Let's Discuss (the men behind) The Doctor: William Hartnell

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William Henry Hartnell is probably most well known as the actor chosen to play the very first incarnation of time traveling Time Lord The Doctor on the BBC television show Doctor Who. Even so, his career spans many years and many other roles. He was well known for his role as Sergeant Grimshaw the main role in the film Carry on Sergeant in 1958, and played a similar role as Sergeant Major Percy Bullmore in the telvision show The Army Game from 1957 until 1958 and then reprised the role in 1960. However his career started much before that in 1925. He began working in the theatre under Frank Benson as a stagehand. He (like a lot of the actors who have played The Doctor) appeared in many Shakespeare plays including Hamlet, As You Like It and Macbeth. He got his first of more than sixty film roles in the 1932 film Say It With Music. Acting wasn't the only thing his entertainment career included. He also was featured in radio work including the 1931 radio production of Chinese Moon Party on BBC radio. Hartnell served in the British Army as part of the Tank Corps. He was invalided out after just eighteen months after suffering a nervous breakdown. After recovering he returned to acting. In 1942 he was cast in the movie In Which we Serve, but turned up late the first day of shooting. The director yelled at and berated Harnell in front of the rest of the cast and crew and made him apologize for his actions and then fired him from the picture. Verity Lambert the producer of what would become Doctor Who saw Hartnell's perfomance in The Sporting Life and offered him the role based on the performance. Hartnell was uncertain about being a part of a basically unknown tv show after his roles and successes in films, especially because it was pitched to him as a children's series. Lambert along with director Waris Hussein convinced him to take the part and Hartnell later say he accepted the part because it would take away from the gruff military roles that he had become known for. He became to relish the attention he got from children, especially the closer relationship it gave him to his two grandchildren. He portrayed the Time Lord from 1963 to 1966. It is widespread that he was difficult to work with. Things had to be his way and a very certain way at that. Although some actors and producers spoke of him with love and admiration. Hartnell's health began declining and it begun to affect his ability to learn and remember lines. He suffered from arteriosclerosis. After Verity Lambert left the show, Hartnell didn't get along with the new team and all of this made for his exit from the show. There are a number of Hartnell's episodes that are missing from the BBC archives due to a purge at the BBC in the seventies. Portraying the Time Lord on television was not the only roles Harntell had in the Who universe. He appeared in the Doctor Who audio story Pier Pressure which is a Sxith Doctor adventure. In the 50th Anniversary special An Adventure of Space in Time he is portrayed by David Bradley. He reprised his role as the Doctor in the tenth anniversary story The Three Doctors. His wife was worried about his ability to remember and do his lines, and an agreement was made that he could rest as often as possible while filming and he could read his lines from cue cards. It seems fitting that the man who was the first Doctor's last role was in this film. Hartnell's health had declined during the early seventies and in 1974 he was admitted to a hospital permanently. The next year after suffering a series of strokes he died in his sleep of heart failure on April 23rd 1975. There is one published biography of him, which was written by his grand daughter Judith and it is titled "Who's There? The Life and Career of William Hartnell." It was originally published in 1996, but there was a revised and republished version of the book that came out in 2013 coinciding with the 50th anniversary.