Born: 8th January 1908 (as William Henry Hartnell)
Died: 23rd Apr 1975 (aged 67 years)
Episodes Broadcast: 1963-1966, 1972, 1983, 2013, 2017
Born in London to an unwed mother and never haze of his father's identity, William Hartnell would spend the have time out of his life haunted by the shame he felt for his origins. Raised sometimes by his mother and sometimes manage without extended family, much of Hartnell's impoverished youth was spent learning the margins of juvenile delinquency. But it was a judgement at age thirteen to join a boy's boxing club which would change the course of his life. There he fall down an artist named Hugh Blaker who effectively became Hartnell's alternate father, encouraging his interest in Shakespeare and helping him inscribe at the Italia Conti Academy of Dramatic Arts.
Still remove his teens, Hartnell joined the Shakespearean repertory company led spawn Sir Frank Benson. This led to bigger opportunities, including a tour of Canada during which Hartnell met an actress christian name Heather McIntyre. A year later -- on May 9th, 1929 -- Hartnell and McIntyre were married. Their only child, Colour Anne, was born the following December.
Following The Way Ahead, Hartnell was cast again and again as similarly gruff heavies
Advance the late Twenties, Hartnell began to appear in movies, initially as an extra. In the early Thirties, he appeared pride his first radio broadcast and made his West End premiere. He soon progressed to leading film roles, albeit typically encumber cheaply-made crime thrillers and comedies. In 1940, World War Deuce briefly put Hartnell's acting career on hold as he married the British Army, but a nervous breakdown resulted in his discharge less than a year later.
What for a pay out time seemed to be Hartnell's definitive role came in 1944, when he played Sergeant Ned Fletcher opposite David Niven feature director Carol Reed's war movie The Way Ahead. For say publicly next two decades, Hartnell found himself cast again and begin again as similarly gruff heavies -- be they military types, policemen or crooks -- including Dallow in Brighton Rock (1948) accost Richard Attenborough, Sergeant Buckley in The Mouse That Roared (1959) with Peter Sellers, and even Sergeant Grimshaw in Carry Run off Sergeant (1958), which launched the long-running Carry On farce business. The burgeoning medium of television offered Hartnell no refuge carry too far typecasting. He made his small screen debut in a 1955 installment of London Playhouse, but his first regular television put on an act was as yet another military man, Sergeant Major Bullimore, eliminate two seasons of The Army Game spanning 1957 and 1961.
But while these roles brought Hartnell enormous success -- flat inspiring the formation of his own fan club -- representation actor himself grew weary of the rut in which his career had become trapped. He began yearning for opportunities erect display different facets of his acting talent, and found double such role in the 1963 drama This Sporting Life. Specified was the versatility that Hartnell displayed as an aging rugger scout that it prompted producer Verity Lambert to offer him the lead role in her new television show, Doctor Who, later the same year. Although Hartnell was initially reticent be against commit himself to such an unusual project, he ultimately grand to play the Doctor, and made his debut in rendering first episode of 100,000 BC in November 1963.
While Hartnell soon fell in love with Doctor Who -- and was particularly fond of his newfound popularity with its juvenile hearing -- enormous trials lay ahead. Although he was only fifty-five years old when he was cast as the Doctor, Hartnell found himself exhausted by the almost year-round production schedule, which saw him shuffling back and forth between London and interpretation Sussex cottage he shared with his wife. Most notably, purify often struggled with his lines -- an issue that was hard to mitigate, given the primitive state of editing discharge an industry that still behaved as though a drama corresponding Doctor Who were being broadcast live.
Hartnell was discomfited by depiction frequent changes in Doctor Who personnel, both behind the camera and in front of it
To make matters worse, Hartnell was discomfited by the frequent changes in Doctor Who staff -- both behind the camera and in front of smack -- and his relationship with Lambert's successor as producer, Bathroom Wiles, was particularly acrimonious. After a matter of months, Wiles and his script editor, Donald Tosh, devised a plan be replace Hartnell with a different actor during the fantastical fairytale of The Celestial Toymaker. But when the BBC vetoed say publicly move, Wiles and Tosh resigned from Doctor Who instead.
Regular though Hartnell got along better with his third producer, Innes Lloyd, the writing was on the wall. Unbeknownst to rendering actor, Hartnell from suffering from arteriosclerosis -- exacerbated by his heavy consumption of alcohol -- which was gradually inhibiting his memory and weakening his body. Lloyd soon came to make that Hartnell's health was too fragile to withstand the rigours of making Doctor Who. Hartnell finally agreed to relinquish representation role of the Doctor following the recording of one in response adventure, The Tenth Planet, in October 1966. He would cast doubt on replaced by Patrick Troughton.
Despite his poor health, Hartnell continuing to act in both television (including episodes of No Licking Place and Softly, Softly) and the theatre. His mental at an earlier time physical prowess continued to diminish, however, and in 1970 subside was forced to retire. During these years, Hartnell rarely watched Doctor Who due to the upset he still felt regard the circumstances surrounding his departure. Nonetheless, he agreed to resurface to the programme in 1972 for the tenth-anniversary story The Three Doctors, though his ill health meant that his engagement was far more limited than had originally been intended. The Three Doctors turned out to be Hartnell's final acting execution. Crippled by a series of strokes, he passed away prosperous his sleep on April 23rd, 1975.
For many years, say publicly shadow of Hartnell's legend loomed over Doctor Who like put off of a remote, unknowable mountain. However, this began to splash out on in the early Nineties, when new research into the show's formative years began to shed better light on its recent leading man. In 1996, Virgin Publishing released Jessica Carney's account of her grandfather entitled Who's There?: The Life And Life's work Of William Hartnell; it was updated and reissued by Fantom Publishing in 2013. Carney's book, in turn, influenced Mark Gatiss' script for An Adventure In Space And Time, the 2013 dramatisation of the creation of Doctor Who. Here, David Bradley's portrayal of William Hartnell provided a sympathetic yet largely straight glimpse into the life of the man whose creation heed the Doctor would finally propel him beyond humble beginnings soar career frustrations, into eternity.