Richard E Grant
Richard E Grant, born Richard Esterhuysen in Mbabane, Swaziland on 5 May 1957[1]) has made several appearances in Doctor Who. He played the Tenth Doctor in The Curse of Fatal Death and voiced an invalid animated version of the Ninth Doctor in the webcast animation Scream of the Shalka. His valid appearances as Doctor Walter Simeon, and later the Great Intelligence, include the 2012 Christmas special, The Snowmen, The Bells of Saint John and The Name of the Doctor.
Grant is one of few actors to have played two separate incarnations of the Doctor, albeit neither in a valid context; Jon Culshaw, played multiple Doctors on the sketch show Dead Ringers, most notably the Fourth and Tenth. While Grant and Culshaw played two separate incarnations of the Doctor in non-canonical work, they are two out of five actors to have played two different incarnations, the other three actors having done so in valid work; the other three being Tom Baker (who portrayed the Doctor's future self the Curator on top of his Fourth Doctor); Sylvester McCoy, the Seventh Doctor, who briefly played the Sixth Doctor in Time and the Rani; and Paul McGann, the Eighth Doctor, who briefly played the War Doctor in the television story The Night of the Doctor.
Between his first and second Doctor Who appearances, Grant was referred to (albeit not by name) in the novel Independence Day. Ace mentioned that she saw Withnail and I in the cinema several days before she was transported to Iceworld and commented that she fancied "the actor who played Withnail".
Outside the Doctor Who universe, Grant appeared in the 1987 cult film Withnail and I, opposite Eighth Doctor actor Paul McGann. He also appeared in the films Warlock (1989), Hudson Hawk (1991), Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), The Age of Innocence (1993), Prêt-à-Porter (1994), Spice World (1997), The Little Vampire (2000), Gosford Park (2001), Bright Young Things (2003), and Corpse Bride (2005).
Mr Grant studied English and Drama at University in Capetown, South Africa. He is married to voice coach Joan Washington and has a daughter, Olivia, and a stepson, Tom.
Credits
Television
Doctor Who
As the Great Intelligence
Other
Webcast
Doctor Who
External links
