David Tennant Biography
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David Tennant (born David McDonald,
April 18, 1971 in Bathgate, West Lothian) is a Scottish actor
best known for being the tenth actor to portray the Doctor in
the television series Doctor Who. American audiences know him
best for his role as Barty Crouch Jr. in the film adaptation of
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
David grew up in Ralston,
Renfrewshire, where his father was the local minister, and later
Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. At
the age of three, David told his parents that he wanted to
become an actor because he was mad about Doctor Who. Although
such an aspiration might have been common for a Scottish child
of the 1970s, Tennant says he was "absurdly single-minded" in
pursuing his goal. He adopted the professional name "Tennant"
inspired by Neil Tennant, the lead singer of the Pet Shop Boys
because there was another David McDonald already on the books of
the actors' union Equity.
Moving to London, England in the
early 1990s, Tennant lodged with comic actress and writer
Arabella Weir, with whom he became close friends and later
godfather to one of her children. (He later appeared as a guest
in her spoof television series Posh Nosh).
In December 2005, The Stage
newspaper listed Tennant at #6 in its "Top Ten" listing of the
most influential UK television artists of the year, citing his
roles in Blackpool, Casanova, Secret Smile and Doctor Who. In
January 2006, readers of the British gay and lesbian newspaper
The Pink Paper voted Tennant the "Sexiest Man in the Universe"
over David Beckham and Brad Pitt. A poll of over 10,000 women
for the March 2006 issue of New Woman magazine ranked him 20th
in their list of the "Top 100 Men".
****
Career
Tennant began his career in the
British theatre, frequently performing with the Royal
Shakespeare Company for whom he specialised in comic roles such
as Touchstone in As You Like It, Antipholus of Syracuse in The
Comedy of Errors and Captain Jack Absolute in The Rivals,
although he also played the tragic role of Romeo in Romeo and
Juliet.
He has appeared in several
high-profile dramas for the BBC, including He Knew He Was Right
(2004), Blackpool (2004), Casanova (2005) and The Quatermass
Experiment (2005). In film, he has appeared in Stephen Fry's
Bright Young Things, and as Barty Crouch Jr. in Harry Potter and
the Goblet of Fire. One of his earliest big screen roles was in
Jude (1996), in which he shared a scene with his Doctor Who
predecessor Christopher Eccleston, playing a drunken
undergraduate who challenges Eccleston's Jude to prove his
intellect.
He has also performed in several
audio plays based on the Doctor Who television series by Big
Finish Productions not playing the Doctor as well as having
a small role in the BBC animated webcast Scream of the Shalka.
Not originally cast in the production, Tennant happened to be
recording a radio play in a neighbouring studio, and when he
discovered what was being recorded next door managed to convince
the director to give him a small role. In 2004 Tennant played a
lead role in the Big Finish audio play Dalek Empire III. He
played the part of Galanar, a young man who is given an
assignment to discover the secrets of the Daleks. He has
appeared in several more Doctor Who-related audio plays and also
played the title role in Big Finish's adaptation of Bryan
Talbot's The Adventures of Luther Arkwright (2005).
Tennant's name was put forward as a
possible candidate to take on the role of the Ninth Doctor for
the new series that began in March 2005, although the role
eventually went to Christopher Eccleston. With Eccleston's
announcement on March 30 that he would not be returning for a
second series, the BBC confirmed Tennant as his replacement in a
press release on April 16. He made his first, brief appearance
in the episode The Parting of the Ways (2005) after the
regeneration scene, and also appeared in a special 7-minute
mini-episode shown as part of the 2005 Children in Need appeal,
broadcast on November 18, 2005.
He began filming the new series of
Doctor Who in late July 2005. His first full-length outing as
the Doctor was a 60-minute special, The Christmas Invasion,
which was broadcast on Christmas Day 2005. He was also seen in
early December in the ITV drama Secret Smile.
Tennant has expressed enthusiasm
about fulfilling his childhood dream. He remarked to an
interviewer for GWR FM, "Who wouldn't want to be the Doctor?
I've even got my own TARDIS!"
In January 2006, Tennant took a
one-day break from shooting Doctor Who to play Richard Hoggart
in a dramatisation of the 1960 Lady Chatterley's Lover obscenity
trial, The Chatterley Affair. Written by Andrew Davies and
directed by Doctor Who's James Hawes for digital television
channel BBC Four, Hoggart's son Simon Hoggart praised Tennant's
portrayal in the drama in The Guardian newspaper. "[E]xtremely
convincing the suit, the hair, the Yorkshire accent, and
trickiest of all, the speech rhythms. The only thing wrong is
his sideburns. To do this film he had to take 24 hours off from
making Doctor Who in Cardiff and, as he explained, the sideburns
wouldn't grow back in a day."[5]
List of credits
Television
Takin' Over the Asylum (1994)
(Campbell McBain)
Duck Patrol (1998) (Darwin)
People Like Us Season 2, Episode 4
(2001) (Rob Harker)
Foyle's War Season 1, Episode 3
(2002) (Theo Howard)
Posh Nosh, episode "Comfort Food"
(2003)
Trust episode 6 (2003) (Gavin
MacEwan)
The Deputy (2004)
He Knew He Was Right (2004) (Rev
Gibson)
Blackpool (2004) (DI Carlisle)
Casanova (2005) (Giacamo Casanova)
The Quatermass Experiment (2005)
(Dr Gordon Briscoe)
Doctor Who (2005 - ?) (The Doctor)
Secret Smile (2005) (Brendan Block)
The Romantics (2006) (Jean-Jacques
Rousseau)
Film
Jude (1996)
Bite (1997)
L.A. Without a Map (1998)
The Last September (1999)
One Eyed Jacques (2001)
Sweetnightgoodheart (2001)
Nine 1/2 Minutes (2003)
Bright Young Things (2003)
Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire
(2005) (Barty Crouch Jr.)
Free Jimmy (2006) (in production)
2027 (2005) (Valeri K.)
Radio
Much Ado about Nothing Benedick BBC
Radio 4 (2001)
Dixon of Dock Green PC Andy
Crawford BBC Radio 4 (2005)
Theatre
The Princess and the Goblin Curdie
Antigone
Jump the Life to Come
The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui
Scotland Matters
What the Butler Saw Nick (1995)
Royal National Theatre
Vassa Scenes from Family Life
Pavel (1996) Albery Theatre
As You Like It Touchstone (1996)
Royal Shakespeare Company
The General From America Hamilton
(1996) Royal Shakespeare Company
The Herbal Bed Jack Lane (1996)
Royal Shakespeare Company
Hurly Burly Mickey (1997)
Black Comedy Brinsley Miller
Edward III (staged reading) Edward,
the Black Prince (1999)
An Experienced Woman Gives Advice
Kenny (1999)
Comedy of Errors Antipholus of
Syracuse (2000) Royal Shakespeare Company
The Rivals Jack (2000) Royal
Shakespeare Company
Romeo and Juliet Romeo (2000) Royal
Shakespeare Company
Comedians (2001)
The Real Inspector Hound Moon
The Lobby Hero Jeff (2002) Donmar
Warehouse
Push-Up Robert (2002) Royal Court
Jerwood Theatre
The Glass Menagerie Tom
Long Day's Journey Into Night
Edmund
Tartuffe Valere
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf Nick
Hay Fever Simon, Edinburgh Royal
Lyceum
Merlin Arthur Edinburgh Royal
Lyceum
King Lear Edgar
The Pillowman Katurian (2003) Royal
National Theatre
Twelve Angry Men
Slab Boys Trilogy Alan Young Vic
Look Back in Anger Jimmy Porter
(2005) Edinburgh Royal Lyceum
Awards
Theatre Management Association Best
Actor Award: The Glass Menagerie
2000 Nominated for Ian Charleson
Award (Best classical actor under 30): Comedy of Errors
2003 Nominated for Olivier Award
as Best Actor: Lobby Hero
2005 Critics Award for Theatre in
Scotland, Best Male Performance: Jimmy Porter in Look Back in
Anger
****
****
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URL of Original Article:
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Date Article Copied:
March 3, 2006
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