Born: 16th February 1964
Episodes Broadcast: 2005, 2013

Although he starred in Doctor Who for just one year, Christopher Eccleston was perhaps the programme's most pivotal choice of lead actor since Patrick Troughton demonstrated the public's willingness to accept a new Doctor in 1966. The face of the show's twenty-first-century resurgence, Eccleston was born in Salford, Lancashire. He aspired to play football for Manchester United, but instead discovered a passion for acting in his late teens. Eccleston spent two years studying performance at Salford Tech, and then attended the Central School of Speech and Drama. However, he struggled to find work and took a variety of jobs, including posing nude as an artists' model.

Eccleston's professional break came in 1989, when he was cast in A Streetcar Named Desire at the Bristol Old Vic. Although the stage was his first love, he made his television debut in Blood Rights in 1990, before earning small roles in shows like Casualty and Inspector Morse. Eccleston then won acclaim for his performance in the 1991 movie Let Him Have It. He co-starred in the first season of Cracker, before asking to be written out early in its second run. Other Nineties television included Hearts And Minds, Our Friends In The North and Hillsborough. On the silver screen, Eccleston starred in the 1994 Danny Boyle cult classic Shallow Grave, while smaller roles could be found in Elizabeth with Cate Blanchett and the science-fiction thriller eXistenZ, amongst others. His first brush with Doctor Who occurred when he was asked to audition for the American co-production that became Doctor Who (1996). At the time, however, Eccleston was not interested in associating himself with such an established television property.

Eccleston tackled the lead role in Russell T Davies' The Second Coming

Eccleston maintained a steady presence in movies following the turn of the century, appearing in Gone In Sixty Seconds with Nicholas Cage and two well-reviewed horror films: The Others with Nicole Kidman and Boyle's 28 Days Later.... On television, Eccleston was becoming closely associated with Nicola Shindler's production company, Red. He worked on episodes of Clocking Off and Linda Green, and had an award-winning turn in the telefilm Flesh And Blood. Eccleston then tackled the lead role in The Second Coming, which Shindler co-produced with Russell T Davies. Amongst his other work was a modern retelling of Othello under producer Julie Gardner. When Davies was tasked with bringing Doctor Who back to television in 2005, with Gardner as one of his fellow executive producers, Eccleston asked that he be considered for the role of the Doctor. He was independently suggested to Davies and Gardner by the revived programme's other executive producer, Mal Young.

So it was that Eccleston made his debut as the Ninth Doctor in Rose. But although his reinvention of the role was widely heralded, the reality was that he had already quit Doctor Who. With the early days of the production having been inordinately fraught, Eccleston's relationship with Davies quickly deteriorated. Just twelve weeks after his first appearance as the fantastic Ninth Doctor, he handed off to his successor, David Tennant, in The Parting Of The Ways. Eccleston spent much of the rest of the decade working in Hollywood, including the films The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising and GI Joe: The Rise Of Cobra, plus several episodes of the super-powered drama Heroes. He acknowledged that these projects were often terrible, but they paid well enough to subsidise his more creatively challenging and meaningful work.

Eccleston's television credits during the 2010s included Lennon Naked, The Shadow Line, The Leftovers and The A Word, while Thor: The Dark World was amongst his movie appearances. Eccleston was approached about appearing in the Doctor Who fiftieth-anniversary special The Day Of The Doctor, but he ultimately decided against participating, with executive producer Steven Moffat instead developing the War Doctor incarnation played by John Hurt. In 2011, Eccleston married a copywriter named Mischka. Son Albert was born in 2012, and daughter Esme arrived the following year. Eccleston and his wife were divorced in 2015.

In 2019, Eccleston published an autobiography entitled I Love The Bones Of You: My Father And The Making Of Me, from Simon & Schuster. In it, he revealed his lifelong struggles with mental illness, including body dysmorphia, eating disorders and clinical depression. Indeed, Eccleston had contemplated suicide following the breakdown of his marriage, which was fortunately averted when he admitted himself to a psychiatric hospital. Eccleston's career continued into the Twenties, with a starring role in Close To Me. He also reprised the Ninth Doctor for a series of audio plays from Big Finish Productions, beginning with Ravagers in 2021.