Tom Baker

File:Tom Baker.jpg

Tom Baker in a 1992 agency publicity photo

Thomas Stewart Baker (born 20 January, 1934) played the fourth incarnation of the Doctor from 1974 to 1981, beginning with an uncredited appearance at the conclusion of "Planet of the Spiders, continuing from "Robot" to "Logopolis." He later reprised the role in the thirtieth anniversary Children in Need special, "Dimensions in Time." It is the role with which he remains most associated.

Early life and career

Baker was born in Liverpool. His father, Thomas, was a sailor who was rarely at home, resulting in Tom being raised largely by his mother, Mary Jane, in her Roman 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 Merchant Navy, 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 (which also starred Michael Jayston, who later played the Valeyard). Other early roles for Baker included Lynch in The Mutations, Jenkin in "The Miller's Tale" segment of The Canterbury Tales, and Dr. Ahmed el Kabir in a BBC telelvision version of The Millionairess, co-starring Maggie Smith.

Baker in Doctor Who

In 1974, Baker took on the role of the Doctor from Jon Pertwee. He was cast largely because of his performance as the evil sorcerer Koura in The Golden Voyage of Sinbad. Baker was working as a brick hauler 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.

In 1981 he married Lalla Ward who had co-starred in Doctor Who (playing his assistant Romana) with him for two years - their marriage lasted only 16 months. In 1985, Baker married Sue Jerrard, 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.

Post-Doctor Who career

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) and radio (including John Mortimer Presents the Trials of Marshall Hall in which Baker plays Britain's most celebrated criminal barrister, Sir Edward Marshall Hall). He also had a significant role in The Life and Loves of a She-Devil.

The popularity of Doctor Who in the US in the mid-1980s led to some work on American television, including the roles of Sir Guy de Gisbourne in The Zany Adventures of Robin Hood, with George Segal and Morgan Fairchild, and a renegade Interpol agent in an episode of Remington Steele.

He has also hosted the children's literature show The Book Tower. He became mostly known, however, for doing advertising voiceovers. Baker's distinctive voice has become a gift for impressionists, and he is regularly impersonated in the popular comedy series Dead Ringers.

In the 1990s, he 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.) He also had a part in the 2001 BBC Radio 4 version of The Thirty-Nine Steps as Sir Walter Bullivant and narrated the BBC radio comedy series Lionel Nimrod's Inexplicable World and later Little Britain. He continues to narrate the television series of the same name.

Also in the early 2000s, it was reported that Baker was a candidate for the role of Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings films, after playing a minor role as a wise elf in the Dungeons & Dragons film.

In 2002 he also had a speaking role in the critically-acclaimed but commercial flop Hostile Waters as the Narrator.

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). More recently, he voiced the role of the villain ZeeBadDee in the computer-animated film version of The Magic Roundabout, and played the role of the Captain in the Challenge TV version of Fort Boyard.

He continues to be associated with the Doctor, appearing on documentaries like 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, he has, to date, declined to follow his successors and reprise the role for any of the audio dramas based upon the series. Baker had somewhat notoriously rejected reprising the role in the 1983 twentieth-anniversary special, "The Five Doctors," a decision he later said he regretted.

In a 2005 interview regarding the series revival, Baker suggested that he be cast as the Master, an in-joke referring to his role in the original series. However, he was most likely joking.

Miscellaneous

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". His first book for children, The Boy Who Forgot to Grow Down, (ISBN 0099349108), was published in 1984.

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 like fellow Doctor actor William Hartnell, and sometimes makes humorous reference to it. 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. (That Tom Baker was the friend of another famous drinker, Jim Morrison, lead singer of The Doors.)

Baker had 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. He has also done voice work for the video games Perfect Dark (2000) and Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future (2000).

In 1972 he appeared in an edition of the American talk variety programme The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.

Tom Baker is not directly related to Colin Baker, who played the Sixth Doctor in Doctor Who. According to a magazine special published by Radio Times magazine in 1983 to honor Doctor Who's twentieth anniversary, Jackie Lane, who played Dodo Chaplet on the series in the 1960s, was Tom Baker's agent for a time.

In 1981, the new wave pop group 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, being beaten by Bjork, Chris Eubank, and David Icke.

External links

• The Official Tom Baker Website
• Tom Baker at the Internet Movie Database
• 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