David Graham (11 July 1925-20 September 2024[1]) was a frequent guest actor on the original series of Doctor Who. Well knownfor his portrayal of the ill-fated Professor Fyodor Nikolai Kerensky in City of Death, Graham also played the bartender C arlie in The Gunfighters. He also cameoed as an uncredited rebel in The Dalek Invasion of Earth. (DWM 280)
A versatile voice-over actor, Graham's most prolific Doctor Who work came in providing voices for Daleks in The Daleks, The Dalek Invasion of Earth, The Chase (for which he also provided voices for the Mechanoids), Mission to the Unknown and The Daleks' Master Plan, as well as both Dalek movies starring Peter Cushing, Dr. Who and the Daleks and Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.. He additionally voiced the narrator of AUDIO: The Daleks, a Century 21 Productions audio adaptation of the last episode of The Chase.
Many years later he also voiced Shedgerton in the Big Finish Main Range audio story The Defectors and Percy Till in Static.
He shared his memories on his Doctor Who career on the 233rd edition of Big Finish's charity podcast series Toby Hadoke's Who's Round, and was interviewed on the documentaries Future Memories and Creation of the Daleks. He also contributed to the audio commentary for the DVD release of The Gunfighters.
In July 2023, Graham reprised his role as a Dalek voice actor for The Daleks in Colour, providing additional dialogue alongside Nicholas Briggs.[2]
He is the thirteenth longest-lived person associated with the Whoniverse.
Beyond Doctor Who
Outside of Doctor Who, Graham is perhaps best known for providing several voices for a number of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's popular "Supermarionation" adventure series, such as Thunderbirds, for Century 21 Productions. These included the regular characters of Gordon Tracy, Brains, and Parker, the latter of which he reprised for the 2015 reboot, Thunderbirds Are Go!. He also voiced Gordon, Parker and Brains, as well as multiple guest characters, in the first series episode The Man from MI.5, which was a crossover with the Doctor Who universe.
Graham has also featured in a number of television commercials, appearing as the "Big Brother" character on the giant screen advertising the Apple Macintosh computer in 1984, and reprised his role of Brains for a series of credit card commercials in New Zealand.
In 2017, Graham reprised his role as a Dalek voice actor for Magic Bullet Productions' nonprofit, unofficial audio adaptation of The Mechanical Planet in partnership with Vworp Vworp!, also lending his voices to incidental humanoid characters. In particular, this gave him the opportunity to voice the Dalek Emperor, which he never did on television.[3]
Death
At the age of 99, he was the oldest surviving actor to have voiced the Daleks at the time of his death.
Fellow Dalek voice actor Nicholas Briggs paid tribute to him, saying: "David was a lovely chap. It was great fun chatting with him about Dalek voices and a pleasure to direct him. His voice is indelibly imprinted on my memory, mostly for Lady Penelope’s redoubtable butler, Parker, but also for his unmistakeable Dalek voices. His work made a huge impact. He will be much missed."[4]
Credits
Television
Dalek voices
Other roles
- The Chase - Mechanoid voices
- The Man from MI.5 - Gordon Tracy, Brains, Parker, Tidman, Carl
- The Gunfighters - Charlie
- City of Death - Fyodor Nikolai Kerensky
Uncredited
- The Dalek Invasion of Earth - Rebel (DWM 280)
DVD
- Weird Science - Professor Valentines Park
Audio roles
Century 21 Records
- The Daleks - Narrator, Dalek voices, Mechonoid voices
Big Finish Productions
Feature film roles
- Dr. Who and the Daleks - Dalek voices (uncredited)
- Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. - Dalek voices (uncredited)