Ian Fulton Fairbairn was born on the 17th of September 1931 in West Derby, Liverpool. His first acting role was playing a lady in waiting in 'Saint Joan' while at Mill Hill School, London. Following National Service, he worked in the city for a while before winning a scholarship to the Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama in 1959 which led to him working at Farnham Repertory and going on to making numerous television appearances. His is a career lasting 30 some years that has seen him unfortunately as always being a television bridesmaid and rarely the bride. If you're over forty this character actor is one with whom you will have grown up with and is the type of actor who you instantly recognise, not knowing his name.
Ian first appeared on our television screens in the 1960s in 'Scotland Yard' (1960), 'Maigret' (1960-61), 'Emergency Ward 10' (1961-62), 'Garry Halliday' (1962), 'Moonstrike' (1964) and in 'The Big Spender' (1965-66). In 1965 he appeared in the first series of 'Adam Adamant Lives!' in an episode called 'The Last Sacrifice', as he played Barber, who meets a sticky end at the hands of Mr Adamant thanks to a handy racing car steering column! He also popped up as one of the schoolkids in Dennis Potter's 'Stand Up Nigel Barton' in 1965 when he played 'Boy Two' according to his script and then had roles in 'Softly, Softly' (1967) and 'Z-Cars' (1962-68) before becoming a regular in the children's science fiction programme 'Timeslip' (1970-71) in the dual roles of Alpha 4 and Dr. Frazer.
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| As a Primord in Inferno (1970) |
He guested in four 'Doctor Who' stories - three of them highly regarded. The first was the early Troughton story in 1967 playing Questa, a human who lived in a colony secretly ruled by Macra, in the first episode of 'The Macra Terror'. The next three appearances were all for director Douglas Camfield. He was the cowardly and ineffectual International Electromatics scientist Mark Gregory in three episodes of 'The Invasion' (1968). Then in 1970 he appeared in the third 'Doctor' story 'Inferno' in his biggest role as the technician Bromley who became the first person to mutate into a Primord in both this Universe and the parallel one. His final appearance in the series was in 1976 when he played Doctor Chester, a medical doctor stationed at the South Bend base in Antarctica, in the third episode of 'The Seeds of Doom'. Ian liked to keep documentation of his various TV work, including the only original copies of Timeslip scripts known to exist.
He also appeared in the TV series 'The Lotus Eaters' (1973), 'Van der Valk' (1973), 'Dial M for Murder' (1974) and 'Churchill's People' (1975) during that period.
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| In Last of the Summer Wine (1991) |
Further TV work followed which saw him appear in 'The Onedin Line' (1976), 'The Cedar Tree' (1977), 'Shoestring' (1979), 'The Professionals' (1977-80), 'The Weather in the Streets' (1983), 'Dramarama' (1986), 'Arrivederci Millwall' (1990) and finally as a Police Officer in 'Last of the Summer Wine' (1991).
Ian died on Tuesday the 2nd of December 2014 in Chiswick, London.
see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2023/09/a-history-of-liverpool-thespians-ray.html
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