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[[File:tombaker.jpg|link=Doctor Who|frame| [[Catch Phrase|Would you care for a jelly baby?]]]]
{{quote|
Thomas Stewart Baker (born 20 January, 1934) '''is''' ''[[Doctor Who]]''. An old story goes that if you don't know what Tom Baker looks like, all you need to do is close your eyes and think of the Doctor... and that's him. Curly hair, floppy hat, long multi-coloured scarf and toothy grin. Instantly recognisable. Even today, over thirty years since leaving the role, he's generally accepted as being the
Born in [[Oop North|Liverpool]], Baker initially studied to become a monk, but he dropped out when he realised that a life of isolation wasn't for him. He gravitated towards acting, mostly as an understudy on stage. He gained plaudits for his role as [[Ra Ra Rasputin|Grigori Rasputin]] in ''Nicholas And Alexandra'', and this led to several other film and television roles, among them the evil magician Koura in the movie ''[[
Nevertheless, the forty-year-old actor was working on a London building site as a bricklayer (and, by his own account, was of "no fixed abode") when he got lucky. Very lucky. Being known socially to the head of BBC drama and his wife ([[Double Entendre|no sniggering at the back please]]), Baker's name came up in discussion as a possibility when the producers of ''[[Doctor Who]]'' were looking for somebody to replace the departing [[Jon Pertwee]]. A meeting was arranged between Baker and the two men who were in overall charge of the series, producer Barry Letts and script editor [[
At the time of his casting, Baker was by far the ''least'' well-known actor to have ever played the Doctor. [[William Hartnell]], [[Patrick Troughton]] and [[Jon Pertwee]] had all been much-loved character actors, even before playing the role, whereas Baker had largely been a supporting artist. It's somewhat ironic, therefore, that Baker ended up being the longest
In 1981, Baker left ''Doctor Who'', handing over the reins to [[Peter Davison]]. Accounts vary on exactly why he left. One popular story is that Baker tendered his resignation to the new producer of the series as a joke, believing that his massive popularity with the public would never see it accepted, only to be surprised when the producer replied "Sure... when do you want to leave?". Commentary in the "New Beginnings" DVD boxed set suggests that John Nathan-Turner, the new first-year producer of the series, felt that Baker had gotten complacent and overbearing on set and tried to rein him in. Baker wasn't fond of many of the changes Nathan-Turner began making and suggested to him, as he had done with other producers in the past, that perhaps it was time to move on. He expected to be asked to stay on, but was half-surprised when his offer was accepted.
Baker also maintained his Doctor persona to a large extent in public, [[Contractual Purity|never smoking or drinking in public]] and making frequent in-character appearances as the Time Lord.
He subsequently made several appearances in productions as diverse as ''[[
In late 2013, he made a new appearance as the Doctor in the ''Doctor Who'' 50th anniversary special, "The Day of the Doctor"; surprisingly, {{spoiler|it wasn't, strictly speaking, as the fourth Doctor, but as a future regeneration who had chosen to "revisit old favorite faces", and was now retired and serving as the curator of a Royal art museum}}.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Actors]]
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