Ian Marter: Difference between revisions

}}'''Ian Don Marter''' ([[28 October (people)|28 October]] [[1944 (people)|1944]]<ref>[[REF]]: ''[[Who-ology: The Official Miscellany]]''</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://twitter.com/bbcdoctorwho/status/659419393219305472|title=Ian Marter (1944 –1986) was born on this day… We remember him fondly as Harry Sullivan.|author=Doctor Who Official|website name=Twitter|date of source=28 October 2012|accessdate=13 December 2016}}</ref>-[[28 October (people)|28 October]] [[1986 (people)|1986]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://strangehorizons.com/non-fiction/articles/the-doctor-who-novels-of-ian-marter/|title=The ''Doctor Who'' novels of Ian Marter|author=Whyte, Nicholas|date of source=19 March 2007|website name=Strange Horizons|accessdate=13 December 2016}}</ref><ref>[http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=20747 Find a Grave]</ref>) played [[companion]] [[Harry Sullivan]] in ''[[Doctor Who]]'' from ''[[Robot (TV story)|Robot]]'' to ''[[Terror of the Zygons (TV story)|Terror of the Zygons]]'' and again in ''[[The Android Invasion (TV story)|The Android Invasion]]''.

He wrote several books for the [[Target novelisation]]s, including two published posthumously.

 

 

He sometimes wrote under the {{w|pen name}} Ian Don.

In 1970 he auditioned for the regular role of Captain [[Mike Yates]] in the eighth season of ''Doctor Who''. Although he was offered the part, he was unable to accept due to other commitments. He sufficiently impressed the production team to be kept in mind however, and was cast in a supporting role in the 1973 story'' [[Carnival of Monsters (TV story)|Carnival of Monsters]]'', broadcast as part of the tenth season of the programme.

In 1974, he was cast as companion Harry Sullivan, a character developed by the production team when they thought the [[Fourth Doctor]] might be portrayed by an older actor who would be unable to handle the more physical action scenes. However, after [[Tom Baker]], who was forty, was cast, this was no longer an issue. Harry was written out after just one season, despite being a popular character and gelling with Baker and other lead [[Elisabeth Sladen]]. Marter was the third ''Doctor Who'' regular to be cast following a guest appearance; the first two were [[Peter Purves]] and [[Nicholas Courtney]].

According to some who worked with Marter, he was a bisexual man but tended to keep his sexuality secret during his life. <ref name="NickAutobio">Courtney, Nicholas; McManus, Michael (2005) ''Still Getting Away With It: The Life and Times of Nicholas Courtney'', ISBN: 1871330734</ref> <ref name="DWMTomB">[[DWM 501]]</ref>

Marter remained involved with ''Doctor Who'' after his departure from the cast. He co-wrote the script for a potential [[List of Doctor Who feature films|feature film]] version, provisionally titled ''[[Doctor Who Meets Scratchman]]'' in collaboration with Baker and film director {{w|James Hill (British director)|James Hill}}, although this never came to pass. The intention was to have Baker's Doctor come face to face with [[Scratchman]], an ancient British word for the devil. The finale of the film would have taken place on a giant pinball table, the holes in the table portals to other dimensions. The project fizzled out due to lack of funding and the dire state of the British film industry. However, much of the material written by Marter and Baker for that project would be adapted, by Baker himself with [[James Goss]], for the 2019 novel ''[[Scratchman (novelisation)|Scratchman]]''.

He also became involved with the writing of novelisations of ''Doctor Who'' stories for [[Target Books]], penning nine adaptations in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Marter's novelisations were controversial, most notably for his use of the word 'bastard' in his novelisation of ''[[Doctor Who and the Enemy of the World (novelisation)|The Enemy of the World]]''.

Marter married Rosemary Heyland in 1968 and had two sons, Rupert and Toby. He died suddenly at his home in [[London]] on his forty-second birthday in [[1986 (people)|1986]] (some sources erroneously give his date of death as being two days later, [[30 October (people)|30 October]]) after suffering a heart attack brought on by complications of type 1 diabetes. He has the sad distinction of being the first companion actor to pass away, and only the third major ''Doctor Who'' actor to die (the first was [[Roger Delgado]] in 1973, follwed by [[William Hartnell]] two years later).