963-- in the BBC's excellent docu-drama An Adventure in Space and Time (2013). Bradley followed up to play Hartnell's role in an episode of season ten ('The Doctor Falls'), the 2017 Christmas special 'Twice Upon a Time' and in the final 2022 special, entitled 'The Power of the Doctor'.

More recently, Bradley has appeared on TV as the fierce vampire hunter Abraham Setrakian, a holocaust survivor and New York pawnshop proprietor, relentlessly in pursuit of the demonic Strigoi (led by 'The Master', aka Sariel) while combating a global viral outbreak known as The Strain (2014). For his commanding performance, Bradley was nominated for a Fangoria Chainsaw Award and a Saturn Award by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA. Incidentally, the show's Setrakian character bears more than a passing resemblance to Van Helsing in Bram Stoker's classic 'Dracula'.

Bradley's other recent roles of note have included a wizened Druid in the historical fantasy Britannia (2017), the demented father of suicidal newspaper writer Tony Johnson (Ricky Gervais) in the black comedy After Life (2019) and the voice of Fowler, an elderly, stiff-upper-lip rooster and ex-RAF mascot, in Aardman's animation Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (2023).

David Bradley holds honorary doctorates from the University of Warwick and from York St. John University. He has long resided n Stratford-upon-Avon, where he has served as president of Second Thoughts, a local community theatre group set up in 1984.

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.

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.

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).

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 & 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 & 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 & 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 Hitch Hiker'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 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 & 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.

Colin Baker was born in 1943 in the Royal Waterloo Lying-In Hospital in London during an air raid. He spent his earliest years in London with his mother, while his father served in the armed forces. He narrowly avoided an early death during the wartime blitz when a piece of flying shrapnel just missed him, embedding itself in the side of his cot. After the war, Baker's father took a job as managing director of an asbestos company in Manchester. The family moved north to live in Rochdale, although Baker attended school in Manchester.

It was during his early schooling that - through the mother of one of his fellow pupils, who was a casting director at Granada TV - he had his first experience of acting. It was 1954 and the series was called My Wife's Sister (1956), starring Eleanor Summerfield, Martin Wyldeck and Helen Christie. Colin Baker went on to attend St. Bede's College in Manchester, where he was invited to take part in their annual productions of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. The twelve-years-old Baker appeared in the chorus for a production of "Yeoman of the Guard" and, a year later, landed a more major part - playing the female lead, "Phyllis" - in "Iolanthe".

After completing his schooling, Baker went on to study law. One day during this period, he and his mother went to see an amateur production of "The King and I" at the Palace Theatre, Manchester. Inspired by the performance and encouraged by the president of the company that had staged the Amateur Dramatic Society and quickly became hooked on acting. Baker took a job as a solicitor but, as time went on, became less and less interested in this career. Finally, at the age of twenty-three, he decided to become a full-time actor.

Baker joined the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA), where he trained for three years. At the end of this, he was summoned with two of his fellow students to see the head of the drama school, who gave them rather gloomy predictions for their future prospects as actors and suggested that they seek alternative careers. These predictions proved somewhat wide of the mark as not only did Baker go on to great success but so too did his fellow students - David Suchet (who - amongst many other achievements - starred in LWT's award-winning productions of Agatha Christie's "Poirot") and Mel Martin (whose numerous credits include the series Love for Lydia (1977), also for LWT). After leaving LAMDA, Baker took a temporary job driving a taxi in Minehead in order to be near his then-girlfriend. He then received a call to come to London to audition for a part in a BBC2 drama series called The Roads to Freedom (1970), which he won. This led to further TV roles, including two more for BBC2: "Count Wenceslas Steinbock" in "Balzac's Cousin Bette" (1971) and "Prince Anatol Kuragin" in an ambitious twenty-part serialisation of Lev Tolstoy's "War and Peace" (1972-72). He also took on a wide range to theatre work, including several William Shakespeare festivals, appearing in productions of "Macbeth" and "Hamlet".

In the mid-seventies, Baker landed the role that would make him "the man viewers love to hate". This was "Paul Merroney" in the BBC1 series The Brothers (1972). After "The Brothers", Baker married actress Liza Goddard, who had played his on-screen wife in the series, but the marriage eventually ended in divorce. Baker later married actress Marion Wyatt. Theatre work kept Baker almost constantly busy for the next five years including appearances in everything from comedies to thrillers, as well as more Shakespeare. He also had a few further TV roles, including one as "Bayban" in "Blake's 7: City at the Edge of the World" (BBC, 1980) and one opposite Nyree Dawn Porter and Ian Hendry in the drama series, For Maddie with Love (1980) (ATV, 1980).

Baker's next TV role after "For Maddie with Love" was as "Maxil" in the Arc of Infinity: Part One (1983) story, "Arc of Infinity". Shortly before Baker took the role of the Doctor on "Doctor Who", he and his wife suffered the loss of their baby son, Jack, to cot death syndrome. Baker subsequently became a passionate fund raiser for the Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths, with many of is personal appearance fees being donated to the charity. Baker's time as the sixth Doctor was cut unexpectedly short, initially by BBC One controller Michael Grade's hiatus between the twenty-second and twenty-third seasons and then by the decision of Grade to oust him from the role.

After his departure from "Doctor Who", the actor returned to the theatre, appearing in highly successful runs of "Corpse" and "Deathtrap" and having a four-month stint in the West End farce, "Run for Your Wife", with Terry Scott. TV work included a guest appearance in the BBC's Casualty (1986) and presenting assignments on programmes for the Children's Channel. After directing a play called "Bazaar and Rummage", Baker was asked to play the Doctor once again - this time on stage, taking over from Jon Pertwee in the Mark Furness Ltd production, "The Ultimate Adventure". This tour proved to him that, despite the brevity of his time as the Doctor on TV, he had amassed a loyal following amongst younger viewers.

In the 1990s, Baker had continued to pursue a successful career, mainly in the theatre. He has made regular appearances in pantomime, and his stage work has included roles in the musical adaptation of Charles Dickens' "Great Expectations" and in a comedy entitled "Fear of Flying". He has also starred in the "Stranger" series of videos made by Bill Baggs Video, alongside a number of other actors known for their work on "Doctor Who".

Sylvester McCoy was born Percy James Patrick Kent-Smith on 20 August 1943, the only child of Molly Sheridan and Percy James Kent-Smith, a couple living in Dunoon, Scotland. His mother was Irish. Percy James Kent-Smith was killed in the Second World War a couple of months before his son was born, and he was brought up by his mother, his grandmother (Mary Sheridan), and his aunts. He attended St Muns Primary School in Dunoon. The headmistress, Rosie O'Grady, was keen that her young charges obtain decent jobs upon leaving the school and so organized regular talks from people in all manner of professions.

McCoy expressed an interest in every job, and as a result eventually found himself given an afternoon off school to go to see a local priest about entering the priesthood. He left school, joined Blairs College, a Catholic seminary in Aberdeen, and between the ages of twelve and sixteen trained to be a priest. At Blairs College, he realized that there was more to life than could be found in Dunoon and discovered classical music and history, which fascinated him. He eventually decided to become a monk and applied to join a Dominican order, but his application was rejected as he was too young. He returned to school and soon discovered the delights of the opposite sex in the form of fellow students and determined he didn't want to be a priest or a monk after all.

On finishing his education he took a holiday down to London, from which he never returned. McCoy approached a youth employment center looking for a job and impressed by the fact that he had attended a grammar school, they instantly found him a job in the City working for an insurance company. He trained in this job and stayed there until he was 27 before deciding that it wasn't really for him. With the help of a cook at London's Roundhouse Theatre, McCoy gained a job there selling tickets and keeping the books in the box office.

McCoy joined the Ken Campbell Roadshow. Along with Bob Hoskins, Jane Wood, and Dave Hill, he would start performing a range of plays with the umbrella theme of "modern myths". McCoy found himself in a double-act with Hoskins. After Hoskins left, and being booked at a circus, director Ken Campbell improvised a circus-based act about a fictitious stuntman called Sylvester McCoy and thought it would be amusing if the program stated that this character was played by "Sylvester McCoy". While at the Royal Court Theatre, one of the critics missed the joke and assumed that Sylvester McCoy was a real person. McCoy liked the irony of this and adopted the name of his stage identity. During one of their UK engagements, the Roadshow team was invited up by Joan Littlewood, who was directing a production of "The Hostage", before the performance of her play. This led McCoy to bona fide theater, and he was subsequently invited to appear in numerous plays and musicals.

McCoy was starring at the National Theatre in "The Pied Piper", a play written especially for him, when he learned that the BBC was looking for a new lead actor to replace Colin Baker, who had been unceremoniously dumped from Doctor Who (1963) on the orders of Michael Grade. McCoy won the role as the Seventh Doctor despite reservations from Grade and Head of Drama Jonathan Powell, who were by this time monitoring producer John Nathan-Turner's decision-making very closely. McCoy's first season took the slightly pantomimic style of Baker's final season, Trial of a Time Lord, even further and received a very dubious reception from the press and fans. Nathan-Turner put McCoy in a pullover covered in question marks, which McCoy later admitted he didn't like.

By the time of McCoy's second season, the new script editor, Andrew Cartmel, was trying to make the series darker and more complex. In the third season, his costume was changed from a fawn jacket and paisley scarf to a dark brown jacket and an altogether more muted and subdued image, but the pullover remained. Despite forming a close bond with co-star Sophie Aldred and the general standard of the stories rising again towards the end, the series was obviously starved of funds and ratings were fairly poor throughout the McCoy era, with the series being trounced by ITV's Coronation Street (1960). The BBC's opinion of Doctor Who (1963) was that it was an embarrassment. In 1989, the new series head, Peter Cregeen, pulled the plug.

After Doctor Who (1963) McCoy worked extensively in theater and on television. In theater he appeared in "The Government Inspector" twice in tours during 1993 and 1994, and in between these he starred as the Narrator, Thomas Marvel, in the stage version of H.G. Wells's "The Invisible Man". In 1995, he starred in Zorro: The Musical".

On television, his credits include Frank Stubbs Promotes (1993) and Rab C. Nesbitt (1988). He also created the character of Crud in the cult television series Ghoul Lashed for Sky TV. In 1996, he was contracted to reprise his role as the Doctor, handing over to an eighth incarnation of the Time Lord in the earthly form of his friend Paul McGann. Also in 1996, McCoy devised and presented Reeltime Pictures' I Was a 'Doctor Who' Monster (1996), a special video tribute to the men and women who had played the monsters of Doctor Who (1963).

Paul McGann was born on 14 November 1959 in Kensington, Liverpool, England, UK. He is an actor and director, known for The Three Musketeers (1993), Alien³ (1992) and Withnail and I (1987). He has been married to Annie Milner since 1992. They have two children.

One of stage, screen and TV's finest transatlantic talents, slight, gravel-voiced John Vincent Hurt was born on January 22, 1940, in Shirebrook, a coal mining village, in Derbyshire, England. The youngest child of Phyllis (Massey), an engineer and one-time actress, and Reverend Arnould Herbert Hurt, an Anglican clergyman and mathematician, his quiet shyness betrayed an early passion for acting. First enrolled at the Grimsby Art School and St. Martin's School of Art, his focus invariably turned from painting to acting.

Accepted into the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1960, John made his stage debut in "Infanticide in the House of Fred Ginger" followed by "The Dwarfs." Elsewhere, he continued to build upon his 60's theatrical career with theatre roles in "Chips with Everything" at the Vaudeville, the title role in "Hamp" at the Edinburgh Festival, "Inadmissible Evidence" at Wyndham's and "Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs" at the Garrick. His movie debut occurred that same year with a supporting role in the "angry young man" British drama Young and Willing (1962), followed by small roles in Appuntamento in Riviera (1962), A Man for All Seasons (1966) and [link

Hurt found his more compelling early work in offbeat theatrical characterizations with notable roles such as Malcolm in "Macbeth" (1967), Octavius in "Man and Superman" (1969), Peter in "Ride a Cock Horse" (1972), Mike in '"The Caretaker" (1972) and Ben in "The Dumb Waiter" (1973). At the same time he gained more prominence in a spray of film and support roles such as a junior officer in Before Winter Comes (1969), the title highwayman in Sinful Davey (1969), a morose little brother in In Search of Gregory (1969), a dim, murderous truck driver in 10 Rillington Place (1971), a skirt-chasing, penguin-studying biologist in Cry of the Penguins (1971), the unappetizing son of a baron in The Pied Piper (1972) and a repeat of his title stage role as Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs (1974).

Hurt shot to international stardom, however, on TV where he was allowed to display his true, fearless range. He reaped widespread acclaim for his embodiment of the tormented gay writer and raconteur Quentin Crisp in the landmark television play The Naked Civil Servant (1975), adapted from Crisp's autobiography. Hurt's bold, unabashed approach on the flamboyant and controversial gent who dared to be different was rewarded with the BAFTA (British TV Award). This triumph led to the equally fascinating success as the cruel and crazed Roman emperor Caligula in the epic television masterpiece I, Claudius (1976), followed by another compelling interpretation as murderous student Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment (1979).

A resurgence occurred on film as a result. Among other unsurpassed portraits on his unique pallet, the chameleon in him displayed a polar side as the gentle, pathetically disfigured title role in The Elephant Man (1980), and as a tortured Turkish prison inmate who befriends Brad Davis in the intense drama Midnight Express (1978) earning Oscar nominations for both. Mainstream box-office films were offered as well as art films. He made the most of his role as a crew member whose body becomes host to an unearthly predator in Alien (1979). With this new rush of fame came a few misguided ventures as well that were generally unworthy of his talent. Such brilliant work as his steeple chase jockey in Champions (1984) or kidnapper in The Hit (1984) was occasionally offset by such drivel as the comedy misfire Partners (1982) with Ryan O'Neal in which Hurt looked enervated and embarrassed. For the most part, the craggy-faced actor continued to draw extraordinary notices. Tops on the list includes his prurient governmental gadfly who triggers the Christine Keeler political sex scandal in the aptly-titled Scandal (1989); the cultivated gay writer aroused and obsessed with struggling "pretty-boy" actor Jason Priestley in Love and Death on Long Island (1997); and the Catholic priest embroiled in the Rwanda atrocities in Shooting Dogs (2005).

Latter parts of memorable interpretations included Dr. Iannis in Captain Corelli's Mandolin (2001), the recurring role of the benign wand-maker Mr. Ollivander in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010), the tyrannical dictator Adam Sutler in V for Vendetta (2005) and the voice of The Dragon in Merlin (2008). Among Hurt's final film appearances were as a terminally ill screenwriter in That Good Night (2017) and a lesser role in the mystery thriller Damascus Cover (2017). Hurt's voice was also tapped into animated features and documentaries, often serving as narrator. He also returned to the theatre performing in such shows as "The Seagull", "A Month in the Country" (1994), "Afterplay" (2002) and "Krapp's Last Tape", the latter for which he received the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award.

A recovered alcoholic who married four times, Hurt was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) by the Queen in 2004, and Knight Bachelor of the Order of the British Empire in 2015. That same year (2015) he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. In July of 2016, he was forced to bow out of the father role of Billy Rice in a then-upcoming London stage production of "The Entertainer" opposite Kenneth Branagh due to ill health that he described as an "intestinal ailment". Hurt died several months later at his home in Cromer, Norfolk, England on January 15, 2017, three days after his 77th birthday.

Christopher Eccleston trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama and first came to public attention as Derek Bentley in Let Him Have It (1991). However, it was a regular role in the television series Cracker (1993) that made him a recognizable figure in the United Kingdom. He appeared in the low-budget thriller Shallow Grave (1994), and in the same year, won the part of Nicky Hutchinson in the epic BBC drama serial Our Friends in the North (1996). It was the transmission of the latter series on BBC Two that really made him into a household name in the United Kingdom. In his film career, he has starred as a leading man alongside a number of major actresses, such as Renée Zellweger in A Price Above Rubies (1998), Cate Blanchett in Elizabeth (1998), and Cameron Diaz and Jordana Brewster in The Invisible Circus (2001), and Nicole Kidman in The Others (2001).

In addition to his successful film career, he has continued to work in television, appearing in some of the most challenging and thought-provoking British dramas. These have included Clocking Off (2000) and Flesh and Blood (2002) for the BBC and Hillsborough (1996), the Iago character in a modern adaptation of Shakespeare's "Othello", and the religious epic The Second Coming (2003), playing Steve Baxter, the son of God. His stage career, while not as extensive as his screen credits, has nevertheless shown him to be a formidable actor. He has given intense, focused performances in such plays as "Hamlet", "Electricity" and "Miss Julie", for which he received excellent reviews.

A very highly regarded actor, Eccleston has twice been nominated in the Best Actor category at the BAFTA Television Awards, the British premiere television awards ceremony. His first nomination came in 1997 for Our Friends in the North (1996). Although he didn't win those awards, however, he did triumph in the Best Actor categories at the 1997 Broadcasting Press Guild Awards and the Royal Television Society Awards, winning for Our Friends in the North (1996). He won the RTS Best Actor award for a second time in 2003, this time for his performance in "Flesh and Blood". In 2005, he received the Most Popular Actor award in the National Television Awards for starring in Russell T. Davies's re-imagining of Doctor Who (2005).

Widely considered as one of the greatest stage and screen actors of his generation both in his native Scotland and internationally, David Tennant was born David John McDonald in West Lothian, Scotland, to Essdale Helen (McLeod) and Sandy McDonald, who was a Presbyterian minister. He is of Scottish and Ulster-Scots descent. When he was about 3 or 4 years old, he decided to become an actor, inspired by his love of Doctor Who (1963).

He was brought up in Bathgate, West Lothian and Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland and was a huge fan of the band The Proclaimers. He attended Paisley Grammar school and while there he wrote about how he wanted to become a professional actor and play the role of the Doctor in Doctor Who (1963).

He made his first television appearance (which was also his first professional acting job) when he was 16, after his father sent some photos of him to a casting director at Scottish television. He also attended a youth theatre group at weekends run by the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (now renamed the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland). When he was 16 he auditioned for and won a place at the academy; the youngest student to ever do so, and started as a full time drama student when he was 17.

He worked regularly in theatre and TV after leaving drama school, and his first big break came in 1994 when he was cast in a lead role in the Scottish drama Takin' Over the Asylum (1994). He then moved to London where his career thrived. Among other significant factors of his prolific artistic course, he spent several years as a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and became famous from his lead roles in TV dramas Blackpool (2004) and Casanova (2005).

In 2005, his childhood wish came true. David was cast to play the role of the Doctor in Doctor Who (2005) alongside Billie Piper, after Christopher Eccleston decided to leave. Playing the Doctor made him a household name and a sex symbol, being voted "Sexiest Man in the Universe" by readers of The Pink Paper and 16th Sexiest Man in the World by a Cosmopolitan survey. Since leaving the series in 2010 his career has continued to rise, with lead roles in films, TV series and theatre.

Matt Smith is an English actor who shot to fame in the UK aged 26 when he was cast by producer Steven Moffat as the Eleventh Doctor in the BBC's iconic science-fiction adventure series Doctor Who (2005).

Matthew Robert Smith was born and raised in Northampton, the son of Lynne (Fidler) and David Smith. He was educated at Northampton School For Boys. He studied Drama and Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. He got into acting through the National Youth Theatre and performed with the Royal Court and the National Theatre.

Smith made his television debut in The Ruby in the Smoke (2006) and won several further roles on television but was largely unknown when he was announced as the surprise choice for the role of the Eleventh Doctor in Doctor Who. He was younger than any other actor to have taken the role (Peter Davison was previously the youngest, aged 29 when he was cast in 1981). Smith starred in 49 episodes of Doctor Who (three short of his predecessor, David Tennant). He left in the momentous 50th anniversary year of the Doctor Who legend in 2013, which included starring in the 50th anniversary special, The Day of the Doctor (2013), which found him acting with Tennant, guest star John Hurt and the oldest living and longest-serving actor to play the Doctor, Tom Baker.

Since leaving Doctor Who, Smith has launched himself into a film career.