(Dead) Actors and the Doctor

[selenak]

While we're waiting for the big announcement: I got around to listening to David Tennant being interviewed on Broadcasting House (Dec. 21st) . Basically your standard "so, how does it feel to play Hamlet after the Doctor" interview, but two replies made me smile: one to the question whether he wants to play James Bond (which was basically "no way, and also, no, but a Bond villain would be fun"), and the other as to which dead actor he'd regard as great casting for the Doctor. The interviewer boringly suggested Laurence Olivier. David T., bless his fannish heart, politely let that pass and came up with Charles Laughton instead. Which instantly made me wish for a time travel device of my own, because YES. Charles Laughton would have done great and original things with the Doctor.

It also made me wonder: which dead and gone actor would you regard as good Doctor casting?

Comments

[seriousfic.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm generally a fan of bugfuck insane casting like Jason Statham or Charlton Heston, but... Jimmy Stewart? Be a good cure for emo Doctor...

[honorh.livejournal.com]

Katharine Hepburn.

[lilacsigil.livejournal.com]

Errol Flynn! (Okay, not English, but Australians had British passports until 1948, so he can totally sneak in there).

[seriousfic.livejournal.com]

With Spencer Tracy as companion.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

That is an awesome idea.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

*imagines Flynn!Doctor duelling Rathbone!Master*

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Hm, for his type I'd rather go with Joseph Cotten. Either would be good, though.

[lilachigh.livejournal.com]

Oh please can I have Steve McQueen? I want to see him fight a Dalek! And smile at his companion as he did in Thomas Crown Affair!

[bimo.livejournal.com]

Mhm, let me think...

Early Peter Ustinov. Most other actors that come to my mind, are, while high in age, fortunately still alive ;-)

[kattahj.livejournal.com]

I was thinking the same thing, and then I was wondering if perhaps she should not be Romana. :-) Either works, though.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Isn't Peter Ustinov still alive as well? Though yes, young Peter U. would be an interesting choice.

No Alec Guinness from you is a bit surprising. Would he work better as a companion?

[selenak.livejournal.com]

McQueen would make a great Alt!Three, I think. It would be the right era for him. Though could he do the silly side of the Doctor as well? (Then again, the man did start out with The Blob...)

[lilachigh.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, that's a point. He wasn't great on comedy, was he? OK, Jack Lemmon, then.

[kathyh]

How about David Niven? He'd be incredibly witty and charming on chat shows promoting the programme, could do the comedy and physical stuff but also wasn't a bad actor when he put his mind to it ("A Matter of Life and Death").

I suppose asking to resurrect Patrick Troughton is cheating :)

[eryaforsthye.livejournal.com]

I suppose asking to resurrect Patrick Troughton is cheating :)

Or Jon Pertwee... :P

Joseph Cotten. With Orson Welles as the Master and Trevor Howard as the Brigadier. Yes.

[wee-warrior.livejournal.com]

It probably wouldn't work, because he played an iconic character all of his own, but: Jeremy Brett. And possibly Denholm Elliot. He would be the eccentric uncle kind of Doctor.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

*cheers for this idea*

Welles as the Master, Cotten as the Doctor and Trevor Howard as the Brig would be BRILLIANT.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

This begs for Shirley MacLaine as a companion and Walter Matthau as the Master, of course...

[wee-warrior.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes!

And one incarnation of the Master would be Cary Grant, and James Stewart would be a Companion. *is great fan of The Philadelphia Story*

[selenak.livejournal.com]

No actual Doctor actors, no!

But yes, David Niven sounds great.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Now I'm reminded of that scene in Silurians where the Brig and the Doctor actually call each other Holmes and Watson.:) But yes, Jeremy Brett could have done it.

Denholm Elliot: remind me of films or shows?

[wee-warrior.livejournal.com]

Denholm Elliot: remind me of films or shows?

He is Marcus Brody (he who got lost in his own museum) in the first and the third Indiana Jones movie, and he plays Julian Sands' father in Room With A View.

[20thcenturyvole.livejournal.com]

I would have loved to see what Peter Sellers did with the Doctor, if he played it (relatively) straight.

[cereswunderkind.livejournal.com]

Peggy Ashcroft?

And, of course, William Hartnell :)

[andraste]

Good game! I am going to be boring and say Ian Richardson, whose name used to come up periodically in casting discussions prior to his death.