Tag: american doctor who

1982–84. Honorable mentions: Michael Gross, David Michael Hasselhoff, Pierce Brosnan, Michael Keaton

Supporting Cast

Adric: Lee Curreri

Nyssa: Heather Locklear

Tegan Jovanka: Diana Canova

The Master: Edward Mulhare

Mark Harmon was chosen as a physical contrast to Barry Newman, as well as for his critically acclaimed role in the prime time soap opera Flamingo Road. At 29 years old, Harmon was the youngest actor to have played the Doctor. However, he only agreed to play the role for 3 years to keep from getting typecast. Harmon reportedly got this idea from second Doctor Leslie Nielsen. Harmon’s Doctor was a youthful pacifist, portraying 19th century upper-class values of chivalry, science, and golf. British actor Peter Davison based his Stephen Daker in A Very Peculiar Practice on Harmon’s sensitive, deliberate, and occasionally indecisive performance.

Prior to Doctor Who, Lee Curreri was best known for his role as the intense keyboard prodigy Bruno Martelli in the film Fame and its spinoff Fame television series. When Fame was cancelled, he immediately auditioned for and won the role of Adric. As a young boy, Curreri’s letter praising Doctor Who was published in Starlog magazine. Having started playing Adric the previous year, Curreri left the show — and acting altogether — to become a full-time musician. His breakthrough in this capacity was the soundtrack to The Killing Edge, the 1986 sci-fi thriller starring Matthew Waterhouse.

Heather Locklear made her earliest screen appearances in minor roles on CHiPs, 240-Robert, Eight Is Enough, and The Return of the Beverly Hillbillies. She’d already been working on Dynasty in 1981, but had a falling out with producer Aaron Spelling. Through her agent, Locklear auditioned for and won the role of Nyssa. Her good friend Sarah Sutton said Locklear “…pulled off [Nyssa’s] complicated and conflicting character with surprising ease and grace.”

Diana Canova made her television acting debut in Happy Days, then guest-starred in Chico and the Man, Starsky and Hutch, and Barney Miller. It was Canova’s recurring role on Soap that made Doctor Who producers want her to portray Tegan Jovanka. Once describing her character as “just a mouth on legs,” Canova’s Tegan was a perfect counter balance to Heather Locklear’s Nyssa. Her loud, smart, and stubborn performance inspired Janet Fielding‘s portrayal of Deborah Simons in Hold the Back Page.

Edward Mulhare‘s busy career, starting from the late 1940s, was on the wane by the 1980s. Doctor Who producers remembered his role of the poltergeist Captain Daniel Gregg in The Ghost & Mrs. Muir, as well as his later roles on Hart to Hart and Battlestar Galactica. He got the role of the Master when Ricardo Montalbán quit the show to do Fantasy Island. His performance as Arthur Sydney in the Hart to Hart episode “The Man with the Jade Eyes” won him the role of the Master.

Back to the List

1974–81. Honorable mentions: Paul Sand, Ronny Cox, Henry Darrow, Steve Landesberg

Supporting Cast

Sarah Jane Smith: Cindy Williams

Harry Sullivan: Ken Howard

Hilda Winters: Diana Muldaur

Barry Newman‘s breakout performance as the brash, gonzo attorney Tony Petrocelli in The Lawyer (with Doctor Who costar Diana Muldaur) won him the role of the fourth Doctor. Newman was set to reprise his role for the 1974 television series Petrocelli, but was replaced at the last minute by Tom Baker, a construction worker and personal friend of show consultant F. Lee Bailey. Disappointed, Sidney J. Furie (who directed The Lawyer) strongly encouraged Newman to audition for Doctor Who. Newman won the role with his unique combination of madness, humor and conviction.

Cindy Williams seemed born to play Sarah Jane Smith, but it almost didn’t happen. In 1973, producers originally cast Gretchen Corbett when Elaine Giftos left the role of Jo Grant. Allegedly the pairing of Garner’s Doctor and Corbett’s Sarah Jane didn’t work. (Williams’ close friend Elisabeth Sladen said that Garner “likes to impose himself physically on smaller women“.) Based on an enthusiastic recommendation from American Graffiti producer Francis Ford Coppola, the role was quickly re-cast to Williams.

Ken Howard won the regular role of Captain Mike Yates in 1971, but couldn’t accept due to a prior commitment. (That role eventually went to British actor Ian Marter.) Producers remembered Howard, giving him a supporting role in 1973’s “Carnival of Monsters“. The following year, Howard won the role of Harry Sullivan, a character developed when it looked like the fourth Doctor would be played by an older actor who couldn’t handle action scenes. When the 36-year-old Barry Newman was cast, Harry was written out of the show after only one season.

Diana Muldaur was a busy character actor, juggling various movie and television roles. Doctor Who co-creator Gene Roddenberry personally encouraged her to audition. Muldaur worked well with Barry Newman a few years earlier in The Lawyer, but was heavily in demand and could only commit to a single episode. The role of Hilda Winters, leader of the Scientific Reform Society, was tailored for Muldaur’s desire to play a “modern, sympathetic but thoroughly evil villain”. Muldaur based part of her performance on Patricia Maynard‘s portrayal of Cora Munro in The Last of the Mohicans.

Back to the List