Biography

Bernard Cribbins

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Born in Oldham, Lancashire, he got interested in acting through his father who was an amateur actor. It was thus no surprise that he should take part in school plays, particularly during drama festivals. He left school at 13thirteen and was offered the part of Ash in a play at Oldham Rep where the female juvenile lead was Dora Broadbent, who would become better known as Dora Bryan. Bernard did his National Service in the Parachute Regiment in Palastine in 1947. On being demobbed, he returned to Oldham Rep, appearing in such as A Streetcar Named Desire. He left in 1952 and joined the troupe at Weston Super Mare for two years, then moved to a company in Manchester. By 1955, he had married actress Gillian Charles and appeared in London's West End in Salad Days. He made his film debut in 1957 in Yangtse Incident, then was back in the West End spending a year in the comedy Not Now Darling. He recorded a couple of songs from the show which sold some 20.000 copies, persuading EMI to record him singing A Hole in the Ground. His favourite role was as Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls at the National Theatre in 1982. He had heart by pass in 1998.
- IMDb mini biography by: Tonyman 5

Aged 79 when he made his first appearance as Mott, he is the oldest actor to have played a credited companion on Doctor Who (1963) or Doctor Who (2005).
He served in the Parachute Regiment, the British Army's airborne assault force, in 1947, as his National Service.
He is the only actor to appear in both the "Doctor Who" feature film Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (1966) and the revived television series, Doctor Who (2005).
He was awarded the OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in 2011 Queen's Birthday Honours List for his services to drama.
He has a longstanding association with the science-fiction series Doctor Who (1963). Not only did he play a companion in the second Peter Cushing film, Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (1966), 40 years before his regular role as a companion, Wilfred Mott, in the Russell T. Davies version of Doctor Who (2005), he had also been interviewed for the role of the Doctor in 1974 by Barry Letts.

[on Doctor Who (1963)] I didn't actually audition. But when Jon Pertwee was leaving, producer Barry Letts--who died quite recently--interviewed a lot of actors, one of whom was me. I went along and sat down and he said, "Now, then, what can you do?" I said, "I'm a very good swimmer, I was a paratrooper, I could fight"--and he said, "Oh no, no fighting no, the Doctor is never seen fighting at all!" So Tom Baker became the next Doctor, and one of the first things I remember him doing was knocking somebody out.
[on being awarded the OBE] Gobsmacked! You can't go through life expecting to get prizes. You just get on with things, which is how it should be.
"Do your best and be grateful for every single job" - advice that he gives in his autobiography "Bernard Who? 75 Years Of Doing Absolutely Everything", published in 2018.