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On This Day (USA) - 30 November



An Unearthly Child: The Cave of Skulls premiered on BBC One in 1963 at 5:29pm GMT, watched by 5.90 million viewers.

The Invasion: Episode Five premiered on BBC One in 1968 at 5:15pm BST, watched by 6.70 million viewers.

The Doctor discovers that the Cybermen are planning to immobilise Earth's population by transmitting a hypnotic signal broadcast through International Electromatics products.


Dragonfire: Part Two premiered on BBC One in 1987 at 7:35pm GMT, watched by 4.00 million viewers.

Silver Nemesis: Part Two premiered on BBC One in 1988 at 7:35pm GMT, watched by 5.20 million viewers.

 Birthdays
Sydney White was 33 - credited as Bubbleshock Girl in Invasion of the Bane(SJA)

Sydney Rae Cressida White is an English actress and singer-songwriter, best known for playing the role of 'Erin Noble' in series 3 and 4 of the CBBC drama series Young Dracula. White grew up in West London with her parents and her four brothers, Paul, Adam, Cameron and Spike. She began acting professionally at the age of 10, and shortly after began attending the Sylvia Young Theatre School in London.

She co-formed and is currently preparing to gig in a band called The Wild Things alongside her brother, Cameron White, and her boyfriend. Their songs have been published on Soundcloud. Sydney also recorded and released a song for download separately from The Wild Things, with her Young Dracula co-star Gerran Howell, entitled "Sun Goes Down".

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


Dean Lennox Kelly was 49 - 2 credits, including William Shakespeare in The Shakespeare Code

Dean Lennox Kelly is an English actor,  best known for his role as Kev Ball in Channel 4's Shameless.

Other television credits include Maisie Raine, Border Cafe, Tipping the Velvet, A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Worst Week of My Life. He also had parts in the films The Lowdown and Mike Bassett: England Manager. In 2006 he took a lead role in BBC One's drama series Sorted, which is about a group of postmen. On 1 January 2007 he starred in ITV Drama Dead Clever alongside Suranne Jones. He left Shameless after the first episode of the fourth series along with his co-star and on screen wife, Maxine Peake. 

In 2007, he appeared as William Shakespeare in Doctor Who.

In March 2008, he appeared as one of Jesus' disciples, James, in the BBC drama The Passion, a retelling of the last days of Jesus' life. In May, he appeared as Hedley, the landlord of the local pub in BBC drama The Invisibles, a story of two retired crooks returning to Britain from abroad. Hedley then joins the twosome later in the series. In January and February 2009, he appeared in two episodes of Being Human as a werewolf named Tully.

He starred in Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel a comedy sci-fi film with Chris O'Dowd, Marc Wootton and Anna Faris, ITV drama Married Single Other with Ralf Little and Miranda Raison, the BBC mini-series Cranford as a poor man struggling to feed his six children and wife, and in Robin Hood as Robin's father, Malcolm.

In 2009 he starred alongside his brother in the ITV1 drama Collision which ran over five consecutive nights in November. In 2010 he played industrialist Christoper Rawson in BBC drama The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister.


John Bishop was 58 - 9 credits, including Dan Lewis in The Halloween Apocalypse

John Bishop is a British comedian, presenter, actor, and former footballer.

Bishop played for Hyde FC and Southport FC,

His television debut came on The Panel. He subsequently appeared in the E4 teen drama Skins and in the Ken Loach film Route Irish.

Bishop performed stand-up comedy for the first time in Manchester in October 2000, and the following year, made it to the final of all the major new act competitions, including So You Think You're Funny, the Daily Telegraph Open Mic Awards, the BBC New Comedy Awards, and the City Life North West Comedian of The Year Award, which he won.


Andrew Tiernan was 59 - credited as Purcell in Night Terrors

Andrew Tiernan began acting with the Birmingham Youth Theatre and moved to London in 1984 to study a three-year Diploma in Acting at the Drama Centre London. 

His theatre work has included Joe Penhall's The Bullet at the Donmar Warehouse, and a long-term collaboration with the Tony-nominated director Wilson Milam, including Ché Walker's Flesh Wound at the Royal Court Theatre and two critically acclaimed productions of Sam Shepard plays; A Lie of the Mind at the Donmar Warehouse and True West at the Bristol Old Vic. 

In 2008, Tiernan returned to the theatre in Dorota Maslowska's "A Couple of Poor, Polish-Speaking Romanians" at the Soho Theatre.

Tiernan played Piers Gaveston in Derek Jarman's controversial film of Christopher Marlowe's Edward II in 1991, after appearing in Lynda La Plante's award-winning drama Prime Suspect. In the same year, he went on to star as Orlando and Oliver in Christine Edzard's version of Shakespeare's As You Like It playing alongside actors James Fox and Cyril Cusack.

He played Szalas in Roman Polanski's film The Pianist. He has also worked with Antonia Bird on a number of improvisational film productions, including Safe (Bafta - Best single drama), Face, Rehab and Spooks.

He appeared at Captain Martin Stone in Marko Mäkilaakso's Stone's War. In 2009 he completed work on two films, both reuniting him with directors he had previously worked with. The first was Mr. Nice with director Bernard Rose in which Tiernan plays Alan Marcuson. The second was Freight with director Stuart St. Paul.

In 1993, Tiernan appeared in the series Cracker in the episode "To Say I Love You". In 1998, in the British TV series Hornblower, he played Bunting in the second episode, "The Examination For Lieutenant". Other credits in television include Victor Carroon in The Quatermass Experiment and Kim Trent in Life on Mars. In 2005, he played Ben Jonson in A Waste of Shame, a William Shakespeare biopic presented as part of the BBC's ShakespeaRe-Told series.


Peter Tyler was 64 - credited as Model Unit DOP for Bad Wolf / The Parting of the Ways

Peter entered the Film Industry in 1980 as a Rostrum Cameraman. 

After a couple of years he was offered a job on "The Neverending Story" in Munich by Brian Johnson and entered the Camera Department as an assistant. Working predominantly in Optical and Visual effects and Motion Control for the next 10 years he learned his lighting skills by working with some of the great Directors of Photography in Television Commercials and Films of the time.

More recently Peter has shot Model Unit, Visual Effects Unit and Second Unit (both filming and Directing) on projects for Television and Feature Films. He has shot on Vistavision, 65mm, 35mm, 16mm, Super 8 and HD.

Peter also builds specialized camera rigs as and when the needs arise, including his own Motion Control rigs (sold on to "The Corpse Bride" production).


Martyn Ellis was 64 - credited as Blakeman in Revenge of the Slitheen(SJA)

Martyn Ellis played Greg Blakeman and Glune Fex Fize Sharlaveer-Slam Slitheen in the Sarah Jane Adventures story Revenge of the Slitheen.

Also worked on National Theatre LiveDoctorsDevil's BridgeMine All MineThe BillAgent Cody Banks 2: Destination LondonDoctors and NursesWilliam and MaryThe New Adventures of Robin HoodJulia Jekyll and Harriet HydeBugsKavanagh QCClass ActThe LifeboatHappy FamiliesCasualtyRockliffe's Babies


Jenny Tomasin (died 2012 aged 75) would have been 88 - credited as Tasambeker in Revelation of the Daleks

Jenny Tomasin  was an English actress best known for her roles in Upstairs, Downstairs and Emmerdale.

She played Tasambeker, an employee of Tranquil Repose, in the 1985 story Revelation of the Daleks.

Tomasin became well known in the early 1970s when she joined the cast of Upstairs, Downstairs as kitchen maid Ruby. She stayed with the series until the end in 1975, appearing in 41 episodes. Plans were drawn up for a spin off series following the further adventures of Ruby with Hudson and Mrs Bridges. The series was never made following the death of Angela Baddeley who played Mrs Bridges.

Between 2005 and 2006 she was a member of the cast of the soap Emmerdale as Noreen Bell, a cantankerous villager, who was killed off in July 2006. This role was the second character she had played in the soap as she played Naomi Tolly (1981–1982), daughter of Enoch Tolly, killed in a tractor accident in the soap.



John Bay (died 1982 aged 53) would have been 96 - credited as Earl of Leicester in The Crusade

John Bay  was an American actor and playwright.

Bay was born in ChicagoIllinois, the location of his family's company, Bay's English Muffins.

He was married to the actress Elaine Stritch for ten years, until his death.

Bay appeared in many productions, including the Doctor Who story The Crusade in 1965, playing the fourth Earl of Leicester.


Dolores Gray (died 2002 aged 78) would have been 101 - credited as Mrs Remington in Silver Nemesis

Dolores Gray was an American actress and singer. She was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Lead Actress in a Musical twice, winning once.

Early life

Born as Sylvia Dolores Finkelstein (but known by Sylvia Dolores Vernon growing up) to Barbara Marguerite Gray (born Marguerite Gray) and Harry Vernon Finkelstein (Stage Name Harry Vernon) in Los Angeles, California. Both her mother and father were Vaudeville actors - which is how they met. Gray's parents divorced when she was a young child. Dolores had an older brother, Richard Gray (born Richard Vernon), who also had a career in Hollywood. While attending Polytechnic High School she was in the Girls' Glee Club. She was 'discovered' by Rudy Vallee, who gave her a guest spot on his nationwide radio show. Dolores Gray was briefly signed with MGM, appearing in Kismet (1955) and It's Always Fair Weather (1955).

Career

Her career commenced as a cabaret artiste in restaurants and supper clubs in San Francisco. In 1945 she appeared in her own radio program. While she was appearing in Annie Get Your Gun in London (1947 – 1950), she studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1948. As a fundraiser to help rebuild the RADA theatre, she appeared as Nell Gwynne in In Good King Charles's Golden Days at Drury Lane Theatre (Oct 1948). She appeared at the London Palladium in 1958 while doing a concert tour of Europe and in cabaret at The Talk of the Town in February 1963.

Among her many stage roles, she appeared in Two on the Aisle (1951), Carnival In Flanders (1953); Destry Rides Again (1959); Sherry! (1967); and 42nd Street (1986). She also performed the lead role in Annie Get Your Gun in its first London production (1947).

Gray won the Tony Award for Best Lead Actress in a Musical for her role in Carnival in Flanders, even though this Broadway musical, with a script by Preston Sturges, ran for only six performances. She therefore holds a record that is unlikely to be broken: briefest run in a performance which still earned a Tony.

Portraying a singing and dancing stage actress, she appeared with Gregory Peck and Lauren Bacall in the highly successful film Designing Woman (1957), as his former mistress. During her successful music career, she sang Marilyn Monroe's part on the Decca Records soundtrack album of There's No Business Like Show Business (1954).

She was best known for her theatre roles. She recalled once, "What a gift that would be to have more of a permanent record. A stage performance is just that, then it's lost. When I see movies on TV, I think, 'How great to have that.' But why look back? The decisions I made, I made. I can't change that."

Theatre critic Michael Phillips wrote Gray's voice sounded like "a freight-train slathered in honey".

Marriage

On September 24, 1966, Dolores Gray married Andrew J. Crevolin, a California businessman and Thoroughbred racehorse owner who won the 1954 Kentucky Derby. Despite erroneous reports in the media that they divorced, they remained married until his death in 1992. The union was childless.

Death

Gray died of a heart attack in Manhattan, aged 78.

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


Graham Crowden (died 2010 aged 87) would have been 102 - credited as Soldeed in The Horns of Nimon

Graham Crowden was a Scottish actor. He was best known for his many appearances in television comedy dramas and films, often playing eccentric 'offbeat' scientist, teacher and doctor characters. 

He was offered the role of the Fourth Doctor, but turned it down, he later appeared as  Soldeed in the 1979 story Horns of Nimon.

Crowden was born in Edinburgh. He was educated at the Edinburgh Academy before serving briefly in the Royal Scots Youth Battalion of the army until he was injured in a bizarre accident. 

Crowden is known for his roles in BBC comedy-dramas, including Dr. Jock McCannon in A Very Peculiar Practice and Tom Ballard in Waiting for God. He also had a long and distinguished theatrical career, most notably at Sir Laurence Olivier's National Theatre where he performed as The Player King in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, the play by Tom Stoppard.

He occasionally played mad scientists in film, taking the role of Doctor Millar in the Mick Travis films of director Lindsay Anderson, O Lucky Man! (1973) and Britannia Hospital (1982), and also playing the sinister Doctor Smiles in the film of Michael Moorcock's first Jerry Cornelius novel, The Final Programme (1973). He also played the eccentric History master in Anderson's if.... (1968).

In 1975, he made an appearance in 'No Way Out' - an episode of the popular British sitcom Porridge alongside Ronnie Barker, Brian Wilde, Richard Beckinsale and Fulton Mackay, as the prison doctor.

in 1974 Barry Letts offered him the role of the Fourth Doctor. Crowden turned the role down saying he was not prepared to commit himself to the series for three years. 

In 1990, he appeared as a lecherous peer in the BBC comedy Don't Wait Up and in 1991, he played a modest role in the Rumpole of the Bailey episode "Rumpole and the Quacks", portraying Sir Hector MacAuliffe, the head of a medical inquest into the potential sexual misconduct on the part of Dr. Ghulam Rahmat (portrayed by Saeed Jaffrey).

For many however, it was the role he landed in 1990 as the leading character of Tom Ballard in the sitcom Waiting for God opposite Stephanie Cole's character Diana Trent, as the two rebellious retirement home residents, that made him a household name. The show ran for five years and was a major success.

Crowden then voiced the role of Mustrum Ridcully in the 1997 animated Cosgrove Hall production of Terry Pratchett's Soul Music.

In 2001, he guest-starred in the Midsomer Murders episode "Ring Out Your Dead" and also played The Marquis of Auld Reekie in The Way We Live Now. In 2003, he made a cameo appearance as a sadistic naval school teacher in The Lost Prince. In 2005, he starred in the BBC Radio 4 sci-fi comedy Nebulous as Sir Ronald Rolands. In 2008, he appeared as a guest star in Foyle's War.

Crowden died on 19 October 2010 in Edinburgh after a short illness. Crowden is survived by his wife, Phyllida Hewat, whom he married in 1952, a son and three daughters, one of whom, Sarah, followed him into acting.


 Deaths
Eric Thompson (died 1982 aged 53) - credited as Gaston in The Massacre

Eric Thompson played Viscount Gaston de Leran in the 1966 Doctor Who story The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve. 

He was the husband of Phyllida Law and father of actress Emma Thompson. 

He isbest known known for re-writing and narrating The Magic Roundabout in the UK.

Other roles include Ego HugoThe Magic BallThe ChallengersCoronation StreetITV PlayhouseVolponeInheritanceITV Play of the WeekDixon of Dock GreenSerjeant Musgrave's DanceZ CarsThe VillainsITV Television PlayhouseBBC Sunday-Night PlayThe Eustace DiamondsBBC Sunday-Night TheatreThe Life and Death of Sir John FalstaffThe Lost KingThe Black Arrow