Michael Craze

Michael Craze
Other names:	Michael Francis Craze
Birth date:	29 November 1942
Death date:	7 December 1998
Work in the DWU
Main roles:	Ben Jackson
Main time period active:	1966-1967
Career highlights
Notable non-DWU work:	The King and I, Target Luna, Dixon of Dock Green, Two Left Feet, Fragment (actor, director & producer), The Avengers, Journey to the Unknown, Ivanhoe, A Family at War, Z-Cars, Crown Court, The Diary of Anne Frank
IMDb profile

Michael Francis Craze (29 November 1942-7 December 1998) played Ben Jackson, a companion of the First and Second Doctors, from The War Machines to The Faceless Ones. He played the part from 1966 to 1967 alongside both William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton as the Doctor.

Graeme Harper originally asked Craze to play the role of Krelper in The Caves of Androzani, but the idea was vetoed by producer John Nathan-Turner. (DWM 279 and DWM 551)

Personal life

His brother Peter Craze has also appeared in Doctor Who, appearing in The Space Museum, The War Games and Nightmare of Eden. He was the husband of Edwina Craze, whom he met on the Doctor Who set. (DCOM: The Tenth Planet)

Biography

Born in Cornwall, Craze went into acting quite by chance. At the age of twelve, he discovered through Boy Scout Gang Shows that he had a perfect boy soprano voice. This won him parts in The King and I and Plain and Fancy, both at Drury Lane, and Damn Yankees at the Coliseum. Once he had left school, he went into repertory and got into TV through his agent. His first television role was in a show called Family Solicitor for Granada which was followed, amongst others, by a part in ABC TV's 1960 series Target Luna (written by Malcolm Hulke and Eric Price, and produced by Sydney Newman).

At the age of twenty, Craze wrote, directed and acted in a film called The Golden Head which won an award at the Commonwealth Film Festival in Cardiff. Following Doctor Who, Craze worked on several ITV productions, including one episode ("The Last Visitor") of Hammer Films' first TV series Journey to the Unknown in 1968. Other television roles included parts in Dixon of Dock Green and Z-Cars. In the 1980s, Craze acted only occasionally and also managed a pub.

In September 1992, Craze took part in a filming session at the Longleat Doctor Who Exhibition for a planned special BBC Video release of The Tenth Planet in the New Year. He recorded two versions of the introduction — one explaining that episode four was still missing, and the other introducing the story as if it were complete — and a narration sequence for the missing episode four. However, the video release was subsequently cancelled, and Craze's recorded sequences have at the time of writing never been released commercially — not even appearing as an extra on the DVD release of the story in October 2013.

Death

Michael Craze died in 1998 after suffering a heart attack which resulted in a fatal fall down the stairs in his home. Former Doctor Who co-stars Anneke Wills and Frazer Hines were among those in attendance at his funeral.

Legacy

Craze's name was used by comedians Matt Lucas and David Walliams, who were also Doctor Who fans, for a character in their sketch show Little Britain. "Sir Michael Craze" in the programme is a theatrical agent. Little Britain has also featured a character named after another Doctor Who companion actor, Matthew Waterhouse.

Craze is depicted in the 2013 docudrama An Adventure in Space and Time by Robin Varley, who appears in two scenes — a recreation of a press photocall announcing Craze and Wills's casting, and a recreation of the filming of the regeneration scene from The Tenth Planet.

Actor Elliot Chapman recreated the role of Ben for Big Finish's audio adventures. He left the role at the time of the release of The Home Guard as he didn't wish to do more stories than Michael.

Credits

Television

Doctor Who

• The War Machines
• The Smugglers
• The Tenth Planet
• The Power of the Daleks
• The Highlanders
• The Underwater Menace
• The Moonbase
• The Macra Terror
• The Faceless Ones

Other

• Children in Need 1985

External links

• Michael Craze at the Internet Movie Database