Doctor Who actor Bernard Cribbins dead at 93

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Doctor Who actor Bernard Cribbins dead at 93

Bernard Cribbins, a British actor who had roles on Doctor Who and Fawlty Towers and whose contributions to children’s programs delighted young audiences over a seven-decade career, has died, his agent said on Thursday. He was 93.

In an opinionmanagement and talent agency Gavin Barker Associates, did not say when or where Mr. Cribbins died.

Mr Cribbins worked well into the ’90s, in a career that influenced some of the UK’s best-known comedy, drama and children’s programmes, according to the agency. He began acting at the age of 14 with the Oldham Repertory Company. This phase of stage work expanded into other media, including television and film, for which he became widely known, according to IMDB.

For three decades, Mr Cribbins was a regular on ‘Jackanory’, a BBC children’s show in which an actor read books to a young audience. The program, which ran from 1965 to 1996, was designed to stimulate interest in reading.

In one of his more than 100 readings of The Wizard of Oz in 1970, Mr. Cribbins added a full dramatic repertoire of whispers, quivers and screeches to the voices of Dorothy the Cowardly Lion, the Wizard and other characters.

When he received a BAFTA special award in 2009, he got serious in an interview when asked about the hugely popular “Jackanory” and how it influenced young audiences.

“All you have to do,” he said, “is look through the lens, find a kid, and just talk to that kid. And you draw them in.”

“It really works, and you think there’s going to be little kids across the country who’ll be like, ‘Wait a minute, Mom,’ and they’ll be watching. And the stories, like I said, were wonderful,” he said.

Mr Cribbins was born on December 29, 1928 in Oldham, England, just outside Manchester, according to IMDB. After his early career, he narrated The Wombles, a 1970s animated television show developed from a series of books about subterranean creatures, and joined the cast of the sci-fi TV series Doctor Who from 2007 to 2010. at. He also appeared in a 1966 Doctor Who film, Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 AD.

In the television series, revived by producer Russell T. Davies in 2005, Mr. Cribbins had a recurring role as the grandfather of one of the Doctor’s companions, Donna Noble, played by Catherine Tate. in the an Instagram post On Thursday, Mr Davies wrote that Mr Cribbins “loved being in Doctor Who. He said, ‘Kids call me Grandpa on the street!’”

Mr Davies wrote that Mr Cribbins once “turned up with a suitcase full of props, just in case, including a rubber chicken”. He added: “He called and said, ‘I have an idea! What if I attack a Dalek with a paintball gun?!’ Okay, Bernard, it went in!”

Mr Cribbins also starred in the 1970 film The Railway Children, based on the Edith Nesbit children’s book. A review in The New York Times called it “a thoroughly lovable little British film” and said Mr Cribbins was “superb” as stationmaster Albert Perks in a “simple tale of three children frolicking in a Yorkshire village and a loving… Sharing kindness learned at home.”

In 1975, Mr. Cribbins starred in an episode of the comedy series Fawlty Towers starring John Cleese as the hapless manager of a seaside hotel. Mr. Cribbins played a guest who was mistaken by Mr. Cleese’s character for a hotel inspector who tries to order a cheese salad for lunch and is served an omelet instead.

A list of survivors was not immediately available. Mr Cribbins’ wife, actress Gillian McBarnet, died in October last year.

In the interview following the 2009 BAFTA awards ceremony, Mr. Cribbins and fellow Doctor Who actress Ms. Tate spoke about how time had flown during his long career.

“I can remember a lot of things with absolute clarity, absolute recollection,” he said, before jokingly adding, “I have stories I haven’t even thought of.”

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