Bernard Cribbins Passes Aged 93

Comic actor Bernard Cribbins, who starred in both the 1960s Daleks movies and the Doctor Who series, passed away July 28.

A familiar presence on children’s TV in the UK, Cribbins first had his brush with science fiction as hapless policeman Tom Campbell in Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (1966), the second of two Doctor Who adaptations for the big screen which starred Peter Cushing. His other genre roles included two episodes of The Avengers in 1966 and 1968, and an episode of Space: 1999 in 1976.

In 2007, Cribbins return to the Tardis as the recurring character Wilfred Mott, grandfather to Catherine Tate’s Donna Noble, and was due to appear in the Doctor Who 60th-anniversary special.

Showrunner Russell T. Davies paid tribute on Instagram:

He loved being in Doctor Who. He said, ‘Children are calling me grandad in the street!’ His first day was on location with Kylie Minogue, but all eyes, even Kylie’s, were on Bernard. He’d turned up with a suitcase full of props, just in case, including a rubber chicken. And what an actor. Oh, really though, what a wonderful actor. We once took him to the TV Choice Awards and sent him up on his own to collect the award, and the entire room stood up and cheered him. That’s a lovely memory. He’d phone up and say, ‘I’ve got an idea! What if I attack a Dalek with a paintball gun?!’ Okay, Bernard, in it went!

Russell T. Davies