David Tennant

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David Tennant
Birth name David John McDonald
Born April 18, 1971 (age 35)
Bathgate, West Lothian, Scotland
Official site David-Tennant.com
Notable roles The Doctor in Doctor Who

David Tennant, the stage name of David John McDonald, (born 18 April 1971) is a Scottish television, film and stage actor from Bathgate in West Lothian, best known as the tenth actor to portray the Doctor in the television series Doctor Who.

Already a well-known theatre actor, Tennant achieved wider fame for his TV roles in Casanova and Doctor Who, as well as his film role as Barty Crouch Jr in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Contents

Tennant was born in Bathgate, West Lothian, but grew up in Ralston, Renfrewshire, where his father (the Reverend Alexander (Sandy) McDonald) was the local Church of Scotland minister (and Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1997). Tennant was educated at Ralston Primary, Paisley Grammar School, and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama where he was friends with Louise Delamere.

At the age of three, Tennant told his parents that he wanted to become an actor because he was mad about Doctor Who. Although such an aspiration might have been common for any British child of the 1970s, Tennant says he was "absurdly single-minded" in pursuing his goal. He adopted the professional name "Tennant" — inspired by Neil Tennant, the lead singer of the Pet Shop Boys[1] — because there was another David McDonald already on the books of the actors' union Equity.

Tennant as Barty Crouch Jr in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Tennant as Barty Crouch Jr in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Tennant's first professional role upon graduating from drama school was in a staging of The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui co-starring Ashley Jensen, one of several plays in which he performed as part of agitprop 7:84 Theatre Company.

Moving to London in the early 1990s, Tennant lodged with comic actress and writer Arabella Weir, with whom he became close friends and then godfather to one of her children. He has subsequently appeared alongside Weir in many productions; as a guest in her spoof television series, Posh Nosh; in the Doctor Who audio drama Exile and as panelists on the West Wing Ultimate Quiz on More4.

Tennant developed his career in the British theatre, frequently performing with the Royal Shakespeare Company for whom he specialised in comic roles such as Touchstone in As You Like It, Antipholus of Syracuse in The Comedy of Errors (a role he recorded for the 1998 Arkangel Complete Shakespeare production of the play) and Captain Jack Absolute in The Rivals, although he also played the tragic role of Romeo in Romeo and Juliet.

In 1995, Tennant appeared at the Royal National Theatre, London, playing the role of Nicholas Beckett in Joe Orton's What the Butler Saw. Future Doctor Who performers Richard Wilson and Debra Gillett (The Idiot's Lantern) were also in the cast (as were John Alderton and Nicola Pagett), whilst the plot required Tennant to appear near-naked on stage.

Tennant appeared in several high-profile dramas for the BBC, including Takin' Over the Asylum (1994), He Knew He Was Right (2004), Blackpool (2004), Casanova (2005) and The Quatermass Experiment (2005). In film, he has appeared in Stephen Fry's Bright Young Things, and as Barty Crouch Jr. in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. One of his earliest big screen roles was in Jude (1996), in which he shared a scene with his Doctor Who predecessor Christopher Eccleston, playing a drunken undergraduate who challenges Eccleston's Jude to prove his intellect.

Tennant as the Tenth Doctor in Doctor Who.
Tennant as the Tenth Doctor in Doctor Who.

Tennant's name was put forward as a possible candidate for the role of the Ninth Doctor for the new series that began in March 2005, although the role eventually went to Christopher Eccleston. With Eccleston's announcement on 30 March that he would not be returning for a second series, the BBC confirmed Tennant as his replacement in a press release on 16 April. He made his first, brief appearance in the episode The Parting of the Ways (2005) after the regeneration scene, and also appeared in a special 7-minute mini-episode shown as part of the 2005 Children in Need appeal, broadcast on 18 November 2005.

He began filming the new series of Doctor Who in late July 2005. His first full-length outing as the Doctor was a sixty-minute special, The Christmas Invasion, first broadcast on Christmas Day 2005. He was also seen in early December in the ITV drama Secret Smile.

Tennant has expressed enthusiasm about fulfilling his childhood dream. He remarked to an interviewer for GWR FM, "Who wouldn't want to be the Doctor? I've even got my own TARDIS!" In 2006, readers of Doctor Who Magazine voted Tennant "Best Doctor", over perennial favourite Tom Baker.[2]

Tennant had previously had a small role in the BBC's animated Doctor Who webcast Scream of the Shalka. Not originally cast in the production, Tennant happened to be recording a radio play in a neighbouring studio, and when he discovered what was being recorded next door managed to convince the director to give him a small role. This personal enthusiasm for the series had also been expressed by his participation in several audio plays based on the Doctor Who television series which had been produced by Big Finish Productions, although he did not play the Doctor in any of these productions. In 2004 Tennant played a lead role in the Big Finish audio play series Dalek Empire III. He played the part of Galanar, a young man who is given an assignment to discover the secrets of the Daleks. In 2005, he starred in UNIT: The Wasting for Big Finish, recreating his role of Brimmicombe-Wood from a Doctor Who Unbound play Sympathy for the Devil. He also played an unnamed Time Lord in another Doctor Who Unbound play Exile. UNIT: The Wasting, was recorded between Tennant getting the role of the Doctor and it being announced. He also played the title role in Big Finish's adaptation of Bryan Talbot's The Adventures of Luther Arkwright (2005). In 2006 he recorded abridged audio books of The Stone Rose by Jacqueline Rayner, The Feast of the Drowned by Stephen Cole and The Resurrection Casket by Justin Richards.

Tennant has confirmed that he will continue to play the Tenth Doctor at least into the revived programme's third series in 2007,[3] and the Sun has reported that he has also signed for the fourth (2008) series, "in a £1 million deal", although the same paper has also reported that he will leave halfway through the fourth series.[4] The BBC has denied this[5] while the Daily Mirror has reported (citing unidentified sources) that Tennant has signed to appear for the complete fourth series.[6]

The Daily Mirror has also reported that Tennant is forbidden from attending Doctor Who fan conventions while he is playing the role.[7]

He said at the Children in Need concert that his favourite Doctor Who episode is Genesis of the Daleks.

Tennant as Giacomo Casanova in Casanova
Tennant as Giacomo Casanova in Casanova

Tennant's casting in Doctor Who has not prevented him from taking on other roles. In January 2006, Tennant took a one-day break from shooting Doctor Who to play Richard Hoggart in a dramatisation of the 1960 Lady Chatterley's Lover obscenity trial, The Chatterley Affair. The play is by Andrew Davies and directed by Doctor Who's James Hawes for digital television channel BBC Four. Hoggart's son Simon Hoggart praised Tennant's performance in The Guardian newspaper. "[E]xtremely convincing — the suit, the hair, the Yorkshire accent, and trickiest of all, the speech rhythms. The only thing wrong is his sideburns. To do this film he had to take 24 hours off from making Doctor Who in Cardiff and, as he explained, the sideburns would not grow back in a day."[8]

On 25 February 2007, Tennant starred in Recovery, a 90-minute BBC1 drama written by Tony Marchant. Tennant played Alan, a self-made building site manager who attempted to rebuild his life after suffering a debilitating brain injury.

In December 2005, The Stage newspaper listed Tennant at #6 in its "Top Ten" listing of the most influential UK television artists of the year, citing his roles in Blackpool, Casanova, Secret Smile and Doctor Who.[9] In January 2006, readers of the British gay and lesbian newspaper The Pink Paper voted Tennant the "Sexiest Man in the Universe" over David Beckham and Brad Pitt.[10] A poll of over 10,000 women for the March 2006 issue of New Woman magazine ranked him 20th in their list of the "Top 100 Men".[11] In October 2006, Tennant was named as "Scotland's most stylish male" in the Scottish Style Awards.[12]

As of 2006, Tennant was dating actress Sophia Myles, who appeared with him in the Doctor Who episode The Girl in the Fireplace as Madame de Pompadour. They started dating after filming in October 2005.[13]

Tennant traced his family tree in an episode of BBC One's popular genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are?, broadcast on 27 September 2006. His episode explored both his Scottish ancestry and that from Northern Ireland, against the backdrop of the Troubles in the latter. Tennant's maternal great-great-grandfather, James Blair, was a prominent Ulster Unionist member of Derry City Council after the partition of Ireland.[14]

According to an interview in issue 375 of Doctor Who Magazine, Tennant drives a Škoda in which he was caught twice on the same day on the M4 for speeding while returning to London from Cardiff in October 2006.[15]

  • Theatre Management Association Best Actor Award: The Glass Menagerie
  • 2000 — Nominated for Ian Charleson Award (Best classical actor under 30): Comedy of Errors
  • 2003 — Nominated for Olivier Award as Best Actor: Lobby Hero
  • 2005 — Critics Award for Theatre in Scotland, Best Male Performance: Jimmy Porter in Look Back in Anger
  • 2006 — TV Quick and TV Choice Award, Best Actor: Doctor Who[16]
  • 2006 - National Television Award, Best Actor: Doctor Who
  • 2006 - Best Doctor, Doctor Who Magazine Awards[2]

  1. ^ Shannon, Sarah. "David Tennant: His days of blissful anonymity are numbered", The Independent, 2005-12-07.
  2. ^ a b "David Tennant named 'best Dr Who'", BBC News, 2006-12-06. Retrieved on 2007-02-25.
  3. ^ Dermody, Nick. "Third series for Dr Who and Rose", BBC, 2006-03-30. Retrieved on 2006-03-30.
  4. ^ Nathan, Sara. "Tennant to return as Doctor", The Sun, 2006-09-09. Retrieved on 2006-09-09.
  5. ^ "BBC denies Doctor 'quits' report", BBC, 2006-12-25. Retrieved on 2006-12-25.
  6. ^ Methven, Nicola. "The Million Pound Doctor", Daily Mirror, 2007-03-23. Retrieved on 2007-03-24.
  7. ^ Robertson, Cameron. "BEEB IN DR WHO FAN BAN", Daily Mirror, 2006-08-28. Retrieved on 2006-08-28.
  8. ^ Hoggart, Simon. "Alcoholic? Not the Kennedy I knew", The Guardian, 2006-01-14.
  9. ^ "The Stage 100 :: TV Ten", The Stage, 2005-12-29. Retrieved on 2006-01-03.
  10. ^ "Dr Who Voted Sexiest Gay Icon", GayNZ.com, 2006-01-17. Retrieved on 2006-01-18.
  11. ^ Arifa Akbar and Elisa Bray. "Introducing world's sexiest men: Bloom, Pitt...and Cameron", The Independent, 2006-02-02. Retrieved on 2006-02-02.
  12. ^ Ross, Shân. "Top Scots chosen for putting on the style", The Scotsman, 2006-10-28. Retrieved on 2007-01-24.
  13. ^ "Dr Who guest star quizzed", SFX.com, 2006-04-11. Retrieved on 2006-05-07.
  14. ^ "David Tennant". Producer - Lucy Carter. Who Do You Think You Are?. BBC One. 2006-09-27.
  15. ^ Todd, Ben. "Dr Whoosh", Sunday Mirror, 2006-11-05. Retrieved on 2007-02-25.
  16. ^ "Doctor Who lands three TV awards", BBC News, 2006-09-05. Retrieved on 2006-09-05.

Preceded by
Christopher Eccleston		 The Doctor
(Tenth Doctor)
2005 -		 Succeeded by
Incumbent
 v • d • e The Doctors
First Doctor (William Hartnell) | Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton)
Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee) | Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker)
Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison) | Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker)
Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) | Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann)
Ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) | Tenth Doctor (David Tennant)
Other Doctors
Cushing Doctor (Peter Cushing) | Shalka Doctor (Richard E. Grant)
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../d/a/v/David_Tennant_6de1.html"
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