Tom Baker Awarded MBE By King Charles In New Years Honours
Doctor Who star Tom Baker has been made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the New Year Honours list for his services to television.
The 90-year-old actor played the fourth incarnation of the Time Lord for seven seasons between 1974 and 1981, the longest consecutive stint for any actor in the title role of the hit BBC sci-fi show.
Born in Liverpool in 1934 to a father in the Merchant Navy and a mother who worked as a barmaid and cleaner, Baker joined a religious order when he was 15 after struggling at school academically but left the monastic life after becoming disillusioned.
He did his National Service in the Army medical corps, where he developed his love of acting in the amateur dramatics group.
He went on to study at the Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama in Sidcup, south-east London, where he met his first wife, Anna Wheatcroft, with whom he had two children before they separated.
His first professional role was in Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale at the Cambridge Theatre, the Edinburgh Festival and in Venice.
Baker joined the National Theatre in 1968 where he was spotted by Laurence Olivier, who cast him as the Prince of Morocco in The Merchant Of Venice with Olivier playing Shylock.
Baker’s first major film role was as Rasputin in the 1971 film Nicholas And Alexandra alongside Olivier as Count Witte.
He co-started with Dame Maggie Smith in the The Millionairess, directed by Bill Slater, and while working as a labourer between acting jobs, Slater helped him land the biggest role of his career – the Doctor.
During his seven years on Doctor Who, Baker began a relationship with co-star Lalla Ward, who played the second incarnation of Romana, and they married in 1980 but separated a couple of years later.
In 1986, he married a third time, to Sue Jerrard, an assistant editor on the show.
Baker returned to Doctor Who playing “The Curator” for the 50th anniversary special The Day Of The Doctor in 2013, which also saw David Tennant make a comeback during Matt Smith’s tenure as the Doctor.
However, Baker ruled out making an appearance to mark the 60th anniversary last year, saying he did not wish to work with the actors who succeeded him.
He told Radio Times magazine:
“I avoid them, you know. Not with any malice. A degree of contempt, perhaps but mildly, mildly contemptuous.”
Baker returned to the stage after quitting as the Doctor, performing for the Royal Shakespeare Company and National Theatre.
On TV he played a sea captain Rum in Blackadder II and Puddleglum the Marshwiggle in a BBC production of The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Silver Chair, and Professor Hoyt in hospital drama Medics.
He was cast as a ghost in the 2000 revival of Randall And Hopkirk (Deceased) starring Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer, and was the distinctive narrator in Matt Lucas and David Walliams’ sketch series Little Britain.
His autobiography Who On Earth Is Tom Baker? was published in 1997 and he went on to write a dark, comedic story titled The Boy Who Kicked Pigs.
