- Born
- Birth nameWilliam Russell Enoch
- Height6′ 0½″ (1.84 m)
- William Russell was born William Russell Enoch on 19 November 1924, in Sunderland, County Durham, England, to Eva Compston (Pile) and Alfred James Enoch. He became interested in acting at an early age. He was involved in organizing entertainments during his national service in the Royal Air Force and then, after university, went into repertory theatre. He appeared in "Hamlet" in London's West End and won a number of film roles, usually as a dashing hero. Notable TV work followed in The Adventures of Sir Lancelot (1956) for ITV and Nicholas Nickleby (1957) and David Copperfield in Fredric March Presents Tales from Dickens (1959) for the BBC, shortly after which he was cast as Ian Chesterton in Doctor Who (1963). He later continued a successful acting career, particularly in the theatre, and for a time held a senior post in the actor's union, Equity. In recent years he has been a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company.
His son is actor Alfred Enoch.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Anonymous
- SpousesEtheline Margareth Lewis Enoch (1 child)Dr. Balbina Gutierrez (3 children)
- Children
- After he left Doctor Who, he was replaced by Peter Purves in the "male companion" role. Upon the passing of Jon Pertwee in 1996, he became the oldest living cast member.
- Of the four original actors to travel in the TARDIS in Doctor Who (1963), he is the most recent one to make a reappearance in the series, in the 2022 Centenary special The Power of the Doctor (2022).
In the mid-1980s, writer Peter Grimwade originally envisaged him as returning to star opposite Peter Davison as the teacher in Mawdryn Undead: Part One (1983), but Russell proved unavailable due to theatre commitments. The story was then changed to bring back Nicholas Courtney as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. - He was portrayed in An Adventure in Space and Time (2013) by Jamie Glover. Jamie's father, Julian Glover, is also a Doctor Who (1963) veteran, having played Richard the Lionheart in The Lion (1965) and Count Scarlioni/Scaroth in City of Death: Part One (1979). The elder Glover also appeared in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) with Russell's son, Alfred Enoch.
- Is listed in the Guinness Book Of Records for the longest gap between TV appearances playing the character of Ian Chesterton on Doctor Who. His last regular appearance was on 26th June 1965 before his cameo in The Power of the Doctor (2022), a gap of 57 years 120 days.
- He was going to be the star of the 1956 TV series of The Buccaneers (1956) but the part went to Robert Shaw.
- Acting was something I enjoyed doing as a young boy. I found myself drawn towards it. I kept it up when was in the Air Force and organised entertainments for other people. Then, after I left university, I went into rep and continued from there. I think I was rather typecast at first as the dashing young lieutenant or RAF officer, who always seemed to get killed.
- We formed a very happy little group. I was very impressed with Billy (Hartnell), he was a true professional. He had all the switches in the TARDIS marked out exactly in his mind. He had the idea of the Doctor always getting my name wrong. Billy wasn't at all like the Doctor off set, he was just a very professional actor who did his job in his own way.
- We were pushed around a lot sometimes. One of the things we'd always argue about on the studio floor was that certain writers were making us say things that we felt our characters would not say. Eventually we got a script editor, Dennis Spooner, who co-ordinated with the writers and kept an eye on things. We liked to talk a lot about how our characters would develop.
- After The Adventures of Sir Lancelot (1956), I had a marvellous offer from the BBC to star in 'Nicholas Nickleby' in a great twenty-week series. Then I was offered _David Copperfield_', which was still live at Lime Grove, followed by Doctor Who (1963). Verity Lambert got in touch with me and after various conversations, I went along to meet the rest of the cast.
- I remember 'Marco Polo' going on for quite a long while, and being under quite a lot of pressure. Despite that, we all enjoyed it tremendously - in fact, we rather enjoyed all the historical stories. Dressing up in the appropriate costumes was always great fun and it looked very splendid. The script was very good, and that contributed to the all-round enjoyment; it concentrated more on the characters, their development and the narrative and so, I think, the story was told in a believable way.
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