| Jon Pertwee | |
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Jon Pertwee as the Third Doctor |
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| Born | John Devon Roland Pertwee 7 July 1919 Chelsea, London, England, |
| Died | 20 May 1996 (aged 76) Timber Lake, Connecticut, United States |
| Cause of death | Heart attack |
| Years active | 1938-1996 |
| Spouse | Jean Marsh (1955–60) (divorced) Ingeborg Rhoesa (1960–96) (his death) |
| Children | Sean Pertwee Dariel Pertwee |
John Devon Roland Pertwee (7 July 1919[1] – 20 May 1996), was an English actor. Pertwee is best known for his role in the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who, in which he played the third incarnation of the Doctor from 1970 to 1974, and as the title character in the series Worzel Gummidge. He is also well-known for his 18-year stint on BBC Radio as Chief Petty Officer Pertwee in The Navy Lark.
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Born in Chelsea, London, to a family descended from Huguenots (the name was an Anglicisation of "Perthuis"; his full surname being "de Perthuis de Laillevault"[2]), he was the son of noted screenwriter and actor Roland Pertwee and distant cousin of actor Bill Pertwee, who played Chief Warden Hodges in the comedy Dad's Army (coincidentally, Jon Pertwee was the writers' first choice for the role of Captain George Mainwaring in Dad's Army). The actor Henry Ainley, a close friend of his father, was his godfather and Ainley's son Anthony appeared alongside Pertwee in the 1983 Doctor Who anniversary story The Five Doctors.
Pertwee was educated at Frensham Heights School, an independent school in Rowledge, near Farnham in Surrey, at Sherborne School in Sherborne in Dorset, and at some other schools from which he was expelled. After school, he went to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), from which he was also expelled after he refused to play a Greek "wind" during one of the lessons, feeling it was a waste of both his time and his father's money. He was also accused of writing graffiti about the tutors on the toilet walls.[3]
Pertwee was an officer in the Royal Navy, spending some time working in naval intelligence during the Second World War. He was a crew member of HMS Hood and was transferred off the ship shortly before she was sunk, losing all but three men. During his time in the Navy Pertwee woke up one morning after a drunken night out while in port to find a tattoo on his right arm, which was occasionally seen during his time in Doctor Who.
After the war he made a name for himself as a comedy actor, notably on radio in Waterlogged Spa, alongside Eric Barker and Puffney Post Office in which he played a hapless old postman with the catch-phrase "It doesn't matter what you do, as long as you tears them up". From 1959 to 1977, he had a long-running role as the conniving Chief Petty Officer Pertwee in The Navy Lark on BBC Radio. He was known as a Danny Kaye look-alike, and his impersonation of Kaye can be seen in the 1949 film Murder at the Windmill.[4]
On stage, he played the part of Lycus in the 1963 London production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum with Frankie Howerd and appeared in the smaller role of Crassus in the 1966 film version. He appeared as Sidney Tait in the 1963 comedy Ladies Who Do and later in four Carry On films: Carry On Cleo (1964, as the soothsayer), Carry On Screaming (1966, as Dr. Fettle), Carry On Cowboy (1965, as Sheriff Earp) and Carry On Columbus (1992, as the Duke of Costa Brava). On television, he started off with small parts in children's shows like Mr Pastry. Later he made an appearance in The Avengers episode "From Venus with Love" as Brigadier Whitehead, and in the 1970s, he guest-starred as a vicar in The Goodies' episode "Wacky Wales".
He had one of his most memorable film roles in the 1971 Amicus horror compendium The House That Dripped Blood. Filmed in the summer of 1970, between his first and second Doctor Who seasons, Pertwee played the lead in the last segment of the film as Paul Henderson, a deliciously arrogant horror film star who meets his quasi-comedic doom thanks to a genuine vampire cloak.
He was married twice, first in 1955[5] to Jean Marsh (1955–1960), whom he divorced, and then, on 13 August 1960,[6] to Ingeborg Rhoesa, by whom he had two children, Sean and Dariel.
In 1969, Pertwee was selected by producer Peter Bryant to take over as the Doctor from Patrick Troughton in the television series Doctor Who. Pertwee had asked his agent to apply for the role for him and was surprised to find he was already on the shortlist for the role. He was the second choice of the producer; Ron Moody was the first but was unavailable.[7] In a departure from the Doctor's first two incarnations, Pertwee played the character as an active crusader with a penchant for action and fancy clothes, even while the character was exiled on Earth and serving with UNIT. He played the Doctor for five seasons from 1970 to 1974, at the time the longest stint of any of the actors who played the part, surpassing predecessors William Hartnell's and Patrick Troughton's three years each in the role, although due to shortened broadcast seasons, he appeared in fewer episodes than Hartnell. Of the eleven actors to portray the role, only two would play the Doctor for longer chronological time: David Tennant (four years and six and a half months from June 2005 to January 2010, thus longer by a matter of months) and Pertwee's immediate successor, Tom Baker (seven years from 1974 to 1981). In terms of screen time and in terms of being contracted to the role, only the latter has played the Doctor for longer. In early 1974, Pertwee announced he would step down as the Doctor in order to resume his stage career in The Bedwinner, also citing typecasting in the role as the reason for leaving, though later he would say that the catalyst for his departure was the death of his good friend and co-star Roger Delgado and the departures of co-star Katy Manning and producer Barry Letts. His last fulltime appearance in the series was in the story "Planet of the Spiders"' in June 1974. Pertwee later reprised the role in the 20th anniversary story The Five Doctors, in two radio adventures and on stage in The Ultimate Adventure. On 14 April 1971, Pertwee was the subject of Thames Television's This Is Your Life which featured the first television appearance of his son Sean Pertwee, who went on to become an actor.
After a stint between 1974 and 1978 as the host of the Thames Television murder-mystery game show Whodunnit!, Pertwee took the starring role in Worzel Gummidge, based on the books written by Barbara Euphan Todd. First aired in 1979 on ITV, the series saw Pertwee as a scarecrow, as well as utilising several comedic voices. The show was an immediate hit and ran on the channel until 1981. Keen to continue beyond this, Pertwee campaigned for the series and it was picked up by a New Zealand network in 1987. Worzel Gummidge Down Under aired for the next two years and was screened in the UK on Channel 4. In 1995, Pertwee played the role one last time in a one-off special for ITV, which celebrated 40 years of the channel. Pertwee also played the character on stage and recorded an album, Worzel Gummidge Sings, as well as a Christmas single.
Pertwee also voiced the character of "Spotty" in the 1980s cartoon series SuperTed and in 1985 he starred in Do You Know The Milkyway?, a television adaptation of Karl Wittlinger's stage play in which he played Dr. Neuross and another nine characters. In 1995 Pertwee also had the key voice of Death and other voice characterisations in the PC and PlayStation renditions of "Discworld". Also in 1995, Jon Pertwee played General Von Kramer in the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles episode "Attack of the Hawkmen". Pertwee voiced and appeared in the television advertisement which promoted the Green Cross Code by use of the mnemonic "SPLINK".
He returned to the role of the Doctor in the 1983 20th anniversary television special The Five Doctors and in the 1993 charity special Dimensions in Time for Children in Need. He also portrayed the Doctor in the stage play Doctor Who – The Ultimate Adventure which toured theatres in the United Kingdom from March to June 1989. During the 1990s, he made a guest appearance in the "Lords and Ladies" episode of the BBC Radio 4 comedy series Harry Hill's Fruit Corner, playing a Time Lord and also spoofed the role in the Radio 4 comedy The Skivers.
In 1993, Pertwee was featured in the unofficial 30th anniversary VHS release of Doctor Who entitled '30 Years of Time Travel and Beyond'. When asked in an interview for this documentary if the show should be brought back he simply replied with 'No...no'. Pertwee would continue to act in films and television as well as make appearances worldwide in support of Doctor Who. Ultimately, Pertwee was successful in seeing the Third Doctor return to the airwaves with two audio productions for BBC Radio, The Paradise of Death and The Ghosts of N-Space.
In late 1995, he appeared in Devious, an amateur video drama set between the second Doctor's trial at the end of The War Games and before the start of Spearhead From Space, which shows an interim (between second and third) Doctor played by Tony Garner being told he was "never meant to be the Doctor" and that the third, played by Jon, will complete him. This video was created by Doctor Who enthusiasts, is around 8 minutes long and has never been on sale or publicly shown, but Pertwee's scenes are included on the BBC DVD The War Games.
Pertwee's final film role was in a short film, "Cloud Cuckoo" for Scottish Screen, released on 18 June 1994. His last formal television appearance was on Cilla's Surprise, Surprise, broadcast on 21 April 1996. At the date of his death, Pertwee was regularly being seen at the tail end of an enigmatic UK TV commercial for mobile phone operator Vodafone: dressed somewhat in his flamboyant 'Doctor' manner, his character walked wordlessly across an alleyway in sight of a Liverpool landmark, and entered a garage evidently containing some kind of 'time machine'.
Pertwee continued on the convention circuit and with his voice and television acting until his death from a heart attack in Connecticut on 20 May 1996, two months before his 77th birthday. (Some reports place the location of his death in New York.) He was cremated at Putney Vale Crematorium with a toy Worzel Gummidge affixed to the coffin, following the instructions in his will.[1][2]
He died only days after the American broadcast of the Doctor Who television film, which used in its opening credits a logo based on the one from his era of the television series. The BBC broadcast of the television film featured a dedication to Pertwee at its end.
His last association with the series was posthumous. With the approval of his widow, Ingeborg, his voice was utilised as part of the plot of the Big Finish Productions' 40th Anniversary Doctor Who audio drama, Zagreus, appearing as messages from the Doctor's TARDIS as it attempted to help the currently corrupted Eighth Doctor (voiced by Paul McGann). Pertwee's voice was culled from a fan-produced Doctor Who film Devious, portions of which were recorded just prior to his death.
Pertwee wrote two autobiographies: Moon Boots and Dinner Suits (published in 1984), which primarily covers his life and career prior to Doctor Who, and the posthumously published Doctor Who: I Am the Doctor – Jon Pertwee’s Final Memoir (published in 1996 by Virgin Publishing Ltd and co-written with David J. Howe), which covered his life during and after the series. In 2000, Jon Pertwee: The Biography by Bernard Bale (ISBN 0-233-99831-4) was published by André Deutsch, and included a few chapters by Pertwee's widow Ingeborg.
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