UK
Comedy character actor. Born in
London, England, 7 July 1919.
Died 20 May 1996.
Jon
Pertwee is a British comedy
character actor credited with an
extensive list of stage, screen,
radio, and cabaret appearances.
The one-time spouse of Upstairs,
Downstairs star, Jean Marsh,
Pertwee is best known for his
turn from 1970 to 1974 as the
Doctor in the long-running
British Broadcasting Corporation
program, Doctor Who. A master of
accents, voices, sounds, and
comical walks, Pertwee perfected
his multiple comedic personae on
the radio series The Navy Lark
and supporting roles in various
films beginning with his
appearance in 1937's Dinner at
the Ritz.
Recruited by producer Peter
Bryant in 1969 to take over as
the Doctor from Patrick
Troughton,
Pertwee brought to the program a radically different
interpretation of the title
character. Aired initially in
1963, Doctor Who was produced by
the drama department at the BBC
and was not intended primarily
for children. The first Doctor,
as portrayed by William Hartnell,
was a renegade Time Lord from
the planet of Gallifrey who
exhibited a strong moral sense,
an aggressive curmudgeonly
attitude, and impatience with
his various earthly companions'
comparative mental slowness.
Hartnell was replaced in 1966 by
Patrick Troughton who played the
part as a "cosmic
hobo" in the tradition of
Chaplin's Little Tramp.
As Sean Hogben asserted in
"Dr. Who: Adventure With
Time to Spare" in TV Week,
however, "Doctor Who won
its reputation as a top science
fiction series during Jon
Pertwee's time in the
role." Reacting to the
popularity of the early James
Bond films, and determined to
move away from the clownish
depiction Troughton gave the
Doctor, Pertwee played the
character as an action-based
interplanetary crusader
exhibiting the characteristics
of a folk hero. Pertwee was thus
able to draw on his considerable
ability to perform his own
stunts resulting from his love
of skin-diving and water-skiing,
along with his habit of driving
fast vehicles, to give a harder
edge to his interpretation.
The Pertwee era began with the
serialization of "Spearhead
From
Space," which also
introduced the program's fans to
the series'
first broadcasts in color.
Pertwee's adoption of his
grandfather's
evening suits as the foundation
of the Doctor's garb allowed him
to switch among different colored
velvet smoking jackets to mark
each passing season of episodes.
With this change in the Doctor's
apparel, the producers began to
publicize the series as
providing "adventure in
style" due to Pertwee's
penchant for a similar type of
life outside the studio, and
partly to cash in on the
liberated "Swinging
Sixties" ambiance still
prevalent in early 1970s Great
Britain. The fact the program
was attracting a considerable
audience among upscale 17 to 19
year olds also contributed to
this change in character
depiction and promotion.
Pertwee's love of fast vehicles
and gadgets prompted him to
suggest the Doctor travel from
trouble-spot to trouble-spot in
an Edwardian four-seat roadster
eventually named
"Bessie." During most
of Pertwee's term, the Doctor
was banished to Earth by the
Time Lords of Gallifrey, thus
necessitating a different mode
of transportation than his
predecessors enjoyed with the
Tardis, the Doctor's
police-box-styled time machine.
Thus "Bessie" and (in
1974) the "Whomobile,"
a flying-saucer shaped custom
three-wheel car built for
Pertwee by Peter Faries, became
the Doctor's primary
transportation during the four
years Doctor #3 assisted UNIT
(United Nations Intelligence
Taskforce) and its indefatigable
leader, Brigadier
Lethbridge-Stewart (Nicholas
Courtney) as they saved the
Earth from a variety of
monsters, aliens, megalomaniacs,
and other menaces.
In early 1974, Pertwee announced
he would step down from his
stint as the Doctor following
that season's shooting in order
to resume his stage career in
The Breadwinner. His final
appearance came in "The
Planet of the Spiders"
which dovetailed with the
initial episode the following
season, "Robot,"
during which Tom Baker took over
as the regenerated Time Lord.
Pertwee returned in 1983 to
share top billing with his
fellow Doctors in "The Five
Doctors," a 20th
anniversary celebration and one
of the stories best received by
the series' fans. The plot found
all five incarnations of Doctor
Who taking on their most
memorable enemies who attempted,
but failed, to destroy the five
Doctors for good.
Jon Pertwee returned to British
television in 1979 for the
comedy series Worzel
Gummidge. His post-Doctor years
found him performing primarily
on stage and in motion pictures.
He continued his association
with the Doctor Who character
from time to time with
appearances at Doctor Who
conventions worldwide.
-Robert Craig
