William Russell
Birthday: Born in 1924-11-19 in Sunderland, County Durham, England, UK
Deathday: 2024-06-03
William Russell Enoch (19 November 1924–3 June 2024) was an English actor. He achieved prominence in 1956 when he took the title role in the ITV television series The Adventures of Sir Lancelot (1956–1957). In 1963, he became part of the original lead cast of BBC1's Doctor Who, playing the role of schoolteacher Ian Chesterton opposite William Hartnell from the show's first episode until 1965. Russell's film roles include parts in The Man Who Never Was (1956), The Great Escape (1963) and Superman (1978). On television, he notably appeared as Ted Sullivan in Coronation Street in 1992. In recent years, Russell has maintained his association with Doctor Who; he returned to the show in 2022, making a cameo appearance as Ian in "The Power of the Doctor", 57 years after the character's last television appearance. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
TV Credits
Shoestring
Character:
Shoestring was a BBC television show set in Bristol. It featured a private detective with his own show on Radio West, the local radio station. The programme ran between 30 September 1979 and 21 December 1980, in two series with 21 one hour-long episodes. Star Trevor Eve decided not to return to the role after two series, as he wanted to diversify into theatre roles, so the same production team changed the format to be based in Jersey and created Bergerac, also about a detective returning to wor...
Heartbeat
Character: Gabriel Firth
Set during the 1960s in the fictional North Yorkshire village of Aidensfield, this enduringly popular series interweaves crime and medical storylines....
Robin of Sherwood
Character: The Duke of Gloucester
Robin of Sherwood was a British television series, based on the legend of Robin Hood. Created by Richard Carpenter, it was produced by HTV in association with Goldcrest, and ran from 1984 to 1986 on the ITV network. In America it was retitled Robin Hood and shown on the premium cable TV channel Showtime and on PBS. The show starred Michael Praed and Jason Connery as two different incarnations of the title character. Unlike previous adaptations of the Robin Hood legend, Robin of Sherwood combined...
The Hanged Man
Character: Peter Kroger
After surviving a series of attempts on his life, successful businessman Lew Burnett decides to remain "dead" after the most recent one so he can go undercover and find out which of his close friends and business associates want him dead....
Dr. Finlay's Casebook
Character:
Dr Finlay's Casebook is a television series that was broadcast on the BBC from 1962 until 1971. Based on A. J. Cronin's novella ‘Country Doctor’, the storylines centred on a general medical practice in the fictional Scottish town of Tannochbrae during the late 1920s. Cronin was the primary writer for the show between 1962 and 1964....
The Adventures of Sir Lancelot
Character: Sir Lancelot du Lac
The Adventures of Sir Lancelot is a British television series first broadcast in 1956, produced by Sapphire Films for ITC Entertainment and screened on the ITV network. The series starred William Russell as the eponymous Sir Lancelot, a Knight of the Round Table in the time of King Arthur at Camelot....
Van der Valk
Character: Rokin
Van der Valk is a British television series that was produced by Thames Television for the ITV network. It starred Barry Foster in the title role as Dutch detective Commissaris "Piet" van der Valk. Based on the characters and atmosphere of the novels of Nicolas Freeling, the first series was shown in 1972....
Disraeli
Character: Wyndham Lewis
Disraeli is a British four part serial about the great statesman and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Benjamin Disraeli....
Father Brown
Character: Reverend Wilfred Bohun
Father Brown was a Catholic priest who doubled as an amateur detective in order to solve mysteries....
Doctor Who: Lost in Time
Character: Ian
A digitally restored collection of rare 1960s Doctor Who episodes, from stories which no longer exist in their entirety. They offer a unique glimpse at classic adventures which are now lost in time ......
The Main Chance
Character: Arnold Galbraith
The Main Chance was a British television series which first aired on ITV between 1969,1970,1972 and 1975. A drama, it depicts the sudden transformation in the life of solicitor David Main who relocates from London to Leeds....
Casualty
Character: Mo Meredrew
Drama series about the staff and patients at Holby City Hospital's emergency department, charting the ups and downs in their personal and professional lives....
Testament of Youth
Character:
A dramatization of Vera Brittain's 1933 autobiography Testament of Youth—a memorial to a generation devastated by WWI—chronicles her experiences as a nurse in London and Malta and at the front lines in France. It opens with 18-year-old Vera, the genteel daughter of a paper-mill owner, nurturing 'hopes of escaping from provincial young ladyhood.' Her plan is to attend Oxford....
Justice
Character: Dr. Victor Ainsworth
Justice is a British drama television series which originally aired on ITV in 39 hour-long episodes between 8 August 1971 and 16 October 1974. Margaret Lockwood stars as Harriet Peterson a female barrister in the North of England. It was made by Yorkshire Television and was based loosely on Justice Is a Woman, an episode of ITV Playhouse broadcast in 1969 in which Lockwood had previously also played a barrister. The theme music was Crown Imperial by William Walton....
Doctor Who
Character: Ian Chesterton
The adventures of The Doctor, a time-traveling humanoid alien known as a Time Lord. He explores the universe in his TARDIS, a sentient time-traveling spaceship. Its exterior appears as a blue British police box, which was a common sight in Britain in 1963 when the series first aired. Along with a succession of companions, The Doctor faces a variety of foes while working to save civilizations, help ordinary people, and right many wrongs....
Doctor Who
Character: Ian Chesterton
The Doctor is a Time Lord: a 900 year old alien with 2 hearts, part of a gifted civilization who mastered time travel. The Doctor saves planets for a living—more of a hobby actually, and the Doctor's very, very good at it....
The Professionals
Character: Charles Holly
The lives of Bodie and Doyle, top agents for Britain's CI5 (Criminal Intelligence 5), and their controller, George Cowley. The mandate of CI5 was to fight terrorism and similar high-profile crimes. Cowley, a hard ex-MI5 operative, hand-picked each of his men. Bodie is a cynical ex-SAS paratrooper and mercenary whose nature ran to controlled violence, while his partner, Doyle, comes to CI5 from the regular police force, and is more of an open minded liberal. Their relationship is often contenti...
Agatha Christie's Poirot
Character: Lanscombe
From England to Egypt, accompanied by his elegant and trustworthy sidekicks, the intelligent yet eccentrically-refined Belgian detective Hercule Poirot pits his wits against a collection of first class deceptions....
Blackadder
Character: The Duke of Winchester
Black Adder traces the deeply cynical and self-serving lineage of various Edmund Blackadders throughout British history, from the muck of the Middle Ages to the frontline of the First World War....
Armchair Thriller
Character: Senior officer (uncredited)
Armchair Thriller is a British television programme, broadcast on ITV in two series in 1978 and 1980. Owing something to some of the off-shoots of the earlier Armchair Theatre, the new series used scripts adapted from published novels and stories. Although not properly a horror series it included several supernatural elements. Armchair Thriller was produced by Thames Television, but it included serials made by Southern Television. The format was of a twice weekly 25 minute episodes, usually scre...
Armchair Thriller
Character: Senior Officer
Armchair Thriller is a British television programme, broadcast on ITV in two series in 1978 and 1980. Owing something to some of the off-shoots of the earlier Armchair Theatre, the new series used scripts adapted from published novels and stories. Although not properly a horror series it included several supernatural elements. Armchair Thriller was produced by Thames Television, but it included serials made by Southern Television. The format was of a twice weekly 25 minute episodes, usually scre...
Great Performances
Character:
The best in the performing arts from across America and around the world including a diverse programming portfolio of classical music, opera, popular song, musical theater, dance, drama, and performance documentaries....
Play for Today
Character: Don
Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted. The individual episodes were between fifty and a hundred minutes in duration....
Detective
Character: Bill Cartwright
A BBC anthology series featuring adaptations of detective stories over 45 episodes in three seasons that ran from 1964 to 1969. As with many BBC programmes made before the early 1970s, many of its episodes no longer exist. Of the eighteen episodes from the first season only twelve are currently known to exist; likewise six of the sixteen editions from the second run are considered lost, and just one of the final ten survives in the archives....
Suspense
Character: John Richards
Anthology series telling suspenseful tales....
Coronation Street
Character: Ted Sullivan
The residents of Coronation Street are ordinary, working-class people, and the show follows them through regular social and family interactions at home, in the workplace, and in their local pub, the Rovers Return Inn. Britain's longest-running soap....
Doctor Who
Character:
The adventures of The Doctor, a time-traveling humanoid alien known as a Time Lord. He explores the universe in his TARDIS, a sentient time-traveling spaceship. Its exterior appears as a blue British police box, which was a common sight in Britain in 1963 when the series first aired. Along with a succession of companions, The Doctor faces a variety of foes while working to save civilizations, help ordinary people, and right many wrongs....
Movie Credits
The Great Escape
Character: Sorren
The Nazis, exasperated at the number of escapes from their prison camps by a relatively small number of Allied prisoners, relocate them to a high-security 'escape-proof' camp to sit out the remainder of the war. Undaunted, the prisoners plan one of the most ambitious escape attempts of World War II. Based on a true story....
Malta Story
Character: Officer at Prison
Malta, 1942, during World War II. While the German air force is relentlessly bombing the island, a British pilot falls in love with a young Maltese girl....
Above Us the Waves
Character: Ramsey
In World War II, the greatest threat to the British navy is the German battleship Tirpitz. While anchored in a Norwegian fjord, it is impossible to attack by conventional means, so a plan is hatched for a special commando unit to attack it, using midget submarines to plant underwater explosives....
The Affair
Character: Dr. Hastings
A black soldier in World War II England begins an affair with a white woman whose husband is a soldier currently overseas in battle and in doubts of her relationship with him as she discovered he had been having an affair with his secretary....
One Good Turn
Character: Alec Bigley
Norman is the oldest orphan at Greenwood Children's Home and now acts as their caretaker. All the orphans are very happy and well cared for. The adventures start when a nasty property developer (boo hiss) who is also the chairman of the orphanage board wants to close the orphanage and build a factory on the site. The children are sent to Brighton for the day and Norman is very excited because he's "Never seen the Sea". When they get back they discover the plan to close the orphanage and have to ...
Henry V at Shakespeare's Globe
Character: King Charles VI of France / Bishop of Ely / Sir Thomas Erpingham
A documentary about Shakespeare's Globe opening performance of "Henry V" in 1997. The documentary combines the performance of Act IV with rehearsal shots and opening gala footage....
The Saint's Return
Character: Keith Merton
A private detective goes after the people who murdered his girlfriend....
Dead Man's Kit
Character: Senior Officer
After shore-leave in Lisbon for the crew of HMS Diana, Master-at-Arms 'Toby' Toberman makes an official complaint to the ship's Captain about the behaviour of an officer he saw in a casino. Following the ship's 'Sod's Opera' party, Toby is reported missing from the deck - presumed lost overboard. Was it an accident or suicide - or was he given the proverbial push?...
The Big Chance
Character: Bill Anderson
A clerk sees his big chance to escape a humdrum existence, but his resolve is tested as many unexpected obstacles arise....
Executive Order
Character:
In a dystopian future, the Brazilian government decrees a measure that forces black citizens to migrate to Africa in an attempt to return to their origins. Seeing themselves in the center of terror, two cousins take refuge in an apartment, where they debate social and racial issues, and share the same yearning for the change of country....
Doctor Who: The Daleks in Colour
Character: Ian Chesterton (archive footage)
The very first crew of the TARDIS land in a petrified forest on an alien planet. Determined to explore, the Doctor leads his companions into the metal city, where they discover danger at every corner and what will become his deadliest enemy... the mutant Daleks. It's time to encounter the Daleks once again, but this time in a way you've never seen them before. Originally transmitted in December 1963 to February 1964, the seven original episodes of the first Dalek story have received a cosmic ma...
Myth Makers 43: William Hartnell
Character:
As the very first Doctor, William Hartnell created the character that made Doctor Who a success. No other actor made such a lasting contribution to the programme or influenced it so greatly. In this special Myth Makers, Nicholas Briggs meets William’s friends, colleagues and family and explores the personality of this shy, complex and private man. With contributions from William Russell, Carole Ann Ford, Maureen O’Brien, Peter Purves, Verity Lambert, Michael Craze, Anneke Wills, Donald Tosh, C...
Return to Sender
Character: Mike Cochran
A fraudster is arrested for stealing a large sum of money from his partners. When he learns that a particularly brilliant barrister will lead the prosecution against him he sets out to undermine the credibility of the barrister....
Intimate Relations
Character: Michael
Yvonne is seething when her devoted son, Michael, declares his intention to marry Madeleine, despite the latter's admitting to having an affair with a mysterious older man. At the same time, George, Michael's father, confides in Yvonne's sister, Leo, that he is in fact Madeleine's other lover. Together, they hatch a plot to end Madeleine's hopes of marriage - by threatening to reveal George's scandalous secret to his son....
Terror
Character: Lord Garrick
The descendants of a witch hunting family and their close friends are stalked and killed by a mysterious entity....
The Share Out
Character:
A gang of high class corporate thieves use blackmail to induce their victims to sell property at knock-down prices....
The Doctors: The William Hartnell Years
Character:
This is the definitive set of interviews with the team of actors who brought the William Hartnell era of Doctor Who to life! Together with a special tribute to William Hartnell (the First Doctor), containing messages from a host of stars and production staff from Doctor Who, this also features the best in-depth interviews ever undertaken with, Carole Ann Ford (Susan), Jacqueline Hill (Barbara), William Russell (Ian), Peter Purves (Steven) and Jackie Lane (Dodo)!...
Doctor Who: The Aztecs
Character: Ian Chesterton
The TARDIS materialises inside an Aztec tomb. Outside it, the Doctor and his companions soon discover that Mexico in the 15th century is a bloodthirsty and dangerous place... And with Barbara mistaken for a reincarnation of an ancient high priest called Yetaxa, the history teacher thinks that she can put an end to the barbaric human sacrifices once and for all. But can she rewrite history without disastrous consequences?...
They Who Dare
Character: Lieutenant Poole
In Greece during the war a small group of British commandoes and patriots land on an island with orders to attack two airfields from which the Luftwaffe is threatening allied forces in Egypt. The island is crawling with troops, and even moving by night the men soon run into trouble....
Doctor Who: An Unearthly Child
Character: Ian Chesterton
Barbara Wright and Ian Chesterton, two humble teachers during 1963, discover a genius student's grandfather, simply known as "the Doctor", and his police box time machine. Deciding that the pair knows too much about his otherworldly origins, they are whisked away on a journey through time and space....
Doctor Who: The Daleks
Character: Ian Chesterton
The TARDIS brings the Doctor, Susan, Barbara, and Ian to the planet Skaro where they meet two indigenous races — the Daleks, malicious mutant creatures encased in armoured travel machines, and the Thals, beautiful humanoids with pacifist principles. They convince the Thals of the need to fight for their own survival....
Doctor Who: The Edge of Destruction
Character: Ian Chesterton
In this completely TARDIS-based story, the crew find themselves and their ship acting very strangely indeed. Blame runs high for the Ship's unusual behavior, until the Doctor realizes the TARDIS itself may be trying to warn them......
Doctor Who: Marco Polo
Character: Ian Chesterton
The TARDIS crew lands in the Himalayas of Cathay in 1289, their ship badly damaged, and are picked up by Marco Polo's caravan on its way along the fabled Silk Road to see the Emperor Kublai Khan. The story concerns the Doctor and his companions' attempts to thwart the machinations of Tegana, who attempts to sabotage the caravan along its travels through the Pamir Plateau and across the treacherous Gobi Desert, and ultimately to assassinate Kublai Khan in Peking, at the height of his imperial pow...
Doctor Who: The Sensorites
Character: Ian Chesterton
The Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Susan arrive in the TARDIS on board a spaceship. Their initial concern is for the ship's human crew, who are suffering from telepathic interference from the Sensorites, but Susan communicates with the Sensorites and finds the aliens fear an attack by the humans and are just defending themselves. Travelling to the Sense Sphere (the Sensorites' planet) the Doctor seeks to cure an illness to which the Sensorites and Ian have succumbed, but finds it has been caused by de...
Doctor Who: The Keys of Marinus
Character: Ian Chesterton
The TARDIS arrives on the planet Marinus on an island of glass surrounded by a sea of acid. The travellers are forced by the elderly Arbitan to retrieve four of the five operating keys to a machine called the Conscience of Marinus, of which he is the keeper. These have been hidden in different locations around the planet to prevent them falling into the hands of the evil Yartek and his Voord warriors, who plan to seize the machine and use its originally benevolent mind-influencing power for thei...
Doctor Who: The Reign of Terror
Character: Ian Chesterton
The TARDIS materialises not far from Paris in 1794 — one of the bloodiest years following the French Revolution of 1789. The travellers become involved with an escape chain rescuing prisoners from the guillotine and get caught up in the machinations of an English undercover spy, James Stirling — alias Lemaitre, governor of the Conciergerie prison....
Doctor Who: The Dalek Invasion of Earth
Character: Ian Chesterton
The TARDIS arrives in a desolate future London, where the Doctor discovers his old enemies the Daleks have taken control of Earth....
Doctor Who: Planet of Giants
Character: Ian Chesterton
When the TARDIS malfunctions, it and its travellers land on Earth at the size of insects. They uncover a murderous plot involving a new insecticide, but how can they stop the crime in their miniaturised condition?...
Doctor Who: The Romans
Character: Ian Chesterton
The TARDIS crew take up residence near Rome in 64AD, where Ian and Barbara are kidnapped by slave traders, and the Doctor's imitation of Maximus Pettulian sees him taken to the court of Emperor Nero where he inadvertently plays a part in deciding the course of history......
Doctor Who: The Web Planet
Character: Ian Chesterton
On the planet Vortis, the Doctor and his companions aid the butterfly-like Menoptra in their battle against the parasitic Animus and its mind-controlled minions, the ant-like Zarbi....
Doctor Who: The Rescue
Character: Ian Chesterton
On the planet Dido, the Doctor, Ian and Barbara meet two survivors from a crashed spaceship who are terrorised by the monster Koquillion....
Doctor Who: The Crusade
Character: Ian Chesterton
In 12th century Palestine, the Doctor and his friends are drawn into the holy war between the forces of King Richard the Lionheart and the Saracen ruler Saladin....
Doctor Who: The Space Museum
Character: Ian Chesterton
On the planet Xeros, the TARDIS crew discover their own future selves frozen in time as exhibits in a galactic museum and must avert this potential future....
Three Men in a Boat
Character: Doctor
One hot June day, three friends decide there is nothing they would like to do more than to get away from London. A boating holiday with lots of fresh air and exercise would be just the very thing, or so their doctors tell them. So, after debating the merits of hotel or camp beds and what to pack, they set off on their voyage - a trip up the Thames from Henley to Oxford - but very quickly find themselves ill-equipped for the trials of riverbank life....
Doctor Who: The Chase
Character: Ian Chesterton
The Doctor and his companions are pursued through time and space by the Daleks on the desert planet Aridius and beyond....
Superman
Character: 8th Elder
Mild-mannered Clark Kent works as a reporter at the Daily Planet alongside his crush, Lois Lane. Clark must summon his superhero alter-ego when the nefarious Lex Luthor launches a plan to take over the world....
Adventure Story
Character: Hephaestion
The story of Alexander the Great....
An Adventure in Space and Time
Character: Harry
Actor William Hartnell felt trapped by a succession of hard-man roles while wannabe producer Verity Lambert was frustrated by the TV industry's glass ceiling. Both of them were to find unlikely hope and unexpected challenges in the form of a Saturday tea-time drama. Allied with a team of unusual but brilliant people, they went on to create the longest running science fiction series ever made....
The Man Who Never Was
Character: Joe
The true story of a British effort to trick the Germans into weakening Sicily's defenses before the 1943 attack. A dead soldier is dressed as a British officer and outfitted with faked papers showing that the Allies were intending to invade occupied Greece. His body is put into the sea where it will ultimately drift ashore and the papers be passed along to German Intelligence....
Doctor Who: Origins
Character: Self
A 55-minute documentary, detailing the creation of Doctor Who, including a rare interview with creator Sydney Newman, and new interviews with producer Verity Lambert, directors Waris Hussein and Richard Martin, actors William Russell and Carole Ann Ford, title sequence designer Bernard Lodge, and TARDIS sound effect creator Brian Hodgson...
Creation of the Daleks
Character: Ian Chesterton (archive footage)
Featured on the "Doctor Who: The Beginning" box set and tells the story of the Creation of the Daleks....
Gift Horse
Character: Crewman
Compton Bennett's war drama The Gift Horse follows the fortunes of ageing destroyer The Ballantrae and her crew from the time they come together in 1940 until the climactic raid on occupied St Nazaire in 1942. Trevor Howard plays Lt Cmdr Hugh Alginon Fraser, the newly appointed captain, back in service after having left the navy following a court martial....
The Gay Dog
Character: Leslie Gowland
Jim Gay loves his racing greyhound but, out of town, he finds a dog with a better chance to win. His friends bet on his dog while he bets against....
Instant Enlightenment Including VAT
Character: Don
BBC Play for Today. Maximillian Schreiber runs a series of gruelling motivational courses - all coming at a cost to the participants - including VAT....
Death Watch
Character: Dr. Mason
In a future world where the disease has been finally defeated and everything can be sold, even the crude spectacle of death, the rare case of a dying woman becomes the morbid theme of a revolutionary reality show, broadcast through the curious eyes of a peculiar camera....
Over the Edge: The Story of "The Edge of Destruction"
Character: Self / Ian Chesterton
Documents the making of the Doctor Who Serial, "The Edge of Destruction". It was released on the DVD of the serial and hence in The Beginning box set....
Inside the Spaceship: The Story of the TARDIS
Character: Self / Ian Chesterton
A feature on Doctor Who: The Beginning box set which tells the stories of the Doctor's time machine - the TARDIS....
Masters of Sound
Character: Ian Chesterton (archive footage)
Documentary on the sound effects of Doctor Who in the 1960s....
The Sets of Marinus
Character: Ian Chesterton (archive footage)
The Sets of Marinus is a BBC documentary looking at set design for the Doctor Who story The Keys of Marinus. It was released on the DVD of the serial....
Remembering 'The Aztecs'
Character: Ian Chesterton (archive footage)
The guest actors of the 1964 "Doctor Who" (1963) story, "The Aztecs", reminisce about their time on the programme and making the series....
Vision On
Character: Ian Chesterton (archive footage)
Vision On was a documentary of Clive Doig discussing the role of the vision mixer in making early Doctor Who episodes, including footage and discussion of studio mishaps that occurred on screen....
Don't Lose Your Head
Character: Himself
Don't Lose Your Head was a DVD documentary concerning Doctor Who that was released on 28 January 2013....
Newsworthy - The Girl Who Saw a Tiger
Character: Mr Rose
Quiet Devonshire school girl Joanna's claim that she saw a tiger in Barrow Woods soon takes hold, in her home, at school and in the national press....