Born: 12th February 1930 (as Henry Soskin)
Died: 23rd February 2022 (aged 92 years)
Episodes Broadcast: 1967-1968

Born in London, Henry Soskin was fascinated by Egyptology as a child, and subsequently served in Egypt during his National Service with the Royal Army Service Corps. There he performed at the General Headquarters Theatre Club in Fayid, an experience which helped him earn a scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. After graduating in 1952, Soskin worked in repertory theatre and on the radio before he moved into television in the mid-Fifties, where he earned credits on shows like Boyd QC, Our Mutual Friend and Spy-Catcher. His acting career continued in the Sixties, with appearances on programmes such as Strange Concealments, The Avengers, Z Cars, and as no fewer than four characters in No Hiding Place. Aware of Soskin's interest in Egyptology, producer-director Cecil Petty not only cast him in 1961's Secrets Of The Nubian Tomb, but also prevailed upon him to revise the scripts. The result was a second career as a writer, with other early credits coming on an episode of The Barnstormers, as well as numerous contributions to Emergency -- Ward 10 under the pen name “Ken Hauttman” (derived from “Tutankhamen”).

During a 1963 appearance on No Hiding Place, Soskin met actor Mervyn Haisman, and the two subsequently agreed to form a writing partnership. Soskin was a friend of Patrick Troughton's, with whom he had acted on several occasions, and a chance encounter with Troughton inspired Soskin to suggest that he and Haisman submit ideas for Doctor Who, on which Troughton was then playing the Second Doctor. The result was 1967's The Abominable Snowmen; it was at this stage that Soskin adopted the pseudonym “Henry Lincoln” for his authorial endeavours, to avoid giving the impression that he had abandoned acting. For this serial, Haisman and Lincoln created the robotic Yeti and their master, the Great Intelligence, and their popularity was such that the writers were quickly asked to bring them back in 1968's The Web Of Fear. Their second serial introduced Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart, as played by Nicholas Courtney; promoted to Brigadier and made head of the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce (UNIT), the character would become a lynchpin of Doctor Who in the early Seventies.

Lincoln and Mervyn Haisman's third Yeti story, “The Laird Of McCrimmon”, was abandoned

Having enjoyed considerable success with their first two Doctor Who adventures, Haisman and Lincoln were quickly asked to provide another story for later in 1968. This was The Dominators which, unfortunately, proved to be a much more tumultuous project. First the serial was truncated by an episode against the writers' wishes, leading them to demand that it be transmitted under the alias “Norman Ashby”, created from the names of their fathers-in-law. Then, a dispute arose regarding merchandise rights for the Quarks, which had been introduced in The Dominators. The pair would never write for Doctor Who again; a third Yeti story they were working on, “The Laird Of McCrimmon”, was abandoned.

Haisman and Lincoln went on to write the screenplay for the 1968 horror movie Curse Of The Crimson Altar, starring Boris Karloff and Christopher Lee, and episodes of television programmes such as The Expert. Their partnership ended in the early Seventies, by which time Lincoln had become fascinated by a purported connection between the village of Rennes-le-Château in southern France and the Knights Templar. Lincoln wrote a series of documentaries for Chronicle exploring these theories, and relocated to the region; his final acting credits came in the mid-Seventies for French television.

In 1982, Lincoln co-wrote a best-selling book called The Holy Blood And The Holy Grail with Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, which drew upon his research into the Knights Templar. Some of the ideas propounded in their text subsequently inspired Dan Brown's 2003 novel The Da Vinci Code, which became a worldwide sensation. In later life, Lincoln continued to explore the history of Rennes-le-Château and he wrote several further documentaries on the subject. He had four children with Patricia Cope, although their marriage ultimately ended in divorce. Lincoln died on February 23rd, 2022.