Thomas Stewart Baker was born on the 20th of January 1934 on Scotland Road, Liverpool to Mary Jane (née Fleming) and John Stewart Baker. His father was of English and Scottish descent, while his mother's family was originally from Ireland. Tom, along with his younger sister, Lulu, and younger brother, John, was raised in a poor Catholic community by his mother, a house-cleaner and barmaid, who was a devout Catholic, but his father, a sailor, was largely absent from the family due to being away at sea. During the war, Tom's mother chose to keep him at home rather than send him away with the evacuees as she couldn’t bear to be separated from him. As the war brought no harm to him or his family, Tom found it an exciting time, and became such a dedicated collector of shrapnel and salvage that he was presented with a certificate by the Lord Mayor of Liverpool. He also became an altar boy revelling in the stupefying smell of incense, the incomprehensible mutter of Latin and the thrill and danger of Hell, compared to which World War, seemed fun.
Failing the eleven plus, he attended Cheswardine Hall Boarding School in Shropshire and at the age of 15 became a novice religious brother with the Brothers of Ploermel (Brothers of Christian Instruction) on the island of Jersey. Six years later, he abandoned the monastic life and performed his National Service in the Royal Army Medical Corps.where he became interested in acting, serving from 1955 until 1957. He then served on the Queen Mary for seven months as a sailor in the Merchant Navy before attending Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama in Sidcup, Kent, on scholarship. He became a professional actor in the late 1960s, and now in his thirties, worked in provincial rep theatre. He had his first break whilst performing in a late-night pub revue for the 1968 York Festival where his performance was seen by someone with the Royal National Theatre who encouraged him to audition for the company, which was headed at the time by Laurence Olivier, who helped him get his first prominent film role as Rasputin in 'Nicholas and Alexandra' (1971). His performance in this film earned him two Golden Globe Award nominations, one for best actor in a supporting role and another for best new star of the year. A couple of years earlier, Baker had made his theatrical film debut in 'The Winter's Tale (1967). He married the first of his wives Anna Wheatcroft in 1961 whose family was famous for rose growing. They lived in Nottingham where they had two children, and as Tom had found no acting work by then, he worked in the family’s rose nurseries and in the potteries. After their divorce in 1966 Tom went to London to pursue his interest in acting. From 1968 to 1971, he was given small parts and understudied, with one of his bigger roles being the horse Rosinante in 'Don Quixote'. Despite appearances in a spate of films, including 'The Canterbury Tales' (1972), 'The Vault of Horrors' (1973), 'The Golden Voyage of Sinbad' (1973) and 'The Freakmaker' (1974), Tom found himself in a career lull and working as a labourer at a building site, but he remembered Bill Slater who had directed him a few years before in 'The Millionairess'. Desperate for work he wrote to Bill and it so happened that his letter arrived on the very day that Bill, about to become Head of Serials at the BBC, was due to attend a meeting with Barry Letts, the Producer of 'Doctor Who', to discuss the casting of the new Doctor as Jon Pertwee was leaving. They had a look at Tom in 'The Golden Voyage of Sinbad', summoned him to a couple of meetings and quickly realised they'd found the next Doctor.
It brought international fame and popularity and he played the role for seven years, longer than any actor before or since, making him one of Britain's most recognizable, and most larger-than-life, character actors. He brought his own personality and ideas to the character so that very quickly he became totally identified with the Doctor and everywhere he went was celebrated as a hero. Viewing figures soared during his tenure, with many people being very fond of his quirky personality and eccentric dress sense - his long scarf being a hit with the fans. His life was transformed and suddenly he was in demand for voice-overs and commentaries and appearances on other programmes such as 'Call My Bluff' and 'The Multi Coloured Swap Shop'. He also presented a series on ITV about books for children called 'The Book Tower', an appropriate subject for Tom whose love of books is his most consuming interest. After 7 years, in which he recorded 178 episodes, worked with 4 different Producers, and 4 different actresses playing the 3 different Assistant roles, Tom decided he'd had enough of the series, although he had fallen in love with his co-star Lalla Ward, who played Romana, and married her on the 13th of December 1980 although the marriage did not last long and they divorced in April 1982. After leaving in 1981, he returned to theatre and played Oscar Wilde again in 'Feasting with Panthers' at the Chichester Festival Theatre. In 1982, he played Judge Brack in 'Hedda Gabler' with Susannah York as Hedda in the West End. That year also saw him in a new television role – Sherlock Holmes in 'The Hound of the Baskervilles'.
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| Tom and Sue lived for a time in an old village house near Toulouse in SW France |
Still living in London, he rekindled his relationship with Sue Jerrard whom he'd met in 1977 when she was an Assistant Film Editor in the fourth series of Tom's 'Doctor Who'. In 1986 Tom and Sue decided to set up home together and purchased The Bell House, a converted Victorian school in Kent near to the ITV company, TVS, where Sue was a Producer/Director. They married on the 1st of April 1986 at Maidstone Register Office. His first long-running role in a decade came when he played Professor Hoyt in ITV Granada's hospital drama 'Medics' between 1992 and 1995. Comedians Matt Lucas and David Walliams involved Tom as the Narrator in 'Little Britain' when it first appeared on BBC Radio 4 and several TV series later in the UK and America made Tom almost as well known as he was for 'Doctor Who', being voted the fourth-most recognisable in the UK in 2006.
see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2023/08/a-history-of-liverpool-thespians-peter.html
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