Bradley was born in York, where he attended the CatholicSt George's Secondary Modern School, where he was a member of the choir. He first performed on stage in musical productions, as a member of a youth club and with the Rowntree Youth Theatre. Upon leaving school, he completed a five-year apprenticeship with the optical instruments maker Cooke, Troughton & Simms and remained with the firm until 1966, when he moved to London to train as an actor at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.[2]
Bradley played fictional Labour Member of Parliament Eddie Wells in the 1996 BBC Two serial Our Friends in the North. Also in 1996, he appeared as gangster Alf Black in Band of Gold. In 1998, he appeared in the BBC adaptation of Vanity Fair as the miserly Sir Pitt Crawley, and Our Mutual Friend as the villainous Rogue Riderhood. Other television appearances include the 2001 series The Way We Live Now, directed by David Yates, who would work with Bradley five years later on the Harry Potter films.
From 2002 to 2004, Bradley starred as Jake in the BBC comedy series Wild West. Bradley acted in the 2004 musical drama serial Blackpool on BBC One. He appeared in the 2005 BBC drama Mr. Harvey Lights a Candle, playing a morose coach driver who takes an unruly party of pupils on a trip to Salisbury Cathedral, and the 2006 BBC drama Sweeney Todd. He had a small role in a 2006 episode of the series Taggart. In 2003, he played Tom in the Midsomer Murders episode "The Green Man". He appeared as the electrolarynx-using gangster Stemroach in the BBC comedy series Ideal and as Electric in the BBC's Thieves Like Us, as well as the BBC One series True Dare Kiss in 2007–08.
From 2014, Bradley played a leading role as Professor Abraham Setrakian, a Holocaust survivor turned vampire hunter in Guillermo del Toro's TV series The Strain.[14] In 2015, Bradley became a public supporter of Chapel Lane Theatre Company based in Stratford-Upon-Avon.[15] In 2017, Bradley joined the cast of Guillermo del Toro's animated Netflix series Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia playing the role of Merlin. In 2021, he received an Annie Award for Best Voice Actor in a Television Role for his role in the final chapter of the trilogy, Wizards: Tales of Arcadia as the wizard Merlin.
In 2017, in the final episode of the tenth series of Doctor Who, "The Doctor Falls", Bradley returned to portray the First Doctor, having previously portrayed Hartnell, who originally played the character. He reprised the role in the 2017 Christmas special, "Twice Upon a Time",[16][17] in an audio series for Big Finish Productions titled Doctor Who: The First Doctor Adventures alongside his An Adventure in Space and Time cast,[18] and in the immersive theatre show Doctor Who: Time Fracture.[19] This makes him the third actor to play the role in the television programme, after William Hartnell and Richard Hurndall since the premiere of Doctor Who in 1963, and at the age of 75, he is the also the oldest actor to play the role of the Doctor on television.[20] He again played the First Doctor in the final episode of the 2022 specials, "The Power of the Doctor".[21][22]
Bradley married his wife Rosanna in 1978. They have three children. His eldest son, George, is an architect, who has featured on the ITV series Love Your Home and Garden alongside Alan Titchmarsh.[25] His daughter, Francesca, works in casting, having worked on Michael Bay's 6 Underground.[26][27] He has said that it was his children who turned his attention to the Harry Potter film franchise and coached him for the role of Argus Filch.[28]
He is an avid fan of football clubs Aston Villa and York City.[31][32] On 22 November 2014, he took part in a video paying tribute to Aston Villa on their 140th birthday.[33]
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