Thomas Stewart Baker (born 20 January 1934) is an English actor and writer. He is best known for having played the fourth and longest-serving incarnation of the Doctor in the science fiction television series Doctor Who from 1974 to 1981.
Later in his career, Baker performed in the television series Medics (1992–1995), Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) (2000–2001) and Monarch of the Glen (2004–2005). He also provided narration for the television comedy series Little Britain (2003–2006) and Little Britain USA (2008). His "sonorous" voice was voted the fourth-most recognisable in the UK in 2006.[1]
Early life
Thomas Stewart Baker was born in the Scotland Road area of Liverpool on 20 January 1934.[2][a] His devoutly Catholic mother, Mary Jane (née Fleming), was a barmaid and cleaner. His Jewish father, John Stewart Baker, was a steward in the Merchant Navy largely absent from the family due to being away at sea.[4][6][7]
Baker was in his thirties when his professional acting career began and he worked in provincial repertory theatre, which he later recalled as "mostly flops or even disasters". He had his first break whilst performing in a late-night pub revue for the 1968 York Festival. His performance was seen by a scout with the Royal National Theatre who encouraged him to audition for the company, which was headed at the time by Laurence Olivier. Following a successful audition, Baker was given small parts and understudied; one of his bigger roles was the horse Rocinante in Don Quixote.[14][12][11] Other productions included The Merchant of Venice, The Idiot, The National Health and A Woman Killed with Kindness.[11]
Baker worked on a building site between acting jobs, which earned him the nickname "Sir Laurence" from his workmates.[21][22] Anxious at his career prospects,[23] on 3 February 1974 he wrote a letter to The Millionairess director Bill Slater (incoming BBC Head of Serials) asking for acting work. Slater recommended Baker to Doctor Who producer Barry Letts, who was seeking a successor to Third DoctorJon Pertwee.[22][24] Letts and script editor Terrance Dicks were impressed by Baker's performance in The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, and following a meeting with Baker in the BBC bar, the actor was quickly cast as the Fourth Doctor.[25] Baker's casting was announced to the press on 15 February; he made his first appearance as the Doctor in the closing moments of Planet of the Spiders on 8 June.[26]
Although Baker had little idea on how he would play his version of the character when cast,[27][23] he quickly made the part his own, highlighting the Doctor's eccentricity and alien qualities.[28] Baker incorporated much of his own personality into the Doctor's[29][30] and frequently made comedic scripting suggestions and ad-libs.[31] His trademark look of wearing a floppy hat and long multi-coloured scarf, as well as his deep voice, made him an immediately recognisable figure.[32][33] Audience-viewing figures for his first few years returned to a level not seen since the height of "Dalekmania" a decade earlier.[32][34] Baker relished his status as a children's hero, preferring to be the Doctor than to return to his "tangled" private life.[8][35][33]
"When I was doing Doctor Who, it was the realisation of all my childhood fantasies... so I took to it like a duck to water, and I still do. Doctor Who was more important than life to me - I used to dread the end of rehearsal... that's why I can't stay away from it."[36]
—Baker in 2017
Under the stewardship of new producer Philip Hinchcliffe and script editor Robert Holmes, the series gained a "Gothic tone" influenced by Hammer Film Productions and was aimed "a bit more to the adults in the audience".[37] Many of the stories from Baker's early seasons are considered classics, such as The Ark in Space (1975), Genesis of the Daleks (1975), The Brain of Morbius (1976), The Deadly Assassin (1976) and The Robots of Death (1977).[33][38] Baker has named Hinchcliffe's tenure as his favourite period of the series,[27] but the violent tone of the series under Hinchcliffe came under heavy criticism from conservative activist Mary Whitehouse.[34] With Hinchcliffe replaced by Graham Williams,[39] concerns about violence led to a lightening of the series' tone and an "erratic decline" in both popularity and quality.[40] According to Baker, Williams was "absolutely devoted" but lacked Hinchcliffe's flair and "let me get away with murder".[27]
Baker played the Doctor for seven consecutive seasons, making him the longest-serving actor in the part. His incarnation is often regarded as the most popular and quintessential of the Doctors.[32] In polls conducted by Doctor Who Magazine, Baker was voted "Best Doctor" every year up to 2013, with the exception of losing to incumbents Sylvester McCoy in 1990 and David Tennant in 2006 and 2009.[41][34] Baker's tenure corresponded with Doctor Who's first broadcasts in the United States, further cementing his popularity among international viewers.[34][42][43] He also became proprietorial over the role of the Doctor and often berated writers and directors whose work he disliked.[44][45] In 1980, new producer John Nathan-Turner introduced noticeable changes to the series, including a new costume for Baker and a larger cast of companions. Baker found Nathan-Turner's approach to the series "unbearable" and decided it was time to depart the role.[46][47][27][48] He said in 2014 that he may have stayed in the role for one season too long.[27] Baker announced his departure on 25 October 1980.[23]Logopolis (1981), the seventh and final serial for season 18, concluded with the Fourth Doctor's regeneration into the Fifth Doctor, played by Peter Davison.[49]
Although his predecessors Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee returned to their roles for the 20th-anniversary episode "The Five Doctors" (1983), Baker declined as it was not long since he had left. He added that he "didn't want to play 20 per cent of the part" or "fancy being a feed for other Doctors."[50] Baker filmed inserts for a 1992 video release of the Doctor Who serial Shada, which remained half-filmed due to a 1979 BBC strike.[51] The same year, he presented the video release The Tom Baker Years, where he looked back on the series by watching short clips from his episodes.[52] He briefly returned for the 30th anniversary charity special Dimensions in Time (1993),[34] and appeared as the Doctor for a 1997 advertising campaign for New Zealand Superannuation Services.[53] He also narrated various Target novelisations of Doctor Who stories for the BBC, such as Robot (1974–1975),[54]Pyramids of Mars (1975), The Brain of Morbius,[55]The Creature from the Pit (1979)[56] and The Power of the Daleks (1966).[57]
Baker made a cameo appearance in the 50th-anniversary special "The Day of the Doctor" (2013) as a mysterious curator in the National Gallery, implied to be the Doctor's future incarnation.[58] In 2017, the cast of Shada reunited to complete the unfilmed scenes via voice-over and animation, with Baker filming one live-action scene.[59] As of 2025, Baker is the oldest living actor to have played the role.
In March 2011, it was announced that Baker would return as the Fourth Doctor, alongside his companion Romana (Mary Tamm and Lalla Ward), for two series of audio dramas for Big Finish Productions.[63][64] Big Finish also arranged for Baker to record a series with Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith, but Sladen died in April 2011 before any stories could be recorded.[65] As of 2025, Big Finish has released 14 audio series starring Baker as the Doctor, featuring past co-stars such as Matthew Waterhouse and John Leeson.[64] It was announced in March 2020 that Baker would record "Return of the Cybermen" for Big Finish, an alternative version of the serial Revenge of the Cybermen (1975), with Sadie Miller, Elisabeth Sladen's daughter, cast in the role of Sarah Jane.[66][67] In 2020 Baker returned to the role of "the Curator" for Big Finish, joining the cast of The Eighth Doctor Adventures.[68]
1982–2000: Return to character acting
Baker's Doctor Who casting resulted in a wave of new acting offers. Even before recording his first season as the Doctor, he was cast in The Author of Beltraffio, a 1974 television film directed by Tony Scott.[29][69] The same year he played the title role in The Trials of Oscar Wilde at the Oxford Festival.[70]
For the third series of the British game show Cluedo, Baker was cast as Professor Plum, a "man with a degree in suspicion".[citation needed] In 2003, he was cast in the BBC series Strange as a blind priest who possessed knowledge of the Devil, and in the following year as Donald MacDonald in the sixth series of Monarch of the Glen.[74]
Baker appeared as a guest on the quiz show Have I Got News for You and returned as a guest host in 2008. Baker played the role of the Captain in the Challenge version of Fort Boyard, and has also hosted the children's literature series, The Book Tower. He recorded a special called, Tom Baker– In Confidence that was shown in April 2010.[citation needed]
It was rumoured that Baker was a candidate for the role of Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings films; Baker himself stated that he would not have accepted a role which would mean spending months away in New Zealand.[75][76] He appeared as Halvarth, an elf, in Dungeons & Dragons (2000).[77]
After his work on Lionel Nimrod's Inexplicable World, Baker was cast as a similar narrator of Little Britain on BBC Radio 4 and remained in the role when it transferred to television.[78] He has suggested that he was chosen for the part in Little Britain due to his popularity with creators Matt Lucas and David Walliams, part of the generation for whom he is the favourite Doctor. "I am now being employed by the children who grew up watching me", he stated in a DVD commentary.[79] Another trademark of Little Britain's narration is the deadpan quotation of old rap lyrics, usually in the opening credit sequence. On 17 November 2005, to mark the start of the third series of Little Britain, Baker read the continuity announcements on BBC One from 7pm to 9:30pm GMT in his Little Britain persona.[citation needed]
Baker narrated the children's animated series The Beeps which was shown on Channel 5's Milkshake! as well as narrating Tales of Aesop on BBC, a television series with puppetry based on Aesop's Fables.
In the third season of the animated series Star Wars Rebels, Baker provided the voice of Bendu, a powerful Force-sensitive being.[80]
Baker voiced both the narrator and the god "Tetsu" in the role-playing game Sudeki, but was uncredited.[85] Baker was also the uncredited narrator for the 1985 science fiction movie "Enemy Mine". During the first three months of 2006, his voice was used by BT for spoken delivery of text messages to landline phones. He recorded 11,593 phrases, containing every sound in the English language, for use by the text-to-speech service.[86] The BT text message service returned from 1 December 2006 until 8 January 2007, with two pence from each text going to the charity Shelter. Also, a single "sung" by Baker's text voice, "You Really Got Me" by the Kinks, was released on 18 December 2006 with proceeds going to the charity. The creator of the song was Mark Murphy, designer of the site.[87][88]
Baker's voice may be heard at London's Natural History Museum narrating commentary to some of the exhibits that demonstrate Darwin's theory of natural selection. He has made three other brief forays into the world of music: he provides the monologue to the track "Witness to a Murder (Part Two)" on the album Six by Mansun; he appears on Technocat's single "Only Human" in 1995, and in 2002 he recorded the monologue to the track "Megamorphosis" on the album Andabrek by Stephen James, although the album was not released until 2009. Baker provides narrative at two British tourist attractions: the Nemesis roller coaster at Alton Towers, Staffordshire; and the London Dungeon, a museum depicting gory and macabre events in the capital, narrating the events leading up to and comprising the Great Fire of London. He narrated Australian cartoonist Bruce Petty's 2006 film about world politics, Global Haywire.
Books
Baker's autobiography, Who on Earth is Tom Baker? was published in 1997.[89] He is the author of two children's books: Never Wear Your Wellies in the House and Other Poems to Make You Laugh (1981)[90] and The Boy Who Kicked Pigs (1999).[91]
Baker and James Goss co-wrote the novel Doctor Who: Scratchman (2019), based on a script Baker and Ian Marter (who played companion Harry Sullivan) wrote for a proposed 1970s Doctor Who film.[92][93]
In 1998, Baker provided narration on the track "Witness to a Murder (Part 2)" on the album Six by the English alternative rockband Mansun.[101]
On 13 May 2020, Dutch producer and songwriter Arjen Anthony Lucassen announced that Baker would provide spoken vocals for the character of "The Storyteller" on Ayreon's album, Transitus.[102]
Personal life
Baker married Anna Wheatcroft (niece of rose grower Harry Wheatcroft) in 1961; they had met and started dating whilst at acting school. They had two sons (Daniel and Piers) and divorced in 1966. Baker lost contact with his sons until a chance meeting with Piers in a New Zealand pub allowed them to renew their relationship.[103][104] In 2023, Baker said he was estranged from both of his sons.[105] In December 1980, he married Lalla Ward, who had co-starred in Doctor Who as his character's companion Romana. They divorced after 16 months.[106][29]
Baker married for a third time on 1 April 1986, to Sue Jerrard, who had been an assistant editor on Doctor Who. They moved to the Bell House, a converted school in Boughton Malherbe, Kent, where they kept several cats before moving to France in January 2003. They sold the property to Vic Reeves shortly after Baker had worked with him on the BBC revival of Randall and Hopkirk.[107] In November 2006, Baker bought a house in Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent, before later moving to Rye, East Sussex.[108]
The English synthpop band the Human League recorded a track entitled "Tom Baker". In 1981, it was released as the B-side to their "Boys and Girls" single. The instrumental track was re-released on some CD versions of their Travelogue album. The song was inspired by the incidental music of Doctor Who.[111]
Impressionist Jon Culshaw regularly impersonated Baker in the comedy series Dead Ringers.[113][114] On one episode of Dead Ringers, Culshaw called Baker himself using his impersonation, introducing himself as the Doctor. An amused Baker replied, "No, there must be a mistake. I'm the Doctor!"[115] The episode was so well received, that Baker later appeared with Culshaw in the 2001 TV movie Alter Ego. Dressed identically, Culshaw as Baker said "It's very nice to meet me." Whereupon Baker replied "Yes, well it's very nice to be met."[5]
A fictional version of Baker appears in the Kevin Sampson novel Awaydays. In this story, he is attending the seventh International Doctor Who Convention in Halifax in December 1979, where the chief protagonists of the novel (a group of Tranmere Rovers hooligans) accidentally gatecrash. They befriend him and try to persuade him to tour the country as the Doctor, setting fire to his farts. This was not included in the film version of the novel. Producer David Hughes wanted to use a clip from Baker's era of Doctor Who to help add to the film's 1979 period detail, but the BBC refused because of the film's violence.[116]
↑ Though his BFI biography gives the year 1936,[3] Baker himself (on his official website and the 2001 TV movie Alter Ego) states he was born in 1934.[4][5]
↑ Sladen, Elisabeth (7 November 2011). Elisabeth Sladen: The Autobiography. Aurum. ISBN978-1-84513-685-7. They were going for something a bit more eccentric... more alien, if you like... Eventually they settled on the coat, the hat and, of course, the oversized scarf. That came about when Jim sent a bag of wool to a knitter called Begonia Pope - and she used the entire amount!
1 2 3 Evenden, Matt (30 April 2025). "Established career". Tom Baker Official. Retrieved 11 September 2025.
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