Christopher Eccleston

Christopher Eccleston (born on 16 February 1964 in Salford, Lancashire) played the ninth incarnation of the Doctor, from "Rose" to "The Parting of the Ways."

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Press release photo of Christopher Eccleston as Christopher Marlowe

Biography

As a child Eccleston's ambition was to play football for his beloved Manchester United, but he found himself to be a much better actor than he was a footballer, and inspired by television dramas such as Boys from the Blackstuff, he took to acting as his profession.

He trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama (the same school attended by Doctor Who predecessor Peter Davison), and first came to public attention as Derek Bentley in the 1991 film Let Him Have It, based on true events. However, it was a regular role in the TV series Cracker (1993–94) — culminating in his character's dramatic death in the second series — that made him a recognisable figure in the UK.

He appeared in the low-budget Danny Boyle film Shallow Grave in 1994, in which he co-starred with the up-and-coming Ewan McGregor. The same year, he won the part of Nicky Hutchinson in the epic BBC drama serial Our Friends in the North, and it was the transmission of this production on BBC Two in 1996 that perhaps really made him into a household name in the UK.

His film career has since taken off with a variety of high-profile but not — except in one or two cases — major roles, including parts in Jude (1996), Elizabeth (1998), eXistenZ (1999), Gone in Sixty Seconds (2000), The Others]] (2001), 24 Hour Party People (2002) and another Danny Boyle film, the horror movie 28 Days Later (2002). He has starred alongside two major Hollywood actresses in smaller independent movies, playing opposite Renée Zellweger in A Price Above Rubies (1998) and Cameron Diaz in The Invisible Circus (2001). Despite starring in the car-heist movie Gone in 60 Seconds, he did not actually take his driving test until January 2004 and is only licenced to drive automatic transmission cars.

Despite his successful film career, he has continued to appear in a variety of meaty television roles, racking up credits in some of the most challenging and thought-provoking British television dramas of recent years. These have included Clocking Off (2000) and Flesh and Blood (2002) for the BBC and Hillsborough (1996), a modern version of Othello (2002), playing 'Ben Jago', (the Iago character) and the religious telefantasy epic The Second Coming (2003, for ITV, playing Steve Baxter, the son of God (which some found ironic as Eccleston is an atheist). He also finds time for the occasional light-hearted role, however, as his guest appearances in episodes of the comedy drama Linda Green (2001) and macabre sketch show The League of Gentlemen (2002) have shown.

On stage, his highest-profile production has been his starring role in Hamlet at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds in 2002. The West Yorkshire Playhouse is a favourite venue of his, and he most recently returned there in the new play Electricity, which ran in March and April 2004.

A very highly-regarded actor, he has twice been nominated in the Best Actor category at the British Academy Television Awards, the UK's premier TV awards ceremony. His first nomination came in 1997 for Our Friends in the North, when he lost out to Nigel Hawthorne (for The Fragile Heart), and he was nominated again in 2004 for The Second Coming, this time being beaten by Bill Nighy (for State of Play). He did, however, triumph in the Best Actor categories at the 1997 Broadcasting Press Guild Awards and the Royal Television Society Awards, winning for Our Friends in the North. He won the RTS Best Actor award for a second time in 2003, this time for his performance in Flesh and Blood. In 2005 he received the Most Popular Actor award in the National Television Awards for Doctor Who.

In July 2004 a poll of industry experts, conducted by Radio Times magazine, voted Eccleston the 19th Most Powerful Person in Television Drama.

Doctor Who

It was announced that Eccleston was to play the ninth incarnation of the Doctor in the revival of the legendary BBC science fiction television series, which started airing in March 2005. The series executive producer and writer Russell T. Davies has said that Eccleston was always the first choice for the part. Despite this, the tabloid press ran reports that Bill Nighy had been offered the role first, but declined (and in the 2005 documentary series Doctor Who Confidential, Davies said that he "wouldn't have thought Chris [Eccleston] would be interested").

Eccleston has the distinction of being the first actor to play the Doctor who was actually born after the start of the original television series; he was born two weeks after the famous first Dalek story was first broadcast in the UK.

On March 30th, 2005, the BBC released a statement, ostensibly from Eccleston, saying that he had decided to leave the role after just one series, owing to fears that he would become typecast. On 4 April, the BBC revealed that Eccleston's "statement" had been falsely attributed and released without his consent. The BBC admitted that they had broken an agreement made in January not to disclose publicly the fact that he only intended to do one season. The statement had been made after journalists made queries to the press office.[1] Eccleston's three-month tenure makes him the either the second shortest or shortest-serving Doctor to date, depending on how one counts the somewhat anomalous tenure of Paul McGann, who appeared on screen for little more than an hour in the 1996 Doctor Who television movie but was considered the "current" Doctor by many fans for approximately nine years and has portrayed the Doctor in dozens of Big Finish audio productions since 1999. Eccleston's role as the Doctor was taken over by David Tennant at the end of the last episode of the 2005 series, The Parting of the Ways.

On 11 June 2005 during a BBC radio interview, when asked if he had enjoyed working on Doctor Who, Eccleston responded by saying, "Mixed, but that's a long story." Eccleston's reasons for leaving the part continue to be a subject of discussion in Britain's newspapers: on 4 October, 2005 Alan Davies told The Daily Telegraph that Eccleston had been "overworked" by the BBC, and had left the role because he was "exhausted" [2]. Ten days later, Eccleston told The Daily Mirror this was not true, and expressed some irritation at Davies for his comments [3].

To date, Eccleston is the only living former Doctor actor who has reprised the role in some form.

After the Doctor

In June 2005 it was announced at the Cannes Film Festival that Eccleston had signed to appear in a British-made sci-fi romantic comedy called Double Life, about a man who thinks he loves twin sisters. It has been billed as a tale of love and obsession" and will be set in Budapest. The film will be directed by Joe Ahearne (who directed Eccleston in Doctor Who) and is being produced by author Lynda La Plante's company Cougar Films.

On 30 October 2005 Eccleston appeared on stage at the Old Vic theatre in London in the one-night play Night Sky alongside Navin Chowdhry, Bruno Langley, David Warner, Saffron Burrows and David Baddiel.

In December 2005, Eccleston traveled to Indonesia's Aceh province for the BBC Breakfast news programme, examining how survivors of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami were rebuilding their lives. [4]

On 20 December 2005 it was announced that Eccleston would lead the cast as playwright, poet and spy Christopher Marlowe in Peter Whelan’s The School of Night. Directed by Bill Alexander, The School of Night was due to preview from 16 February but on 6 January 2006 the production was cancelled without a full explanation.

Eccleston is slated to portray Scottish arms dealer Destro in the 2009 GI Joe feature film.

Filmography

New Orleans, Mon Amour (2008)
The Seeker: The Dark is Rising (2007)
28 Days Later (2002)
Revengers Tragedy (2002)
I Am Dina (2002)
24 Hour Party People (2002)
The Invisible Circus (2001)
The Others (2001)
Gone in Sixty Seconds (2000)
With or Without You (1999)
eXistenZ (1999)
Heart (1999)
Elizabeth (1998)
Jude (1996)
Shallow Grave (1994)
Anchoress (1993)
Death and the Compass (1992)
Let Him Have It (1991)

Television

Heroes (2007)
Perfect Parents (2007)
Doctor Who (2005)
The Second Coming (2003)
Proof (2003) music video for band I Am Kloot.
The King and Us (2002)
Sunday (2002)
Othello (2002)
Flesh and Blood (2002)
The League of Gentlemen (2002)
Linda Green (2001)
Strumpet (2001)
Clocking Off (2000)
Wilderness Men (2000)
Killing Time - The Millennium Poem (1999)
Hillsborough (1996)
Our Friends in the North (1996)
Cracker (1993)
Business with Friends (1992)
Friday On My Mind (1992)
Rachel's Dream (1992)
Poirot (1992)
Boon (1991)
Chancer (1991)
Inspector Morse (1991)
Casualty (1990)
Blood Rights (1990)

Radio and Narration

Children In Need (Narrator) (2005)
Wanted: New Mum and Dad (Narrator) (2005)
Dubai Dreams (Narrator) (2005)
E=mc² (Narrator) (2005)
A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (Joe) (2005)
Born to be Different (Narrator) (2005)
Sacred Nation (Narrator) (2005)
Crossing the Dark Sea (Squaddie) (2005)
Life Half Spent (Roger) (2004)
Cromwell - Warts and All (Narrator) (2003)
The Iliad (Achilles) (2002)
The Importance of Being Morrissey (Narrator) (2002)
Bayeux Tapestry (Harold) (2001)
Some Fantastic Place (Narrator) (2001)
Pig Paradise (Jack) (1998)
Room of Leaves (Frank) (1998)

Theatre

Electricity (Jakey) (2004) - West Yorkshire Playhouse
Hamlet (Hamlet) (2002) - West Yorkshire Playhouse
Miss Julie (Jean) (2000) - Haymarket Theatre
Waiting At The Water's Edge (Will) (1993) - Bush Theatre
Encounters - National Theatre Studio
Aide-Memoire (1990) - Royal Court Theatre
Abingdon Square (1990) - National Theatre/Shared Experience
Bent (1990)- National Theatre
Dona Rosita, The Spinster - Bristol Old Vic
The Wonder - Gate Theatre
Woyzeck (Woyzeck)- Birmingham Rep
A Streetcar Named Desire (Pablo Gonzallez) (1988)- Bristol Old Vic

Selected Awards and Nominations

Film & Television

2005 - Won National Television Awards Most Popular Actor for Doctor Who
2005 - Won TV Quick and TV Choice Award for Best Actor for Doctor Who
2004 - Nominated BAFTA Television Award for Best Actor for The Second Coming
2003 - Won Royal Television Society Award for Best Actor for Flesh and Blood
1997 - Nominated BAFTA Television Award for Best Actor for Our Friends in the North
1997 - Won Broadcasting Press Guild Award Best Actor for Our Friends in the North
1997 - Nominated - Golden Satellite Award Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama for Jude

Notes/Trivia

Eccleston is a life long supporter of Manchester United.
His height is 6 ft 0 in (183 cm).
He is unmarried but recently ended a relationship with the actress Siwan Morris.
Eccleston is known to have a wicked sense of humour.
Eccleston seems interested in often portraying menacing, dark, or mentally complex characters, rather than mainstream-type heroes who would more immediately attract an audience.
Eccleston has twin brothers and one appears in the party scene in 'Heart'.
Eccleston does a lot of charity work and became a Mencap charity ambassador on April 2005.
Eccleston is a keen marathon runner and usually enters a number of competitions each year.
Eccleston was very touched by the response he received from children from his role as the Doctor. He said "In all the 20 years I've been acting, I've never enjoyed a response so much as the one I've had from children and I'm carrying that in my heart forever."
He hosted the Royal Televsion Society Craft & Design Awards 2004/2005 in November 2005.
Eccleston sat on the 2nd Amazonas International Film Festival Film Jury in November 2005 The legendary director Norman Jewison was chairman of the Jury.
Eccleston only has a license to drive automatic cars.

External links

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