Born: 17th April 1942 (as David John Bradley)
Episodes Broadcast: 2013, 2017, 2022

York native David Bradley was an accomplished singer in his youth, which led to his involvement in stage musicals. After finishing his schooling, he initially pursued an apprenticeship with a manufacturer of optical instruments. However, Bradley had maintained an interest in amateur dramatics, and he was encouraged to apply to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Having been rejected twice, he persevered and was finally accepted in 1966. After graduating in 1969, Bradley's first professional acting job was in repertory theatre at Sheffield Playhouse.

Bradley made his television debut in 1971 with an episode of Nearest And Dearest, and he secured a recurring role on A Family At War soon thereafter. Appearances in shows like The Professionals came later in the Seventies, but his focus was on the stage, including a spell at the National Theatre, and then the first of several seasons with the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1978. Bradley and his wife, Rosanna, were married the same year; they would have three children. He added the silver screen to his repertoire in 1979, with a role in The Frisco Kid starring Gene Wilder and Harrison Ford.

In 1991, Bradley won a Laurence Olivier Award for his performance as the Fool in King Lear

Occasional television work during the Eighties included Coronation Street and Shadow Of The Noose, while Stephen Frears' Prick Up Your Ears was Bradley's lone film that decade. In 1991, he won a Laurence Olivier Award for his performance as the Fool in William Shakespeare's King Lear at the Royal National Theatre. Bradley became more active on television in the Nineties, counting Martin Chuzzlewit, Our Friends In The North, Reckless and Our Mutual Friend amongst his credits. Another movie role came in Left Luggage with Isabella Rossellini.

The cinema featured more prominently in Bradley's resume after the turn of the century. Most notably, he was the curmudgeonly Hogwarts caretaker Argus Filch in the Harry Potter franchise, but he also had parts in the likes of horror prequel Exorcist: The Beginning, cult classic comedy Hot Fuzz, and Michael Caine thriller Harry Brown. Amongst Bradley's television projects were Wild West, Blackpool, Ideal, and Terry Pratchett adaptation The Colour Of Magic.

Bradley's first brush with Doctor Who came in 2010, when he provided the voice for one of the vulture-like Shansheeth in Death Of The Doctor for the spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures. More genre roles soon followed, including the Marvel super-hero movie Captain America: The First Avenger and Simon Pegg/Edgar Wright collaboration The World's End; during a lengthy run in the fantasy series Game Of Thrones, his character initiated the notorious Red Wedding. Bradley could also be seen in shows like Mount Pleasant, Prisoners Wives and Broadchurch, the latter developed by future Doctor Who showrunner Chris Chibnall.

In 2012, Bradley appeared in Doctor Who itself, taking the role of the black-hearted Solomon in Dinosaurs On A Spaceship, a Chibnall script for Matt Smith's Eleventh Doctor. The following year, he portrayed none other than William Hartnell, the original actor to play the Doctor, in the docudrama An Adventure In Space And Time. Bradley next starred in Guillermo del Toro's vampire series The Strain, and he could be heard in the producer's animated programme Trollhunters and its sequels. A string of horror films included The Lodgers and Await Further Instructions.

In 2017, Bradley became the third actor to play the First Doctor

Meanwhile, Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat had decided to bring the First Doctor back for Peter Capaldi's swansong as the Twelfth Doctor. Acting on a suggestion from Capaldi himself, Moffat offered the part to Bradley on the basis of his performance in An Adventure In Space And Time. With a cameo appearance in the 2017 finale, The Doctor Falls, and then a more substantial role in that year's Christmas special, Twice Upon A Time, Bradley became the third actor to play the First Doctor, after Hartnell and Richard Hurndall. He also began to voice the character in audio dramas from Big Finish Productions, starting with 2017's The First Doctor Adventures Volume One.

Bradley remained busy on television during the latter years of the 2010s, including in Les Misérables, Britannia and After Life. His work in the Twenties led off with a number of movies, amongst them Jolt with Kate Beckinsale, Catherine Called Birdy starring former Doctor Who companion Billie Piper, and the Academy Award-winning animated film Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio. In 2022, Chibnall invited Bradley to reprise the role of the First Doctor in The Power Of The Doctor. The special saw him reunited with his Broadchurch co-star, Jodie Whittaker, in her final adventure as the Thirteenth Doctor.