Jon Pertwee

Jon Pertwee

Pertwee at a Doctor Who Convention in Glasgow, March 1996
Born John Devon Roland Pertwee
(1919-07-07)7 July 1919
Chelsea, London
Died 20 May 1996(1996-05-20) (aged 76)
Sherman, Connecticut
Cause of death Heart Attack
Resting place Putney Vale Crematorium
Occupation Actor
Years active 1938–96
Notable work Doctor Who (1970–74)
Worzel Gummidge (1979–81, 1987–89)
Spouse(s) Jean Marsh (1955–60) (divorced)
Ingeborg Rhoesa (1960–96; his death)
Children Dariel Pertwee (born 1961)
Sean Pertwee (born 1964)
Parent(s) Roland Pertwee

John Devon Roland "Jon" Pertwee (7 July 1919[1] – 20 May 1996) was an English actor, entertainer and cabaret performer.

Pertwee is most known for starring as the Third Doctor in the science-fiction series Doctor Who between 1970 and 1974. Pertwee also spent 18 years (1959–1977) playing Chief petty officer Pertwee in The Navy Lark on BBC Radio. He later played the title character in the series Worzel Gummidge from 1979 to 1981, and again from 1987 to 1989.

As an actor, Pertwee appeared in many comedy roles and was once described as having "rubbery features and ability to affect silly voices".[2] Earlier in his career, Pertwee had worked as a vaudeville comedian, performed at the Glasgow Empire Theatre and shared a bill with Max Wall and Jimmy James.[3] Towards the end of his life, he performed to audiences in a one-man show called Who Is Jon Pertwee?.[4]

Biography

Personal life

Born in Chelsea, London, and having Huguenot ancestry (the name was an Anglicisation of "Perthuis"; the origins of his surname being "de Perthuis de Laillevault"),[5] Jon was the son of noted screenwriter and actor Roland Pertwee and distant cousin of actor Bill Pertwee.[6] Pertwee’s mother, Avice Scholtz, separated from his father Roland when Pertwee was young. His father remarried, and his mother found a new partner, with whom Pertwee did not build a relationship.[7] Avice’s sister Daphne married Captain Philip Cecil Clowes [8] and became the mother of Pertwee's cousin, the writer St. John Legh Clowes (1907–1951). The actor Henry Ainley, a close friend of his father, was his godfather. Coincidentally, Ainley's son Anthony appeared as "The Master" – a renegade Time Lord who was "The Doctor's" greatest enemy – alongside Pertwee in the 1983 Doctor Who anniversary story The Five Doctors.

He was married twice. His first marriage was in 1955, to Jean Marsh,[9] whom he divorced in 1960; later that same year he married Ingeborg Rhoesa, born 1935.[10] Together they had two children, both of whom were to become actors: a daughter, Dariel, in 1961, and a son, Sean, in 1964.

Education

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 lavatory walls.[11]

Early career

During the Second World War, Pertwee spent six years in the Royal Navy.[12] He was a crew member of HMS Hood and was transferred off the ship for officer training shortly before she was sunk by the German battleship Bismarck,[6] losing all but three men in May 1941. Later, he was attached to the highly-secretive Naval Intelligence Division,[6] working alongside future James Bond author Ian Fleming, and reporting directly to Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, and Deputy Prime Minister, Clement Attlee. In an interview conducted in 1994 (but not published until 2013), he said, "I did all sorts. Teaching commandos how to use escapology equipment, compasses in brass buttons, secret maps in white cotton handkerchiefs, pipes you could smoke that also fired a .22 bullet. All sorts of incredible things."[13] During his time in the Navy, Pertwee woke up one morning after a drunken night out while in port to find a tattoo of a cobra on his right arm.

After the war, he made a name for himself as a comedy actor 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." On 15 November 1948, at the Wood Green Empire, he was billed as 'The Most Versatile Voice in Radio – Jon ("Tear 'em Up") Pertwee from the Radio Shows "Merry-go-Round" and "Up the Pole"'. 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 film Murder at the Windmill (1949).[14] In 1953, he played Charlie Sterling in Will Any Gentleman...?. Future Doctor Who actor William Hartnell was also in the film; he played Inspector Martin.

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 comedy film Ladies Who Do (1963). In 1966, Pertwee starred alongside Donald Sinden in the original West End production of the long-running comedy There's a Girl in My Soup and also appeared in four Carry On films: Carry On Cleo (1964, as the soothsayer), Carry On Cowboy (1965, as Sheriff Earp), Carry On Screaming! (1966, as Dr. Fettle), and Carry On Columbus (1992, as the Duke of Costa Brava). In 1967 Pertwee had been producer David Croft's choice for the role of Captain George Mainwaring in Dad's Army but turned it down – possibly because he preferred to extend his role on Broadway in There's a Girl in My Soup.[15]

His television career had started off with small parts in children's shows featuring Richard Hearne's Mr Pastry character. 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".

Doctor Who (1970–1974)

In 1969, Pertwee, age 50, was selected by outgoing producer Peter Bryant and the series' next producer Derrick Sherwin 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. He was the second choice for the role; Ron Moody was the first but was unavailable.[16] 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 early 1970 to mid-1974, a longer stint than either of his predecessors in the role, William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton, although the Pertwee era of Doctor Who 'only' had 128 episodes compared to the Hartnell era having had 136 episodes, as the BBC relaxed its shooting schedule from 39–45 episodes per season to 25–26 episodes per season at the start of Pertwee's tenure as Doctor Who.

Pertwee credited his performance as the Third Doctor for helping him work out exactly who he really was when he was not resorting to comedic disguises or voices: a dapper, technologically oriented man of action. This was because Terrance Dicks had advised him to act out the Third Doctor as himself: in effect, to "play Jon Pertwee." Pertwee remembered asking himself, when so advised, "Now who in the hell is that?" His performances, he said in his later years, helped him to determine the answer to that question.

He had one of his most memorable film roles in the Amicus horror compendium The House That Dripped Blood (1971). Filming 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, an arrogant horror film star who meets his doom thanks to a genuine vampire cloak.

In 1973, during the peak of his Doctor Who powers, Pertwee endorsed the Co-op's Baking Your Cake and Eating it, a recipe book written by Sarah Charles.[17] It has been given the unofficial title of The Jon Pertwee Recipe Book.

In early 1974, Pertwee announced he would step down as the Doctor 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 (The Master) and the departures of co-star Katy Manning and producer Barry Letts. His last full-time appearance in the series was in the story Planet of the Spiders in June 1974, which finished with Tom Baker replacing him in the role. Although ratings for the series rose higher under his successor, who overtook him in popularity and became widely viewed as the definitive Doctor,[18] Pertwee's tenure in Doctor Who has been praised by The Daily Telegraph critic Dr. Tim Stanley as "the high point of the programme as a serious piece of science-fiction".[2]

Pertwee later reprised the role in the 20th anniversary story The Five Doctors and the Children in Need story Dimensions in Time, in two radio adventures and on stage in Doctor Who – The Ultimate Adventure. On 14 April 1971, Pertwee was the subject of Thames Television's This Is Your Life.

Worzel Gummidge

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 using 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 TV 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 played the title character in Worzel Gummidge, the musical, book and lyrics by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall, music by Denis King, which opened at London's Cambridge Theatre in December 1981, co-starring Una Stubbs and Geoffrey Bayldon. Pertwee also recorded an album, Worzel Gummidge Sings,[19] as well as a Christmas single.

Other roles

In 1976, Pertwee voiced and appeared in the television advertisement which promoted the Green Cross Code by use of the mnemonic "SPLINK". Also in 1976, Pertwee starred with Australian actress Julie Anthony in a West End production of the musical IRENE (originally 1919, revived Broadway 1973), playing the camp fashion-designer "Madame Lucy" (originally Liam O'Dougherty). The production opened at the Adelphi Theatre, London and enjoyed a long run of over 900 performances: Pertwee features on the cast recording album, produced by Norman Newell for EMI Records (EMC3139). He 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". In 1975 he played a memorable role of 'The Colonel' in the children's film One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing .

Later life

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. He also presented the Doctor Who video releases The Troughton Years (showcasing selected surviving episodes of otherwise wiped stories) and The Pertwee Years (a look back at his time on the show, with his three selected episodes) in the early 1990s.

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', but believed if it did come back a lot more money would need to be spent on the series along with a new production team. 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 April 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 will complete him. Pertwee's scenes in that role are the only pieces of the video that have been released (on the DVD of The War Games). Also in 1995, Pertwee starred in a one-man show called Who Is Jon Pertwee?.[4]

Pertwee's final film role was in a short film entitled 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 in the closing moments 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'.

Death and legacy

Pertwee continued on the Doctor Who convention circuit, and with his voice and television acting, until his death; he died in his sleep from a heart attack in Connecticut on 20 May 1996, at the age of 76. Some reports place the location of his death in New York City. He was survived by his wife Ingeborg Rhoesa, his son Sean Pertwee, a popular and talented actor, and his daughter Dariel Pertwee, an accomplished stage actress. His immediate successor in the starring role of Doctor Who, Tom Baker, paid tribute, saying: "I am very sorry to hear the news. I was a great admirer of such a stylish actor."[20] Another of his successors in the role, Colin Baker, said: "He was a man of such presence and stature. I can't believe he has gone – it is a great shock. Of all of the interpretations of the Doctors his was the most straight in terms of avoiding comedy."[20] His body was cremated at Putney Vale Crematorium with a toy Worzel Gummidge affixed to the coffin, following the instructions in his will.[21][22]

His death was just six days after 14 May 1996 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 this television film, on 27 May 1996, 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 used 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 the fan-produced Doctor Who film Devious, portions of which were recorded just prior to his death.

Pertwee had written two autobiographies: Moon Boots and Dinner Suits (published in 1984),[6] 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, which was worked on from April 1995 until 8 May 1996 (published in November 1996 by Virgin Publishing Ltd. under the Doctor Who Books imprint 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.

Archival footage of Pertwee has been used several times in the revived Doctor Who. Footage appears in "The Next Doctor" when the Tenth Doctor shows Jackson Lake an infostamp about himself, and in "The Eleventh Hour" when the Eleventh Doctor rhetorically asks the Atraxi how previous alien invasion attempts were stopped. Footage of Pertwee was used in "The Name of the Doctor" to depict his Doctor interacting with a version of Clara Oswald, and in "The Day of the Doctor" to depict the Third Doctor assisting his other incarnations in sending Gallifrey to a pocket universe to protect it from the Daleks.

Several figurines of Pertwee's Dr Who have been released as part of the Doctor Who toy range.[23]

Discography

Cover of the 1972 ""Who is the Doctor" single (1983 re-issue by the BBC)

Filmography

Film

Year Title Role Notes
1938A Yank at OxfordUncredited
1939The Four Just MenRally campaigner
1948Trouble in the AirTruelove
A Piece of CakeMr. Short
William Comes to TownCircus Superintendent
1949Murder at the WindmillDetective Sergeant(as Jon Pertwer)
Helter SkelterHeadwaiter / Charles II
Dear Mr. ProhackPlover
Miss Pilgrim's ProgressPostman Perkins
1950The Body Said No!Watchman
1951Mister Drake's DuckReuben
1953Will Any Gentleman...?Charley Sterling
1954The Gay DogA Betting Man
1955A Yank in ErmineSlowburn Jenks
1956It's a Wonderful WorldConductor
1959The Ugly DucklingVictor Jekyll
1960Just JoePrendergast
Not a Hope in HellDan
1961Nearly a Nasty AccidentGen. Birkinshaw
1963Ladies Who DoSidney Tait
1964Carry On CleoSoothsayer
1965How to Undress in Public Without Undue EmbarrassmentUncredited
You Must Be Joking!Storekeeper (Hare Factory)
1966Carry On CowboySheriff Albert Earp
I've Gotta HorseCostumier's assistant
Carry On Screaming!Doctor Fettle
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the ForumCrassus
Runaway RailwayStation Master
1969Up in the AirFigworthy
1970No. 1 of the Secret ServiceThe Rev. Walter Braithwaite
I UnderstandUncreditedShort
1971The House That Dripped BloodPaul Henderson (segment 4 "The Cloak")
1975One of Our Dinosaurs Is MissingColonel
1977Wombling FreeWomble(voice)
Adventures of a Private EyeJudd Blake
1978The Water BabiesSalmon / Kraken(voice)
1982The Boys in BlueCoastguard
1992Carry On ColumbusDuke of Costa Brava
1994Cloud CuckooGrandfatherShort

Television

Year Title Role Notes
1947The wandering JewBoemond, Prince of TarentumTV movie
Toad of Toad HallThe JudgeTV movie
1958IvanhoePeter the PeddlerEpisode: "The Swindler"
1959GlencannonChampagne CharlieEpisode: "Champagne Charlie"
1963The Dickie Henderson ShowUncreditedEpisode: "The Hypnotist"
1965A Sight Case of...UncreditedEpisode: "The Enemy Within"
Mother GooseThe SquireTV movie
1966David Nixon's Comedy BandboxGuest1 episode
1966–1967JackanoryStoryteller10 episodes
1967The AvengersBrigadier WhiteheadEpisode: "From Venus with Love"
Beggar My NeighbourMajor Henley1 episode
1970–1974Doctor WhoThe Doctor128 episodes
1975The GoodiesReverend Llewellyn
Llewellyn Llewellyn
Llewellyn
Episode: "Wacky Wales"
1977Four Against the DesertStaffTV movie
1979–1981Worzel GummidgeWorzel Gummidge31 episodes
1982The Curious Case of Santa ClausDr. Merryweather
1982–1984SupertedSpottyman (voice)13 episodes
1983Doctor WhoThe DoctorEpisode: "The Five Doctors"
1984Deus Ex MachinaThe Storyteller (voice)Video game
1985Do You Know the Milkyway?Dr. NeurossTV movie
1987–1989Worzel Gummidge Down UnderWorzel Gummidge22 episodes
1989The Further Adventures of SuperTedSpottyman
(voice – UK version)
13 episodes
1992Virtual murderLuis SilveradoEpisode: "A Torch for Silverado"
1993Doctor Who: Dimensions in TimeThe DoctorTV short
The Airzone SolutionOliver ThretheweyVideo
1994The Zero ImperativeDr. Jeremiah O'KaneVideo
Myth Makers Vol. 7: Wendy PadburySpottymanVideo
1995DiscworldFool / Chucky / Windle Poons (voice)Video game
The Young Indiana Jones ChroniclesGeneral Von KramerEpisode: "Attack of the Hawkmen"
2015Lego DimensionsThe DoctorVideo game; archive sound

References

  1. GRO Register of Births: SEP 1919 1a 132 KENSINGTON – John D. R. Pertwee, mmn = Scholts
  2. 1 2 Doctor Who 50th anniversary: Jon Pertwee – the funkadelic master of Venusian karate. The Daily Telegraph. 7 November 2013. Retrieved 3 July 2014.
  3. Cult leader's mission to return to future . The Herald. 15 May 1989. Retrieved 3 July 2014.
  4. 1 2 Cabell, Craig (2013). The Doctors Who's Who: The Story Behind Every Face of the Iconic Time Lord. John Blake Publishing Ltd. ISBN 978-1782194712.
  5. An Hour with Jon Pertwee, broadcast by BBC7 on 30 March 2009
  6. 1 2 3 4 http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/545943/
  7. Interview ‘Mind of Evil’ DVD, released 2013.
  8. Essex 11
  9. GRO Register of Marriages: JUN 1955 5f 63 MIDDLESEX S. – Jon D. R. Pertwee = Jeann L. T. Marsh
  10. GRO Register of Marriages: SEP 1960 6a 1385 WYCOMBE – Jon D. R. Pertwee = Ingeborg R. Rhosa
  11. Tim Cooper, "Heart attack kills dandy Doctor Who", The Evening Standard, 20 May 1996
  12. Smurthwaite, Nick (20 May 1996). "Obituary: Jon Pertwee". The Independent. Retrieved 8 March 2016.
  13. Marc Horne "Double-O-Who? Jon Pertwee's secret life as a wartime agent... years before he did battle with the Daleks", maionline, 23 February 2013
  14. Windmill Theatre#Film depictions Windmill Theatre
  15. McCann, Graham (2001). Dad's Army: The Story of a Classic Television Show. 4th Estate. ISBN 9 781841 153094.
  16. BBC Radio 4 An Hour with Jon Pertwee
  17. http://braisedhearts.weebly.com/
  18. Lyons, Kevin (31 January 2014). "Tom Baker: the definitive Doctor Who?". BFI. Retrieved 15 September 2015.
  19. http://www.discogs.com/Jon-Pertwee-Featuring-Una-Stubbs-Geofrey-Bayldon-Worzel-Gummidge-Sings/release/2512483
  20. 1 2 "Former Dr Who, actor Jon Pertwee dies". The Irish Times. 21 May 1996.
  21. Hewitt, Nik. "Jon Pertwee: Obituary – ThisIsAnnouncements". Lastingtribute.co.uk. Archived from the original on 24 February 2012. Retrieved 22 April 2012.
  22. "Jon Pertwee – Biography".
  23. http://doctorwhotoys.net/thirddoctor.htm
  24. Archived 25 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine.
  25. Worzel Gummidge at Nostalgia Central
  26. Chart Stats – Jon Pertwee – Worzel's Song
  27. Chart Stats – BBC cast – Doctor Who the paradise of death
  28. "Deus Ex Machina". World of Spectrum.

External links

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