Tom Baker

In 2016, he gave his final interview to Doctor Who Magazine.

He is the longest-lived actor to have played the Doctor in Doctor Who (1963). He surpassed his predecessor Jon Pertwee on December 5, 2010. He became the first Doctor to reach the age of 77 on January 20, 2011.

In 2006, he and his wife Sue Jerrard moved back to England after spending four years living in south west France.

In a 2005 survey of British adults, Baker's voice was found to be the fourth most recognizable after Queen Elizabeth II, Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher.

For over 20 years, since the death of Jon Pertwee at the age of 76 on May 20, 1996, he has been both the oldest and earliest surviving Doctor from Doctor Who (1963). He has also outlived three of the actors who played his regular companions in the series, Ian Marter, Elisabeth Sladen and Mary Tamm.

His incarnation of the Doctor has made silent cameo appearances several times in both The Simpsons (1989) and Futurama (1999). Matt Groening is said to be fan of Doctor Who (1963). However Baker himself has never been a guest star on either show.

He was considered for the cameo role of Doctor Armstrong in Lifeforce (1985). Patrick Stewart was eventually cast in the role.

During his Doctor Who years he continued to spend much of his spare time drinking heavily in the pubs and bars of London and his drinking buddies included the artist Francis Bacon, the journalist Jeffrey Barnard, and Anthony Hopkins. He eventually gave up this lifestyle in the 1980s when he moved to Kent with his wife-to-be Sue Jerrard.

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.

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 Freakmaker (1974), Baker found himself in a career lull and working as a labourer at a building site.

Laurence Olivier suggested him for the role of Grigori Rasputin in Nicholas and Alexandra (1971), having worked with him at the National Theatre.

In the early 1970s, he performed with Jeremy Brett as a member of the National Theatre. Both actors went on to play Sherlock Holmes on British television in the 1980s. Baker played the part in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1982) for the BBC, while Brett played it in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1984) for Granada.

A couple of years earlier, Baker had made his theatrical film debut in The Winter's Tale (1967).

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).

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 has two roles in common with Christopher Lee: (1) Lee played Sherlock Holmes in Sherlock Holmes And The Deadly Necklace (1962), Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady (1991) and Sherlock Holmes: Incident at Victoria Falls (1992) while Baker played him in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1982) and (2) Lee played Grigory Rasputin in Rasputin: The Mad Monk (1966) while Baker played him in Nicholas and Alexandra (1971).

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.

He has two roles in common with Peter Cushing: (1) Cushing played Sherlock Holmes in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959), Sherlock Holmes (1964) and Sherlock Holmes and the Masks of Death (1984) while Baker played him in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1982) and (2) Baker played the Doctor in Doctor Who (1963) while Cushing played him in Dr. Who and the Daleks (1965) and Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (1966).

He has two roles in common with Basil Rathbone: (1) Rathbone played Sir Guy of Gisbourne in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) while Baker played him in The Zany Adventures of Robin Hood (1984) and (2) Rathbone played Sherlock Holmes in 14 films from The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939) to The Mystery of Sherlock Holmes: Dressed To Kill (1946) and Baker played him in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1982).

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.