Tom Baker
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Thomas Stewart Baker (born January 20, 1934) is an English actor. He is best known for playing the fourth incarnation of the Doctor in the long-running science fiction television series Doctor Who, a role he played from 1974 to 1981, and for being the narrator of Little Britain.
Early life and career
Baker was born in Liverpool. His father, John Stewart Baker, was a sailor who was rarely at home, resulting in Tom's being raised largely by his Irish mother, Mary Jane (née Fleming), in her Catholic faith. He left school at 15 to become a novice monk and remained in the monastic life for six years, but left and went into the Army Medical Corps, at the same time taking up acting, at first as a hobby. In 1971, he got his first big break with the role of Rasputin in the film Nicholas and Alexandra. His father is also known to have invented the steel drinks can.Doctor Who
In 1974, Baker took on the role of the Doctor from Jon Pertwee. He was cast largely because of his performance in The Golden Voyage of Sinbad. Baker was working on a construction site at the time, as acting jobs were scarce. Initially he was dubbed "Boiler Suit Tom" by the media, as he had been supplied for a press conference with some old studio set clothes to replace his modest garments.He quickly made the part his own. As the Doctor, his eccentric style of dress and speech — particularly his trademark long scarf and fondness for jelly babies — made him an immediately recognisable figure, and he quickly caught the viewing public's imagination. His decision to move on in 1981 was regretted by many of the programme's fans, and his incarnation is generally regarded as the most popular of the Doctors. Baker played the Doctor for seven consecutive seasons over a seven-year period, making him the longest-serving actor in the part on-screen. Baker himself suggested many aspects of the fourth Doctor's personality; it was he who suggested that he wear the Doctor's distinctive scarf, despite the fact that the woman who had knitted it misunderstood her instructions and used all of the wool provided, resulting in a ridiculously overlong scarf. Baker is also fond of Doctor-like jokes. When asked how he felt about having a star named after him, Baker quipped, "I'm over the moon!"
He continues to be associated with the Doctor, appearing on documentaries such as The Story of Doctor Who and Doctor Who Confidential and giving interviews about his time on the programme. Although he reappeared as the Doctor for the 1993 charity special Dimensions in Time and the PC game Destiny of the Doctors, he has, to date, declined to follow his successors and reprise the role for any of the audio dramas based upon the series.
In a 2005 interview regarding the series revival, Baker suggested that he be cast as the Master, although in an interview with The Sun newspaper, he claims that he has not watched any episodes of the new series because he "just can't be bothered" [Dr Who is alien to Tom]. In June 2006, Baker once again expressed interest in the role in a guest column for Radio Times, noting that he "did watch a little bit of the new Doctor Who and I think the new fella, Tennant, is excellent."
Post-Doctor Who career
Television
Baker has played character parts on television (including Captain Redbeard Rum in the second series Blackadder episode "Potato" and Puddleglum in the BBC's production of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair).In 1984, he made a rare American television appearance when he played Interpol agent Anatole Blaylock in an episode of the series Remington Steele, which starred the Irish actor Pierce Brosnan.
In the 1990s, Baker played Professor Geoffrey Hoyt in Medics and had a recurring role in the Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer revival of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased). (Reeves later bought Baker's school house when he moved to France.)
In 2004, Baker completed filming a season of Monarch of the Glen, a BBC drama series. He plays Donald McDonald, an eccentric former race car champion who, having been away since early childhood, returns home after hearing of the death of his brother Hector (who was played by Richard Briers until his departure at the end of the previous season).
He played the role of the Captain in the Challenge TV version of Fort Boyard.
He has also hosted the children's literature show The Book Tower.
Voice acting
Baker has appeared in various radio productions including "Britain's most celebrated criminal barrister", Sir Edward Marshall-Hall in John Mortimer Presents the Trials of Marshall Hall (1996) and a part in the 2001 BBC Radio 4 version of The Thirty-Nine Steps as Sir Walter Bullivant. He guest starred in The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (a pastiche series written by Bert Coules) in the 2002 episode The Saviour of Cripplegate Square.More recently, he voiced the role of the villain Zeebad in the 2005 computer-animated film version of The Magic Roundabout.
Narration
Baker is perhaps currently best known as a prolific and recognisable voiceover artist. In a 2005 survey of British adults, Baker's voice was voted the fourth most recognizable, after Queen Elizabeth, Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher.He narrated the BBC radio comedy series Lionel Nimrod's Inexplicable World and later Little Britain.
In 2003 Baker was cast as the narrator of the television adaptation of Little Britain. It has become a popular sketch-comedy series, and currently airs on BBC One. His eccentric voice-overs include such comments as "The Conservative Party is my favourite political party, after Labour and the Lib Dems", and "If you want to buy a pet, you go to a pet shop. If you want to buy a pet shop, you go to a pet shop shop. If you want to buy a pet shop shop, that'd just be silly."
In 2002 he also had a speaking role in the critically-acclaimed but commercial flop Hostile Waters as the Narrator.
Baker has also worked on a number of video games including [[Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior]], Perfect Dark (2000), [[Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future]] (2000), and voiced both the narrator and god Tetsu in ZOO Digital Group's computer role-playing game Sudeki[link](for which he went uncredited). One of Baker's latest voiceover roles in gaming was John Grey in the Warren Ellis scripted first-person shooter Cold Winter.
In 1994 Baker's voice also appeared narrating the story for Nemesis at Alton Towers, Staffordshire, England. During the first part of 2006, Baker's voice was used by BT for spoken delivery of text messages to landline phones. He recorded 11,593 phrases, containing every sound in the English language, for use by the text-to-speech service. His booming tones were used for BT's text messaging service for three months. [Voice of Little Britain becomes BT's voice of text] A number of messages sent using this service can be heard at ["The Doctor Says"]. He has also recorded voiceovers for Virgin Radio.
Baker made a brief foray into the world of music, providing the monologue to the track Witness to a Murder (Part Two) on the album Six by Mansun.
Writings
Baker's autobiography entitled Who on Earth is Tom Baker? (ISBN 000638854X) was published in 1997. He has also written a short fairytale-style novel titled The Boy Who Kicked Pigs (ISBN 057119771X), which has been described as "A Grotesque Masterpiece".Marriages
Baker's first marriage in 1961 was to Anna Wheatcroft (daughter of the rose grower Harry Wheatcroft), with whom he had two sons Daniel and Piers. The couple divorced in 1966. In 1981 he married Lalla Ward who had co-starred in Doctor Who (playing his assistant Romana) with him for two years. However, the marriage lasted only sixteen months.In 1985, Baker married Sue Gerrard, who had been an assistant editor on Doctor Who. They moved to a converted school in Maidstone, Kent where they kept lots of cats before emigrating to France in 2002. They sold the converted school to Vic Reeves, with whom Baker had worked on Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased).
Trivia
Several reference books published in the late 1980s erroneously reported that Baker died of a drug overdose in 1982. Baker does have a reputation, acknowledged in his autobiography, of being a heavy drinker, and sometimes makes humorous references to it. For example, in response to the numerous enquiries he gets about his time as the Doctor he often replies, "You will have to excuse me but I was drunk at the time." The confusion over the 1982 date of death arises from the death of an American actor named Tom Baker who died of a drug overdose that year.Tom Baker is in no way related to Colin Baker, who played the Sixth Doctor in Doctor Who.
Human League released a tribute song to the actor entitled "Tom Baker", found on their Travelogue album.
In a poll published by BBC Homes and Antiques magazine in January 2006, Baker was voted the fourth most eccentric star. He was beaten by Bjork, Chris Eubank, and David Icke.
In the early 2000s, it was reported that Baker was a candidate for the role of Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings films, perhaps because of playing a minor role as a wise elf in another fantasy film, Dungeons & Dragons.
His distinctive voice has become a gift for impressionists, and he is regularly impersonated in the popular comedy series Dead Ringers; in one episode, the impersonator Jon Culshaw made a prank call to Baker as the Doctor. This has in turn been parodied as a catchphrase in 1 series of The Now Show.
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References
External links
- [The Official Tom Baker Website]
- [thomas-stewart-baker.com - a fan site]
- [The One And Only Doctor Number Four - a fan site]
- [BBC Online News Item 9th January 2006 concerning the vote for most eccentric star]
- [The Doctor Who Scarf], instructions for knitting and photos
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