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On This Day (USA) - 28 August



 Birthdays
Tony Clark will be 62 - credited as Costume Supplier for 30 Years In The TARDIS(Factual)

Tony Clark is an artist, illustrator, and animator who ran the art department of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society in the early-1980s. As such, he provided dozens of black-and-white illustrations for DWAS fanzines such as the official publication TARDIS as well as logos for the DWAS newsletter Celestial Toyroom and Interface, DWASocial, plus DWAS convention booklets. Clark also provided the layout for a number of DWAS yearbooks and published an art department special, the United Galactic Holidays Brochure, and A3-size DWAS season posters for the 18th, 19th, and 20th seasons.

In addition during the 1980s, he provided covers for many of the early Reeltime Pictures Myth Makers VHS interview tapes of Doctor Who stars.

Clark was the cover artist for the Target novelisations of The Rescue and The Space Pirates and provided interior illustrations for the Encyclopedia of The Worlds of Doctor Who: A-D, E-K, and L-R, worked on back-projected animations shown during the stage play Doctor Who: The Ultimate Adventure, and helped out on the various interview and drama video recordings for Thirty Years in the TARDIS, as well as providing graphics for posters seen in the drama settings of the documentary.

As a result of that work, he was made animation director for the title sequence of The Antique Doctor Who Show — one of the five-minute vignettes that preceded the repeat of Planet of the Daleks across six weeks in November and December 1993. The short is available as an extra on the Horror of Fang Rock DVD.

Clark also illustrated the covers for the script books of The Daleks and The Tomb of the Cybermen, published by Titan Books. In addition, he worked on Shakedown: Return of the Sontarans as a boom operator and production designer as well as providing additional model and FX animation.

In 1998, the original illustration that accompanied a TARDIS interview with Nicholas Courtney — completed 18 years earlier (when Clark was 18) — was hung in The Maynard Arms pub in Crouch End where Clark and friends regularly drank with Courtney. The actor signed the artwork twice, as he didn't think his first signature was very good. The illustration was taken by the landlord of the pub a couple of years later when he left and its current whereabouts are unknown.

On the classic series of Doctor Who, Clark helped out on the costumes for the Gods of Ragnarok for The Greatest Show in the Galaxy and the wax heads of the Destroyer that was blown up at the end of Battlefield. He also appeared on Children in Need in 2003 as a Sontaran in the Dead Ringers sketch Dead Ringers Do Doctor Who On The Weakest Link. In addition, Clark portrayed a Sontaran in an unbroadcast sketch for Dead Ringers. His costume is now on display at the Doctor Who Experience (London/Cardiff).

On the Doctor Who media front, he has lent his photo collection for use in the classic series range of DVD photo galleries, for which he has sometimes been credited.

Clark was a Dalek in the 1998 BBC promo officially entitled Future Generations — although BBC publicity referred to it as Small People — made to mark 50 years of children's television on the BBC and originally shown during that year's Children in Need appeal. He is in the Dalek chasing the Blue Peter zoo keeper.

Outside the worlds of Doctor Who, Clark has been an assistant at Walt Disney Films, where he worked on Who Framed Roger Rabbit. He subsequently went freelance in the animation industry, which has seen him involved with hundreds of projects. These have included television adverts such as the Compare The Market campaign, videos for the virtual band Gorillaz, the film version of Lost in Space plus the movie Miss Potter, and Thomas the Tank Engine.

He is not to be confused with the Anthony Clark who played a Vervoid in the 1993 Children in Need special Dimensions in Time.

Biography from the TARDIS Data Core article, licensed under CC-BY-SA


Lenny Henry will be 66 - 2 credits, including Daniel Barton in Spyfall

Lenny Henry was born in Dudley in the West Midlands, and attended St. Johns Primary School, The Blue Coat School, and then the W.R. Tuson College. Taking an interest in comedy and impressions, he worked in a number of clubs, honing his mimicry of characters such as Frank Spencer (from Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em). He came to the attention of the general public when he appeared on ITV talent show New Faces, which he won in 1975 for his impersonation of singer Stevie Wonder, and then became well known to children as a regular on the Saturday morning show TISWAS.

In 1980 he joined "The Comic Strip", a group of comedians that included Rik Mayall, Adrian Edmonson, Robbie Coltrane, Jennifer Saunders and his future wife Dawn French. His television career continued in Three of a Kind and then under his own name in The Lenny Henry Show in 1984, a series that has continued in various guises for over thirty years. Other series have included Chef and a serious role as headmaster Ian George in the school drama Hope and Glory. He has been the voice of "Elephant" in Tinga Tinga Tales, and also provides voices in Big and Small; he also provided the voice of the shrunken head in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.  In 2015 he joined the cast of The Syndicate as Godfrey Watson.

He is a founding member of Comic Relief alongside Richard Curtis, a charity that aims to "bring about positive and lasting change in the lives of poor and disadvantaged people, which we believe requires investing in work that addresses people's immediate needs as well as tackling the root causes of poverty and injustice", and has been a regular presenter on the television fundraising programme Red Nose Day on BBC One since its first evening in 1988. His work for the charity led to him receiving a CBE in 1999 and a Knighthood in 2015.


Clifford Earl (died 2015 aged 81) would be 91 - 2 credits, including Major Branwell in The Invasion

Clifford Earl (born 28 August 1933) is an English actor who has appeared in numerous television programmes and films. 

He appeared in Doctor Who twice, as the Station Sergeant in The Daleks' Master Plan in 1965, and as Major Branwell in The Invasion in 1968. He has also appeared in the films The Haunted House of Horror (1969), Tales from the Crypt (1972) and The Sea Wolves (1980).


Windsor Davies (died 2019 aged 88) would be 94 - credited as Toby in The Evil of the Daleks

Windsor Davies (born Canning Town, West Ham, London) was a British actor, well known for playing the part of Battery Sergeant Major Williams in the 1970s/1980s British sitcom It Ain't Half Hot Mum.

Davies was born to Welsh parents, and he returned to his parents' native Nant-y-Moel when the Second World War began in 1939. He attended Ogmore Grammar School and Bangor Teacher Training College. He then worked as a teacher and did national service before going into acting. 

He played Mog in the classic Welsh film Grand Slam and played the role of sailor Taffy in the first of the BBC-series The Onedin Line (1971).He became well known for playing the part of Battery Sergeant Major Williams in the British sitcom It Ain't Half Hot Mum (1974-81). One of his catchphrases was "Shut Up!" delivered with an ear drum shattering military scream. The other was the phrase "Oh dear, how sad, never mind", delivered in a dry, ironic manner, and used when others around him had problems. As a spin-off from the series, Davies and co-star, Don Estelle had a number one hit in the UK with a semi-comic version of "Whispering Grass". He played major roles in two later Carry On films, Behind in 1975 and England in 1976. He later re-established himself as a sitcom actor with the role of antique dealer Oliver Smallbridge in Never the Twain, with Donald Sinden.

He is also known for providing the voice of Sergeant Major Zero in Gerry Anderson's Terrahawks television series which broadcast from 1983 to 1986; and appeared in the Doctor Who story The Evil of the Daleks as Toby in 1967. He auditioned to be the voice of the UK's speaking clock in 1984 but lost out to fellow actor Brian Cobby.

Davies has never been short of voice-over work - and his distinctive, deep voice can be heard in such projects as New Zealand's Pink Batts house insulations and confectionery ads for Cadbury's Wispa. In the 1970s, Davies read an edition of Radio Four's Morning Story programme. Davies played a sergeant in the Highland Regiment in Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall with Jim Dale and Spike Milligan. This film was released in 1972.

Windsor Davies starred in two Carry On films, Carry On Behind (1975), playing the part of Butcher Fred Ramsden and then in Carry On England (1976), playing Sergeant Major 'Tiger' Bloomer.

He was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1976.

Davies retired from acting in his 70s and he and his wife lived in France. He is survived by his five children (his wife Eluned died in September 2018).

Biography adapted from the Wikipedia article, licensed under CC-BY-SA  


Tutte Lemkow (died 1991 aged 73) would be 106 - 4 credits, including Choreographer for The Celestial Toymaker

Tutte Lemkow  was a Norwegian actor and dancer, who played mostly villainous roles in British television and films. His chief claims to mainstream familiarity were his roles as "the fiddler" in the film version of Fiddler on the Roof and the old man ("Imam") who translates for Indiana Jones inRaiders of the Lost Ark. He also appeared as a dancer in John Huston's 1952 film Moulin Rouge and Blake EdwardsA Shot in the Dark as the Cossack who drinks the poison intended for Peter SellersInspector Clouseau. Lemkow also appeared in the Sellers films The Wrong Arm of the LawThe Wrong Box and Ghost in the Noonday Sun as well as Woody Allen's Love and Death.

Lemkow was born in OsloNorway of Jewish heritage. He played three roles in Doctor Who with William Hartnell's Doctor: Kuiju in Marco Polo (1964), Ibrahim in The Crusade (1965) and Cyclops in The Myth Makers(1965), as well as providing choreography for The Celestial Toymaker (1966). He also appeared in the Morecambe and Wise comedy film The Intelligence Men (1965).

Biography from the Wikipedia article, licensed under CC-BY-SA


Leslie Dwyer (died 1986 aged 80) would be 118 - credited as Vorg in Carnival Of Monsters

Leslie Dwyer  was an English character actor of film and television. He is best known for his role as the Punch and Judy man Mr Partridge in BBC sitcom Hi-de-Hi!.

In 1973 he played the Carnival showman Vorg in the Third Doctor story Carnival Of Monsters

He was born in Catford, the son of the popular music hall comedian Johnny Dwyer and acted from the age of ten and appeared in his first film in 1921.

Film roles included In Which We Serve (1942), The Way Ahead (1944), the 1952 remake of Hindle WakesRoom in the House (1955), the 1959 remake of Hitchcock's The 39 Steps, and Die, Monster, Die! (1966).

He played Sergeant Dusty Miller in the original 1942 production of Terence Rattigan's play Flare Path.

He also took roles in Steptoe and SonTerry and JuneThe SweeneyWodehouse Playhouse and Z-Cars.

His grave is located in the East London Cemetery.

Biography from the Wikipedia article, licensed under CC-BY-SA