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David Graham (actor)

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David Graham
Graham in 2016
Born (1925-07-11) 11 July 1925 (age 99)
London, England
OccupationActor
Years active1952–present
Known for

David Graham (born 11 July 1925) is an English actor. He is best known for voicing the Daleks in Doctor Who, Gordon Tracy, Brains, Aloysius Parker and Kyrano in Thunderbirds and Grandpa Pig in Peppa Pig.

Life and career

Graham was born in London on 11 July 1925.[1][2] His sister had married a G.I. and had moved to the United States, and his uncle had run away there, and so he became an actor after leaving his Orthodox Jewish household. He trained in New York City, at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre with Sanford Meisner,[3] following service in the Royal Air Force as a radar mechanic.[4]

He returned to England and began his theatre career, his breakout role being as Givola in The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, alongside Leonard Rossiter. A friend of his, actor Christopher Benjamin, recommended the role to him. He was then recommended by director Michael Blakemore to audition for Laurence Olivier's theatre company,[3] eventually appearing alongside him in Saturday Sunday Monday, using an Italian accent.[1]

While playing characters in TV series Private Investigator[3][5] in 1958, Graham met writer and producer Gerry Anderson, who was planning his first puppet productions. Graham said that he could pull off accents well, which led to his first voiceover role in Four Feather Falls, as Grandpa Twink, who he based on Walter Brennan.[2] He would subsequently voice Dr. Beaker, Zarin and Mitch the Monkey in Supercar, Mat Matic and Lieutenant Ninety in Fireball XL5 and various guest characters in Stingray. Graham would also play Johnny in Crossroads to Crime, a live-action film Anderson directed.

In 1963, he became the voice of the Daleks in Doctor Who, alongside Peter Hawkins, who devised the way they spoke.[6] He believed Hawkins would always play superior and higher-pitched Daleks, while he voiced with a lower-pitch. He voiced the Daleks in all four of their major First Doctor era appearances, as well as two 1960s feature films: Dr. Who and the Daleks and Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D., departing due to other commitments,[2] although he and Hawkins would remain lifelong friends.[7] Graham also voiced the Mechanoids and played the onscreen role of Charlie in The Gunfighters. He returned to his role as the voice of the Daleks in 2023, when he recorded new lines for that year's official colourised recut of the 1963 serial The Daleks for the show's 60th anniversary.[8]

In 1965, Graham became the voices of Gordon Tracy, Brains, Aloysius Parker and Kyrano in Thunderbirds, as well as its film sequels: Thunderbirds Are Go and Thunderbird 6. He did not believe Brains had a stutter, claiming that he was instead trying to find the words to explain his latest ideas excitedly. He based the voice of Parker off of a waiter at the King’s Arms pub in Cookham, and he and Ray Barrett shared many of the guest villains. Although he was not highly paid for production, the many repeats earned him a lot more,[3] and Parker became Anderson’s favourite voice.[9]

Between 1975 and 1977, Graham was part of the Radio Drama Company.[10] In 1979, he played Professor Kerensky in the Doctor Who story City of Death. He, later, played the role of Big Brother in the "1984" television Super Bowl advert to introduce the Apple Macintosh computer.[11] before reuniting with Hawkins and his wife, Rosemary Miller, to provide voices together in the English dub of German animated film Stowaways on the Ark. In 2004, Graham became the voice of Grandpa Pig in Peppa Pig, having known creator Mark Baker from when he was younger.[12] The following year[13] he played Albert Einstein in a Horizon docudrama, for which he was very proud that the BBC would select him to play the lead role.[3]

In 2009,[14] Graham began playing Edward Elgar in Stirring the Spirit, for which he thoroughly researched the composer,[3] and would reprise the role many times over the next decade. From 2015 to 2020, he reprised his role as Parker in Thunderbirds Are Go, a computer-animated reboot of the original series. Although Kayvan Novak took over as Brains, Graham had wanted to reprise that role as well. Most of his dialogue was recorded with Rosamund Pike, who played Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward.[15]

In April 2021, Graham announced his retirement from his Thunderbirds characters.[16] In December, actor George Layton, a longtime friend of Graham's, announced on Twitter that Graham had suffered a stroke six months earlier and was unable to leave his home in London. However, Layton stated that Graham was recovering by performing voice-overs of his characters,[17][18] and he has since conducted interviews from his home.[19]

Filmography

Year Title Role Notes
1957 O.S.S. Pilot Episode 14 “Operation Yo-Yo”
1958-1959 Private Investigator Luis d’Crux

Shakespeare

3 episodes
1959 Dial 999 Meaker

Vince

Radio Operator

3 episodes
1960 Four Feather Falls Grandpa Twink

Fernando

39 episodes
Crossroads to Crime Johnny Film
1961-1962 Supercar Dr. Beaker

Zarin

Mitch the Monkey

39 episodes
1962 K.I.L. 1 Alvero Beda Film
1962-1963 Fireball XL5 Mat Matic

Lieutenant Ninety

39 episodes
1963 The Avengers Producer Episode “Man in the Mirror”
1963-1979, 2023 Doctor Who Dalek voices

Mechanoid voices

Charlie

Professor Kerensky

36 episodes[a]
1964 The Saint Ahmed

Juan Gamma

2 episodes
1964-1965 Stingray Various 39 episodes
1965 Danger Man Detective Episode 17 “The Affair at Castelevara”
The Pleasure Girls First Gambler Film
Dr. Who and the Daleks Daleks Film, uncredited
1965-1966 Thunderbirds Gordon Tracy

Brains

Parker

Kyrano

32 episodes
1966 Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. Daleks Film, uncredited
Thunderbirds Are Go Gordon Tracy

Brains

Parker

Film
1968 Thunderbird 6 Gordon Tracy

Brains

Parker

Film
1969 The Secret Service King of Muldovia

Air Traffic Controller

Lord Edward Hazelwell

2 episodes, uncredited
1970-1971 Timeslip 2957 7 episodes
1971 Freelance General Film
1972 Ace of Wands Landlord Episode “The Meddlers: Part 1”, uncredited
1976-1981 When the Boat Comes In Kaganovich

Morty Black

3 episodes
1985 King David Ephraimite Elder Film
1988 Stowaways on the Ark Brown Bear Film, English version
1989 Screen One Malcolm Druce Episode 3 “The Accountant”
1990-1991 Moomin Snork English version, 77 episodes
1992-1994 So Haunt Me Mr. Bloom 13 episodes
2004-2021 Peppa Pig Grandpa Pig

Mr. Zebra

Father Christmas

65 episodes
2005 Horizon Albert Einstein Episode “Einstein’s Unfinished Symphony”
2008 Back in Ten Janis Film
2009 The End Ernest Samson Film
2009-2012 Ben and Holly’s Little Kingdom Wise Old Elf

Mr. Gnome

47 episodes
2015 Peppa Pig: The Golden Boots Grandpa Pig

Mr. Zebra

Film
2015-2020 Thunderbirds Are Go Parker

Vic

Malloy

40 episodes

References

  1. ^ Including the 2023 recut of the 1963 serial The Daleks.
  1. ^ a b Graham, David (12 July 2015). "About David Graham". Archived from the original on 20 January 2021. Retrieved 31 December 2020. [...] yesterday was my birthday [...]
  2. ^ a b c Graham, David (8 June 2017). "Voiceover". Archived from the original on 20 January 2021. Retrieved 30 December 2023. The year of my birth was 1925.
  3. ^ a b c d e f "Ned Cook's NTBS Newsflash (November-December 2012)" (PDF). Retrieved 4 August 2023.
  4. ^ "Thunderbirds Are Go: Meet the man behind Parker - and also Grandpa Pig, the Daleks and Joseph Goebbels". Retrieved 4 August 2023.
  5. ^ "David Graham - Avengers Forever". Retrieved 4 August 2023.
  6. ^ Talking Daleks. The Dalek Invasion of Earth DVD
  7. ^ Hawkins, Silas (October 2014). "Voices-Voices-Voices!". Doctor Who Magazine (477). Panini Comics: 66.
  8. ^ Cormack, Morgan (9 November 2023). "Doctor Who's The Daleks restoration to feature new material from Russell T Davies". Radio Times. Retrieved 5 December 2023.
  9. ^ "Thunderbirds Are Go is back on Amazon Prime Video 11/9/16". Retrieved 5 August 2023.
  10. ^ Graham, David. "Radio". Archived from the original on 20 January 2021. Retrieved 4 August 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  11. ^ Graham, David. "Film". David Graham Official Site. Archived from the original on 12 June 2021. Retrieved 30 December 2023.
  12. ^ "David Graham on Doing the Voice for Thunderbirds' Parker for 50 Years". Retrieved 4 August 2023.
  13. ^ Graham, David. "Television". Archived from the original on 20 January 2021. Retrieved 4 August 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  14. ^ Graham, David. "Theatre". Archived from the original on 20 January 2021. Retrieved 4 August 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  15. ^ "Fanderson - The Thunderbirds Are Go Interviews Part 2: Parker, Brains and the Hood". Retrieved 4 August 2023.
  16. ^ "Thunderbirds is back!". Big Finish Productions. 11 April 2021. Retrieved 3 May 2022.
  17. ^ Layton, George [@Thegeorgelayton] (8 December 2021). "With my dear friend, actor David Graham. You might know him better as 'Parker' from Thunderbirds, 'Grandpa Pig' & was one of the original Dalek voices. He had a stroke six months ago and can't get out. But this young 96-year-old is making a great recovery doing voice work from home!" (Tweet). Retrieved 3 May 2022 – via Twitter.
  18. ^ Russell, Lauren (17 February 2022). "David Graham health: Doctor Who star, 96, suffered from a stroke". Express.co.uk. Archived from the original on 15 August 2022. Retrieved 29 December 2023.
  19. ^ SCALEXTRIC | Exclusive Interview with David Graham!, retrieved 22 December 2023
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