Born: 22nd September 1944 (as Frazer Simpson Frederick Hines)
Episodes Broadcast: 1966-1969, 1983, 1985

Frazer Hines was born in Horsforth, Yorkshire. His mother hailed from Port Glasgow, Scotland, which facilitated Hines' ability to adopt an authentic Scots accent. It was also his mother who enrolled him in dance classes as a young child, and the talent he displayed there paved the way for his admission to the Corona Theatre School at age nine. A year later, Hines began appearing in television commercials and as an extra in movies, starting with 1955's John And Julie. Bigger cinematic roles followed, such as in the 1956 sci-fi/horror X The Unknown from Hammer Films. Hines was also in the 1957 movie A King In New York, which featured Charlie Chaplin's last leading role.

It was on television, however, that Hines would become prolific, starting with Fifties programmes such as Huntingtower, The Silver Sword, Run To Earth and Queen's Champion. As the Sixties dawned, Hines started to branch out beyond juvenile fare, appearing in episodes of shows like Suspense, Dr Finlay's Casebook and Emergency -- Ward 10. He had recurring roles on the soap operas Compact and Coronation Street, but refused to commit himself to long-term engagements. In 1964, he starred opposite Patrick Troughton in the children's serial Smuggler's Bay. Two years later, Troughton became the Second Doctor in Doctor Who. At the suggestion of Shaun Sutton, who had produced Huntingtower and was now the BBC's Head of Serials, Hines was cast in the guest role of young piper Jamie McCrimmon for Troughton's second serial, The Highlanders. When the Doctor Who production team made the last-minute decision to retain Jamie as a new companion, Hines agreed to stay on the show. Ironically, a few months earlier, Hines had unsuccessfully auditioned for the role of fellow companion Ben Jackson.

His role as Jamie helped make Hines a late-Sixties heartthrob

His role as Jamie helped make Hines a late-Sixties heartthrob. He attempted to parlay his fame into pop chart success, but his 1968 single Who's Dr Who? fizzled. Under pressure from his agent, Hines contemplated leaving Doctor Who partway through his third year, in the ultimately unmade “The Prison In Space”. Troughton persuaded him to remain until the end of the season, so that the two actors could depart together in The War Games. During his time on Doctor Who, Hines was twice joined by his brother, Ian, who was an extra on The Enemy Of The World and a Toy Soldier on The Mind Robber. For a time Hines dated his co-star, Deborah Watling, after she left the programme.

The two years following Doctor Who were lean ones for Hines, who wound up employed for a time by the Post Office. In 1972, however, Hines won the starring role of Joe Sugden in the new Yorkshire Television soap opera Emmerdale Farm. Sadly, this precluded an appearance as Jamie in The Three Doctors later the same year. Fortunately, Hines was able to make a cameo appearance in 1983's twentieth-anniversary special The Five Doctors. Around the same time, Hines quit playing Joe Sugden in an unsuccessful attempt to save his marriage to actress Gemma Craven, whom he had wed in 1981; they divorced in 1984, and Hines rejoined Emmerdale Farm soon thereafter. He also returned to the role of Jamie McCrimmon in a more substantial way for The Two Doctors, joining not just Patrick Troughton but also Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor.

Hines remained on Emmerdale (as it had become known) until 1994, when he departed for the sake of his second marriage, to waterskiier Liz Hobbs. For the remainder of the Nineties, he appeared on television only rarely, such as in episodes of Out Of Sight. Hines worked mainly on the stage, focussing on pantomimes and mysteries, and he also raised horses. His autobiography, entitled Films, Farms And Fillies, was published in 1996 by Boxtree. In 1999, Hines was diagnosed with colorectal cancer, which he battled for more than a decade.

In the twenty-first century, Hines' occasional television credits included episodes of Dalziel And Pascoe and Doctors. In 2015, he appeared in the time-travel fantasy series Outlander; a main character, Jamie Fraser, had been inspired by Jamie McCrimmon. In 2007, Hines began reprising Jamie for the range of Doctor Who audio dramas from Big Finish Productions, starting with Helicon Prime, an entry in The Companion Chronicles series. He also appeared as Jamie in a 2023 episode of Tales Of The TARDIS on BBC iPlayer, which featured an abridged version of The Mind Robber. An updated autobiography, now called Hines Sight, was released by Telos Publishing in 2009. In 2013, Telos also issued a photo memoir entitled Fifty Shades Of Frazer: A Life In Pictures. In 2023, Hines wrote a new adaptation of The Evil Of The Daleks for BBC Books.