William Russell (English actor)

For the American actor, see William Russell (American actor).

William Russell
File:Williamrussellatbafta1998.jpg William Russell celebrating the 35th anniversary of Doctor Who, BAFTA London, 1998
Born	William Russell Enoch (1924-11-19) 19 November 1924 Sunderland, County Durham, England
Other names	Russell Enoch
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1940–present
Known for	First male Doctor Who companion
Television	Doctor Who
Spouse(s)	Etheline Margareth Lewis Enoch (divorced) Balbina Gutierrez
Children	Alfred Enoch (born 1988)

William Russell Enoch (born 19 November 1924), better known as William Russell, is an English actor, mainly known for his television work. He was born in Sunderland, County Durham. He is probably best known for the role of companion Ian Chesterton in Doctor Who, from the show's first episode in 1963 until 1965.

Doctor Who

In 1963 he was cast in Doctor Who as the Doctor's first male companion, science teacher Ian Chesterton, appearing in most episodes of the first two seasons of the programme.

Russell was one of the four original cast members of Doctor Who, starring opposite William Hartnell as the Doctor, Jacqueline Hill as Barbara Wright, Carole Ann Ford as Susan Foreman and later Maureen O'Brien as Vicki. His first involvement in the series took the form of the untransmitted pilot episode, which was eventually reshot and broadcast as "An Unearthly Child". He eventually departed, alongside Hill, in the penultimate story of the second season, The Chase.

Russell has continued his association with Doctor Who, having lent his voice as a narrator to several of the audiobook releases of the lost 1960s episodes. He appeared in The Game, one of the continuing Doctor Who audio stories produced by Big Finish. He has also recorded readings for some of the CD audio adaptations of Doctor Who story novelisations originally published by Target Books.

In the late 1990s Russell returned to the role of Ian for the VHS release of the story The Crusade, of which the second and fourth episodes are lost. He recorded several in-character scenes to camera, which helped to bridge the gap between the existing episodes.

Russell has also contributed to the Doctor Who DVD range, having participated in several audio commentaries and on-screen interviews since 2002. In February 2012, he appeared at the Gallifrey One convention in Los Angeles, his second convention in the United States following an event in Chicago in 1993.

In 2013, the BBC produced An Adventure in Space and Time, a docudrama depicting the creation and early days of Doctor Who, as part of the programme's fiftieth anniversary celebrations. Russell appeared as a character in the drama, portrayed by actor Jamie Glover. Russell also had a cameo role in An Adventure in Space and Time playing a BBC security guard named Harry.

The same year, Russell portrayed both Ian and the First Doctor in the Big Finish audio play "The Light at the End", produced to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who.

Personal life

On 2 December 1988, Russell and his second wife, Balbina Gutierrez, had their first child Alfred Enoch, when he was 64 years old. Alfred is now an actor, known for portraying Dean Thomas in the Harry Potter film series and Wes Gibbins in the ABC legal drama How to Get Away with Murder.

Filmography

Film

Russell appeared in British films from 1950 onwards, appearing in well-known productions such as They Who Dare (1954), One Good Turn (1955), The Man Who Never Was (1956) and The Great Escape (1963). Later, he had minor roles in Terror (1978), Superman (1978) and Death Watch (1979) with Harvey Keitel and Harry Dean Stanton.

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1940	God Gave Him a Dog	Field Judge	Uncredited
1941	Virginia	Loafer	Uncredited
1952	Gift Horse	Crewman	As Russell Enoch
1953	The Saint's Return	Keith Merton	As Russell Enoch
	Malta Story	Officer in Prison	Uncredited
	Appointment in London	RAF Officer	Uncredited
1954	The Gay Dog	Leslie Gowland	As Russell Enoch
	Intimate Relations	Michael	As Enoch Russell
	They Who Dare	Lieut. Tom Poole	As Russell Enoch
1955	Above Us the Waves	Ramsey
	One Good Turn	Alec Bigley
1956	The Man Who Never Was	Joe
1957	The Big Chance	Joe
1958	The Adventures of Hal 5	The Vicar
1962	The Share Out	Mike Stafford
1963	The Great Escape	Sorren
	Return to Sender	Mike Cochrane
1978	Superman	8th Elder
	Terror	Lord Garrick
1980	Death Watch	Dr Mason	As William Russel
1981	Mark Gertler: Fragments of a Biography	Roger Fry
1989	The Kill-Off	Rags
1990	Deadly Manor	Alfred
1998	Mob Queen	Swede Carlson

Television

His big break was the title role in The Adventures of Sir Lancelot on ITV in 1956. Russell has acted in many plays and TV series including Disraeli, Testament of Youth and the part of Ted Sullivan, the short-lived second husband of Rita Sullivan in Coronation Street. He also had a small part in an episode of The Black Adder, as a late replacement for Wilfrid Brambell, who had become impatient with delays to his scene and left the set before shooting it, and appeared as the Duke of Gloucester in the Robin of Sherwood episode "The Pretender". Other roles include Lanscombe in an episode of the 2005 series of Agatha Christie's Poirot ("After the Funeral").

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1955, 1960	St. Ives	St. Ives	6 Episodes
1956	The Adventures of Aggie	Ted Jordan	Hypertension
	Assignment Foreign Legion	Gerry Brooke	The Ghost
	Theatre Royal	Boy	The Assassin
1956-1957	The Adventures of Sir Lancelot	Sir Lancelot du lac / Sir Lancelot / Sir Blaint	30 Episodes
1957	Nicholas Nickleby (TV Serial)	Nicholas Nickleby	10 Episodes
	Sword of Freedom	Count Rene D'Albert	The Strange Intruder
1959	Armchair Theatre		The Girl on the Beach
	Tales From Dickens	David Copperfield	3 Episodes
1960	BBC Sunday-Night Play	Col. Friedrich Eilers Charles Hemington Oliver Farrant John Freeman	Summer Theatre: The Devil's General Twentieth Century Theatre: The Elder Statesman Twentieth Century Theatre: I Have Been Here Before Twentieth Century Theatre: The Fanatics
1961	Hamlet (TV Serial)	Hamlet	5 Episodes
	Triton	Captain Belwether
1962-1963	The Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre	Mike Stafford Mike Cochrane	The Share Out Return to Sender
1963	Suspense	John Richards	The Patch Card
	Jane Eyre	St. John Rivers	2 Episodes
	Drama 61-67	Mick Lambert	Drama 63: Somebody's Dying
1963-1965	Doctor Who	Ian Chesterton	77 Episodes
1966	Breaking Point	Martin Kennedy	5 Episodes
1966-1967	This Man Craig	Peter Rogers Peter Woodburn Avis	You Can Choose Your Friends Old Flame Mates
1967	Dr. Finlay's Casebook	Neville	Who Made You?
1969	Parkin's Patch	Wilkins	No Friendship For Coppers
	Detective	Bill Cartwright	And So to Murder
1972	Buggins' Ermine	Frank
1972-1973	Harriet's Back in Town	Tom Preston	90 Episodes
1972-1981	ITV Playhouse	Daddy Dr. Crane Frank	Little Girls Don't Lindsey Buggins' Ermine
1974	Whodunnit?	Captain Alexander Anderson	A Piece of Cake: Christmas Special
	Father Brown	Reverend Wilfred Bohun	The Hammer of God
	Justice	Dr. Victor Ashworth	Point of Death
1975	Three Men in a Boat	Doctor	TV Movie
	The Doll	Julian Osborne	1 Episode
	Against The Crowd	Arthur Penwarren	Bread and Circuses
	The Main Chance	Arnold Galbraith	We're the Bosses Now
	The Hanged Man	Peter Kroger	Knave of Coins
1975-1977	Crown Court	Edward Birkland Robert Aldrich	Dead Drunk Home Sweet Home: Part 1
1977	Van der Valk	Kees Rokin	Accidental
1978	BBC2 Play of the Week	Lord Folkstone Chapman Headmaster	Fearless Frank
	Disraeli	Wyndham Lewis	2 Episodes
	Parables	Peter Vernon	A Gental Rain
	Strangers	Bamford Harker	Accidental Death
1979	Testament of Youth	Marriott	Buxton 1913
	Shoestring	David Carn	Private Ear
	Spearhead	Mr. Dickson B.F.S	Repercussions
1980	Mackenzie	Francis Hammond	2 Episodes
	The Professionals	Charles Holly	Involvement
	Play for Today	Don	Instant Enlightenment Including V.A.T.
	Armchair Thriller	Senior Officer	Dead Man's Kit: Part 1
1983	The Black Adder	The Duke of Winchester	The Archbishop
1986	Robin of Sherwood	The Duke of Gloucester	The Pretender
1988	The Four Minute Mile	AAA Official
1990	Boon	John Loseley	Tales from the River Bank
1992	Coronation Street	Ted Sullivan	46 Episodes
1995	Casualty	Mo Meredrew	Halfway House
	The Affair (TV Film)	Dr. Hastings
1997	Great Performances	Henry V at Shakespeare's Globe
2000	Heartbeat	Gabriel Firth	Gabriel's Last Stand
2005	Agatha Christie: Poirot	Lanscombe	After the Funeral
2013	An Adventure in Space and Time	Harry - Security Guard

Theatre

Russell has played a number of roles in theatre with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre and in the opening season of the Globe Theatre. In the 1980s, while a member of the Actors' Touring Company, he used the stage name Russell Enoch; on leaving the company he reverted to the name William Russell.

External links

• William Russell at IMDb