| • Science | • People | • Locations | • Timeline |
Often known as Billy, he was educated at home and at Imperial Service College. After training as a jockey, and boxing, he entered the theatre in 1924. The first of more than sixty film appearances was Say It With Music in 1932. Hartnell usually played comic characters, until 1944 with the robust role of sergeant Ned Fletcher in The Way Ahead. From then on, he played mainly policemen, soldiers, and thugs, like Dallow in Brighton Rock.
He appeared first on television in The Army Game from 1957-61, and in 1963 gave up movies and took the lead in Doctor Who, for which he is now most widely known. (See List of Doctor Who serials.)
He was a tough person to work with, according to the documentation about him. His poor health - arteriosclerosis brought on by years of heavy drinking - as well as poor relations with the new production team forced him to leave Doctor Who in 1966, although he reprised the role in the 10th Anniversary story The Three Doctors ( 1973) with the help of cue cards and pre-recorded inserts. A clip of his scene from the end of the serial The Dalek Invasion of Earth ( 1964Events January January 1 Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. January 3 Senator Barry Goldwater announces that he will seek the Republican nomination for President. January 5 In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Ort) was used as a pre-credits sequence for the 20th anniversary story The Five DoctorsThe Five Doctors was a special movie-length episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who produced in celebration of the programme's twentieth anniversary. It originally aired in the UK on November 25, 1983, although it actually had ( 1983Events January January 1 Beat Raaflaub became Basel Boys Choir's new conductor January 1 the ARPANET officially changes to use the Internet Protocol, creating the Internet. January 1 compulsory wearing of seat belts becomes law in the UK. January 2 The mu).
| (first Doctor) | Doctor Who | Followed by: Patrick TroughtonPatrick George Troughton ( March 25, 1920 March 28, 1987) was a versatile and prolific British actor. He is probably best known as the second actor to play the lead role of the Doctor in the long-running science fiction television series Doctor Who which |