Tom Baker

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Tom Baker
Tom Baker
Born	Thomas Stewart Baker 20 January 1934 (1934-01-20) (age 74) Liverpool, England
Occupation	actor
Years active	1968[1]—present
Spouse(s)	Anna Wheatcroft (1961—1966) Lalla Ward (1980—1982) Sue Jerrard (1986—present)
Official website

Thomas Stewart "Tom" Baker (born 20 January 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 the comedy series Little Britain.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 2.1 Doctor Who (1974–1981) 2.2 Doctor Who (Classic Novels) 2.3 Little Britain 2.4 Television 2.5 Film 2.6 Voice acting 2.7 Video games 2.8 Narration 2.9 Writings 2.10 Personal life 3 In popular culture 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Early life

Baker was born in Scotland Road, Liverpool, the son of Mary Jane (née Fleming), a cleaner, and John Stewart Baker, a sailor who was rarely at home. Baker was raised in a working class Catholic family.^[2][3] He left school at 15 to become a novice monk and remained in the monastic life for six years, but left after losing his faith, and did his National Service in the Royal Army Medical Corps, serving for two years from 1955 until 1957. At the same time he took up acting, at first as a hobby.

[edit] Career

In 1971, Baker got his first big break with the role of Rasputin in the film Nicholas and Alexandra. He also appeared nude in Pier Paolo Pasolini's version of Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales (I Racconti di Canterbury), released in 1972, as a younger husband of the Wife of Bath.

[edit] Doctor Who (1974–1981)

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. 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. The distinctive scarf came about by accident: James Acheson, the costume designer, had provided far more wool than was necessary to the knitter, Begonia Pope, and Ms. Pope knitted all the wool she was given; it was Baker who suggested that he wear the resulting — ridiculously overlong — scarf.^[4]

The incarnation played by Baker is often regarded as the most popular of the Doctors. In polls conducted by Doctor Who Magazine, Baker has lost the "Best Doctor" category only twice: once to Sylvester McCoy in 1990, and once to David Tennant in 2006.^[5]

Tom Baker is not related to Colin Baker, who played the Sixth Doctor in Doctor Who, nor to Bob Baker, the script-writer for many of the series' episodes.

Baker's sense of humour is like that of the character he played. When asked how he felt about having a star named after him, Baker quipped, "I'm over the moon!" 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 Björk, Chris Eubank and David Icke.^[6]

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 2004 interview regarding the series' revival, Baker suggested that he be cast as the Master.^[7] In a 2006 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".^[8] 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."

While Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and Paul McGann have all reprised their roles for audio adventures produced since the 1990s by Big Finish (and sometimes the BBC) Baker has thus far declined to voice the Doctor saying he hasn't seen a script he's liked. Baker has, however, filmed inserts for a video release of the unfinished Shada and also provided narration for several BBC audio releases of old Doctor Who stories.

[edit] Doctor Who (Classic Novels)

More recently Baker has been involved in the reading of old Target novelisations in the BBC Audio range of talking books, Doctor Who (Classic Novels). Doctor Who and the Giant Robot was the first release in the range read by Baker, released on 5 November 2007. Follow by Baker reading Doctor Who and the Brain of Morbius (released 4 February 2008) and Doctor Who and the Creature from the Pit (to be released on 7 April 2008). Some Doctor Who news sites have stated that Baker will be reading Doctor Who and the Pyramids of Mars (to be released 14th of August 2008) but this has yet to be officially confirmed.

[edit] Little Britain

In 2001 Baker was cast as the narrator of Little Britain on BBC Radio 4, and remained in the role when it transferred to television. Baker has suggested that he was chosen for the part in Little Britain due to his popularity with Walliams and Lucas, part of the generation to whom he is the favourite Doctor. "I am now being employed by the children who grew up watching me" he said in a recent DVD commentary.^[9] His eccentric voice-overs include such comments as "The Conservative Party is my favourite political party, after Labour and the Lib Dems", and "If people in Britain want to buy a pet, they go to a pet shop. If they want to buy a pet shop, they go to a pet shop shop. If they want to buy a pet shop shop, then they're just being silly." During the end credits sequence of one programme, Baker suggested that Queen Elizabeth should "pop one out" during her next address of Parliament. On the Little Britain Abroad special he remarked " In Paris, Anne is paying a visit to the Louvre. At my age I'm up all night visiting the Louvre". Another trademark of Little Britain's narration is the deadpan quotation of old rap lyrics, usually in the opening credit sequence. Songs like Salt n Pepa's "Push It" and House of Pain's "Jump Around" have so far received the Tom Baker treatment.

On 17 November 2005, to mark the start of Series 3 of Little Britain, Baker read the continuity announcements on BBC One from 1900 to 2130 UTC. The scripts were written by the same writers as Little Britain (David Walliams and Matt Lucas) and Baker assumed his Little Britain persona. He used lines such as "Hello, tellyviewers. You're watching the BBC One!" and "In half an hour, Jenny Dickens's classic serial Bleak House. But first let's see what the poor people are up to in the first of two visits this evening to the EastEnders."

[edit] Television

During the late 1970s, Baker appeared in four episodes of the BBC2 series Late Night Story and in each episode, read an eerie tale involving the theme of childhood. Episodes ran for fifteen minutes and were aired before the station closed for the night. One episode entitled Sredni Vashtar by Saki was scheduled to start the second series, but went unscreened due to a writer's strike.^[10]

In the 1980s, Baker played several character parts on television, including Captain Redbeard Rum in the Blackadder II episode "Potato", Sherlock Holmes in the 1982 BBC version of The Hound of the Baskervilles and Father Ferguson in the 1986 BBC adaptation of The Life and Loves of a She-Devil.

In 1990, Puddleglum in the BBC's production of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair. He starred alongside the likes of "Big Mick", Camilla Power, Patsy Byrne, Geoffrey Russell and Richard Henders.

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 future James Bond actor Pierce Brosnan.

In the 1990s, Baker starred as the Software Agent in Douglas Adams's futurology documentary Hyperland; played Professor Geoffrey Hoyt in Medics; and had a recurring role in the Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer revival of Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) as Wyvern, Hopkirk's mentor.

He also appeared as a guest on the quiz show Have I Got News For You and was subsequently described by presenter Angus Deayton as the funniest guest in the show's history. According to the Daily Mirror, Baker's appearance made him a cult figure once again and helped revive his career.^[11]

In 2004 and 2005, Baker appeared in the sixth and seventh series of the BBC drama Monarch of the Glen. He plays Donald MacDonald, 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).

Baker played the role of the Captain in the Challenge version of Fort Boyard, and has also hosted the children's literature show The Book Tower.

[edit] Film

Baker appeared as Moore, an artist whose paintings are imbued with voodoo power, in The Vault of Horror (1973), the sequel to Tales from the Crypt (1972); as Koura, the villainous sorcerer, in Ray Harryhausen's The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973); and as Halvarth, the Elven healer, in Dungeons & Dragons (2000). In the late 1990s, it was reported that Baker was a candidate for the role of Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings films.^[12] Baker has since stated that he was only approached for "a role" in the film, and when told that it would mean spending months away in New Zealand, he turned down the offer.

Baker also appeared in the 1971 film Nicholas and Alexandra as the devout yet ultimately decadent and lecherous Grigori Rasputin.

[edit] Voice acting

Baker has appeared in various radio productions, including a role as "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".

From 2000 to 2005 Tom voiced the character Max Bear in the Channel 4 (UK) Max Bear Productions animated series. More recently, he voiced the role of the villain ZeeBad in the 2005 computer-animated film version of The Magic Roundabout.

He is also the narrator of the new children's computer animation series The Beeps which is shown on Five's Milkshake!.

He is also the voice artist in the "Fords of Winsford" advert.

[edit] Video games

Baker also returned to star as the Fourth Doctor in the video game Destiny of the Doctors in 1997. His voice has also featured in Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior (2003), Cold Winter (2005) and Little Britain: The Video Game (2007).

[edit] Narration

Baker is a prolific and highly recognisable voiceover artist. In a 2005 survey of British adults, Baker's voice was voted the fourth most recognizable, after the Queen, Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher.^[13]

In 1992 and 1993 Baker narrated BBC radio comedy series Lionel Nimrod's Inexplicable World. In 1994 Tom Baker provided the narration for Channel 4's Equinox rave documentary Rave New World.^[14] In 2002 he had a speaking role in the critically-acclaimed but commercial flop Hostile Waters as the Narrator.

Baker has worked on a number of video games, including Kult: Heretic Kingdoms (also known as Heretic Kingdoms: The Inquisition), Hostile Waters (2001), Cold Winter (2005), Medievil: Resurrection (2005), Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior (2003), Perfect Dark (2000) and Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future (2000). He also voiced both the narrator and god Tetsu in the role-playing game Sudeki, but was uncredited.^[15]

During the first three months of 2006, his 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.^[16] A number of messages sent using this service can be heard at "The Doctor Says". The BT text message service returned from 1st December 2006 to 8th January 2007, with 2p from each text going to the charity Shelter. In addition, a single 'sung' by Tom Baker's text voice - "You Really Got Me", originally by The Kinks - was released on 18th December 2006 with BT's proceeds going to the charity. The creator of the song was Mark Murphy, designer of the site "Tom Baker Says..."^[17]

Baker has recorded voiceovers for Virgin Radio.

His voice may be heard at London´s Natural History Museum narrating commentary to some of the exhibits that support Darwin´s theory of Natural Selection.

Baker has made three other brief forays into the world of music: he provides the monologue to the track "Witness to a Murder (Part Two)" on the album Six by Mansun; he appears on Technocat's single "Only Human" in 1995; He even provides narrative at two British tourist attractions: the Nemesis roller coaster at Alton Towers, Staffordshire; and the London Dungeon, a museum depicting gory and macabre events in the capital.

Tom Baker voiced the character "Max Bear", a series of animated stories broadcast on Channel 4 (UK Terrestrial) from 2000 to 2005.^[18]

[edit] Writings

Baker's autobiography, Who on Earth is Tom Baker? (ISBN 0-00-638854-X), was published in 1997. He has also written a short fairytale-style novel titled The Boy Who Kicked Pigs (ISBN 0-571-19771-X), which is subtitled "A Grotesque Masterpiece".

[edit] Personal life

Baker's first marriage in 1961 was to Anna Wheatcroft (niece of the rose grower Harry Wheatcroft). They had two sons Daniel and Piers, but divorced in 1966 and Baker lost contact with his sons for several decades until a chance meeting with Piers in a pub in New Zealand allowing them to renew their relationship.^[11] In December 1980 he married Lalla Ward who had co-starred in Doctor Who (playing his companion Romana) with him for two years. However, the marriage lasted only 16 months.

In 1986, Baker married for a third time, this time to Sue Jerrard, who had been an assistant editor on Doctor Who. They moved to an old Manse in Boughton Malherbe near Maidstone, Kent where they kept several cats, before emigrating to France in 2002. During this time he was a regular in the Red Lion in Lenham village where his distinctive voice could be heard above all other voices. They sold the property to Vic Reeves, shortly after Baker had worked with him on Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased). He still pays regular visits to Tunbridge Wells in Kent.

Several reference books published in the late 1980s erroneously reported that Baker died of a drug overdose in 1982. The confusion arose from the death of an American actor who was also called Tom Baker. The American Tom Baker did indeed die of a drug overdose that year. 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 inquiries he gets about his time as the Doctor he often replies, "You will have to excuse me but I was drunk at the time."

Despite, or because of, his religious upbringing, Baker has sceptical views on the subject^[19] and describes himself as an atheist but not anti-religious. "People are quite happy believing the wrong things. I wasn't unhappy believing all that shit. Now I'm not unhappy thinking about it because I can laugh at it."^[20]

Politically, Baker expresses disdain for both the Conservatives and the Blairite Labour Party saying, in 1997, "When the Conservatives were in I cannot tell you how much I hated them. But I realise how shallow I am because I now hate the Labour Party as much."^[11]

[edit] In popular culture

• Human League released a tribute song to the actor entitled "Tom Baker", as B-side to their "Boys and Girls" single. The song was re-released on some CD versions of their Travelogue album.

• A cartoon Tom Baker, as one of the "esteemed representatives of television", appeared as the fourth incarnation of The Doctor, in The Simpsons episodes "Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming" and "Treehouse of Horror X".

• His distinctive voice has become a gift for impressionists such as Jon Culshaw and John Guilor. Culshaw regularly impersonates Baker in the comedy series Dead Ringers: in one episode, he makes a prank call to Baker in character as the Doctor, which prompts the memorable reaction from the real Baker: "No, no, there must be a mistake, I'm the Doctor." Similarly, when Culshaw called another Doctor, Sylvester McCoy, in character, he got the response: "Tom? Is that you? Have you been down the pub?"

• A tireless advocate of internet culture, Baker is known to field fans' questions on the DALnet Internet Relay Chat channel irc://irc.dal.net/digi

• In a 2007 episode of Family Guy spoofing Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, the opening of Tom Baker's Doctor Who credit sequence is shown on the view screen as the Millennium Falcon enters hyperspace.

• Female fans are known as "The Sisterhood"

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• The Official Tom Baker Website
• Tom Baker at the Internet Movie Database
• Tom Baker Biography - British Film Institute
• The Doctor Who Scarf, instructions for knitting and photos

Preceded by Jon Pertwee

The Doctor (Fourth Doctor) 1974–1981

Succeeded by Peter Davison

v • d • e Doctor Who: Incarnations of The Doctor
First Doctor (William Hartnell)	Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton)
Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee)	Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker)
Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison)	Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker)
Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy)	Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann)
Ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston)	Tenth Doctor (David Tennant)
Intermediate Doctors
The Valeyard (Michael Jayston)	The Watcher (Adrian Gibbs)
Other Doctors
Dr. Who (Peter Cushing)	Shalka Doctor (Richard E. Grant)

Persondata
NAME	Tom Baker
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Thomas Stewart Baker
SHORT DESCRIPTION	English actor
DATE OF BIRTH	January 20, 1934
PLACE OF BIRTH	Liverpool, England
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH