William Russell was a British actor best known for his performance as Ian Chesterton, one of the Doctor’s companions in the first seasons of “Doctor Who.”
- Died: June 3, 2024 (Who else died on June 3?)
- Details of death: Died at the age of 99.
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William Russell’s legacy
When Russell joined “Doctor Who” for its very first episode in 1963, he started a journey toward TV history. The new science fiction show, intended to appeal to a family audience, starred William Hartnell (1908–1975) as the Doctor. He traveled with three companions: Russell as Ian Chesterton; Susan Foreman, who was played by Carole Ann Ford, and Barbara Wright, played by Jacqueline Hill (1929–1993). Russell earned fame portraying the series’ first action-hero character, getting into multiple scrapes and adventures while traveling through time and space with the Doctor.
More than 57 years later, Russell set a Guinness World Record for longest gap between TV appearances as a character when he returned for a 2022 “Doctor Who” episode. “The Power of the Doctor” featured a support group of former companions, and Russell, then aged 98, participated, and had a brief speaking role. Nearly a decade earlier, he played the Doctor in the 2013 audio play, “The Light at the End,” becoming, at the age of 88, the oldest person to act in the role, a record he held for several years before being surpassed by Tom Baker in 2023.
In addition to his work with “Doctor Who,” Russell also had a long career in movies and television, mostly at home in the U.K. One of his earliest notable roles came in “The Adventures of Sir Lancelot” for British TV in 1956, in which he played the title character. He played Ted Sullivan in the soap opera “Coronation Street” and starred as the title character in a 1957 TV adaptation of “Nicholas Nickleby.” His movies included “They Who Dare,” “One Good Turn,” “The Great Escape,” and “Superman.”
Russell on joining the “Doctor Who” cast
“Verity [Lambert, producer] invited me to the BBC for lunch and I said to her, ‘So I’m the action man?’ and she said, ‘That’s exactly right.’ She told me that Bill [William Hartnell] would play the leading role, but not be doing the fights. I was delighted.” — from a 2010 interview for Radio Times
Tributes to William Russell
Full obituary: BBC
