Alexander "Sandy" McDonald (born 5 November 1937)^[1] is a retired Scottish minister. He served as a minister of the Church of Scotland, and was the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland (1997-8).

McDonald was born in Bishopbriggs in 1937, the son of Jessie Helen Low and Alexander M. McDonald.^[1] He worked in the timber industry in the 1950s, prior to National Service in the Royal Air Force.

Following theological studies in the 1960s, he served as minister at St David's Parish Church, Bathgate (1968-1974), then at St Mark's Parish Church, Ralston (1974-1988) and then as General Secretary of the Church of Scotland's Board of Ministry until he retired in 2002. He was Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland 1997-8. His formal title (following the end of his Moderatorial year) is The Very Reverend Dr. Alexander McDonald.

Television career[link]

In the early 1980s, he co-presented the Scottish Television religious magazine programme 'That's The Spirit!'.

Personal life[link]

He survives his wife Helen,^[2] who died on 15 July 2007.^[2] He has a daughter, Karen, and two sons, Blair, and actor David Tennant, who played the role of Doctor Who. In May 2008, he made a cameo appearance in the Doctor Who episode "The Unicorn and the Wasp," playing the part of a footman alongside his son.

References[link]

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Alexander McDonald
United States Senator from Arkansas
In office June 22, 1868 – March 4, 1871
Preceded by	William K. Sebastian
Succeeded by	Powell Clayton
Personal details
Born	(1832-04-10)April 10, 1832 Lock Haven, Pennsylvania
Died	December 13, 1903(1903-12-13) (aged 71) Norwood, New York
Political party	Republican

Alexander McDonald (April 10, 1832 – December 13, 1903) was a Republican politician who represented Arkansas in the U.S. Senate from 1868 to 1871.

Biography[link]

McDonald was born near Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, and attended Dickinson Seminary, in Williamsport, and Lewisburg University. In 1857, he moved to Kansas and became involved in business, serving in the Union Army during the Civil War. Upon completion of his service, McDonald grew interested in banking in Arkansas (in 1863), finally settling in Little Rock. He served as a member of the state's constitutional convention; upon readmission to the Union he was elected to the Senate in 1868, serving only one term before being defeated for reelection in 1870. McDonald was later commissioned by Chester A. Arthur to examine the conditions of portions of the Northern Pacific Railroad, which duty he discharged in 1885. Later in his career, he became interested in the development of railroads, moving to New York City in 1900. McDonald died in Norwood, New York; his body was returned to Lock Haven for burial.

External links[link]

Biography portal

• Brief biography at Infoplease
• Alexander McDonald at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress Retrieved on 2008-09-27

v t e United States Senators from Arkansas Class 2 Fulton Ashley Sebastian McDonald Clayton Garland Berry Davis Heiskell Kavanaugh Robinson Miller Spencer McClellan Hodges D. Pryor Hutchinson M. Pryor Class 3 Sevier Borland Johnson Mitchel Rice Dorsey Walker Jones Clarke Kirby T. Caraway H. Caraway Fulbright Bumpers Lincoln Boozman

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John Korty (born July 22, 1936) is an American film director and animator, best known for the television film The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman and the documentary Who Are the DeBolts? And Where Did They Get Nineteen Kids?, as well as the theatrical animated feature Twice Upon a Time. He has won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature (for Who Are the DeBolts?) and several other major awards. He is described by the film critic Leonard Maltin as "a principled filmmaker who has worked both outside and within the mainstream, attempting to find projects that support his humanistic beliefs".^[1]

Early life and career[link]

Born in Lafayette, Indiana, he began making amateur films while still in his teens. He took a liberal arts education at Antioch College in Ohio and obtained work as an animator for television commercials while still in school. He graduated in 1959.^[2] In a 1963 article he wrote for the Bolex Reporter^[3] he notes that he first took an interest in animation during his second year at Antioch. He developed a cut-out technique and also used various other imaging methods including scratching the film stock, painting, and using objects such as photographs, string, cloth and scissors. He would continue to develop these techniques in projects through his career, culminating in his 1984 animated feature Twice Upon a Time. Using a Bolex H-16 camera, his television commercial work amounted to more than 30 spots, which he made with four other students at Antioch.

His 1964 short Breaking the Habit was nominated for the Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject.

Film[link]

While most of his later work has been for television, he actually started in film before moving to the small screen. In 1964, he moved to Stinson Beach in Marin County, north of San Francisco. There he made three feature films in four years. They were successful, low-budget projects.^[4] His first was the little-seen drama The Crazy-Quilt (1966), with narration by Burgess Meredith.^[5] The others were Riverrun^[6] and Funnyman, featuring performances by the comedy troupe The Committee Theatre. His barn was his studio (Korty Films), and it would become an inspiration for George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola who also established studios in the San Francisco Bay Area.^[7] Korty Films would become part of what was later called the "New Hollywood". Korty actually became a tenant at Coppola's Zoetrope Studios in San Francisco, though he later moved out when Coppola raised the rents.^[8] The company finally settled in Point Reyes Station, California.

Other feature films directed or produced by Korty included such well-known titles as Oliver's Story (1978) and Twice Upon a Time, a George Lucas-produced animated fantasy originally aired as an HBO feature in June 1984 and later released theatrically by Warner Bros.^[9][10] The film lost money, and Korty would not return to animated productions for more than twenty years.^[11] He also served as a cinematographer for a few films including the Robert Redford feature The Candidate.

Television[link]

His most highly lauded work was in television. He was active in the medium from the early 1970s until the late 1990s. He became known in the field in 1971 as director of The People. The film starred Kim Darby and William Shatner, was produced by Francis Ford Coppola, and was based on the science-fiction novel The Pilgrimage by Zenna Henderson.^[12] In 1974, Korty won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series and a Directors Guild of America award for his filmed adaptation of The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman.^[13] Four years later, the Directors Guild of America gave him an award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary for his documentary feature Who Are the DeBolts? And Where Did They Get Nineteen Kids?. The film had previously won an Academy Award in the documentary category.

Other films included Go Ask Alice (1970); an adaptation of Farewell to Manzanar (1976); and A Christmas Without Snow (1980). He also made the Star Wars spin-off adventure Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure (1984). One of his more recent films was an adaptation of the Rudyard Kipling story of the supernatural called "They", filmed as They Watch.

In early-1997, he produced animation of the Nick Jr. logo and Blue for a Blues Clues commercial.

In 2004, he produced a scene parodying Blue's Clues for the television special Channel Chasers.

[edit] Sesame Street shorts

In the mid-1970s and late-1980s, several Korty animated shorts were featured on the PBS children's programs The Electric Company and Sesame Street. These segments featured moral tales including at least one adaptation of Aesop's Fables. There was a recurring character known as Thelma Thumb, and all of the films (some as short as 18 seconds) used Korty's backlit cut-out technique which he called Lumage (Luminous Image). He tended to use a synthetic fabric called Pellon for the Sesame Street animations, which lent a consistent style to the work. Improv actors often ad-libbed the dialogue, and child performers were sometimes used. Among the children was the sister of David Fincher. David Fincher worked for Korty and would later gain recognition as a director himself.^[14]

Internet[link]

In 2006, inspired by the state of political debate in America at the time, Korty produced two short animated pieces which he posted to the World Wide Web.^[15] They feature two characters, Brock & Throck, in cynical discussions about the political landscape. Korty was quoted in a news release, "This summer, I found some sketches from my very first experiments. One in particular was perfect for a dialogue between two characters - a single zigzag line that can function as the profile for either face. I had put it away, waiting for the right subject matter. The wait was fifty years."^[16]

"Fog City Maverick"[link]

He was one of several San Francisco film veterans profiled in the 2007 documentary film, Fog City Mavericks.^[17]

Major awards[link]

• Emmy for The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1974).
• Oscar (documentary) (1977) for Who Are the DeBolts? And Where Did They Get Nineteen Kids?
• DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary (1978) for Who Are the DeBolts? And Where Did They Get Nineteen Kids?
• Emmy for Outstanding Individual Achievement - Informational Program (1979) for Who Are the DeBolts? And Where Did They Get Nineteen Kids?
• Humanitas Prize for Farewell to Manzanar and Who Are the DeBolts? And Where Did They Get Nineteen Kids? (Special Awards Category, 1979)

References[link]

External links[link]

• John Korty's Website
• John Korty at the Internet Movie Database
• John Korty entry at Muppet Wiki
• AllMovie bio
• Leonard Maltin bio
• Blog featuring several Sesame Street shorts
• Imdb Page of the film The Crazy-Quilt

David Tennant
David Tennant at Comic-Con 2009
Born	David John McDonald (1971-04-18) 18 April 1971 (age 41) Bathgate, West Lothian, Scotland
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1987–present
Spouse	Georgia Moffett (2011–present)
Children	1 daughter, 1 son (adopted)
Parents	Alexander McDonald Helen McDonald (deceased)[1]

David Tennant (born David John McDonald; 18 April 1971) is a Scottish actor. In addition to his work in theatre, including a widely praised Hamlet,^[2][3] Tennant is best known for his role as the tenth incarnation of the Doctor in Doctor Who, along with the title role in the TV serial Casanova (2005) and as Barty Crouch, Jr., in the film Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005).

Early life[link]

Tennant was born in Bathgate, West Lothian, Scotland, the son of Essdale Helen (née McLeod) and The Rev. Alexander McDonald (known to family and friends as Sandy McDonald).^[4] He grew up with his brother Blair and sister Karen^[5] in Ralston, Renfrewshire, where his father was the local Church of Scotland minister.^[6][7][8] Tennant's maternal great-grandparents, William and Agnes Blair, were staunch Protestants from Derry in Ulster, the northern province of Ireland, and were among the signatories of the Ulster Covenant in 1912; William was a member of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland. Tennant's maternal grandfather, footballer Archie McLeod, met William and Agnes's daughter Nellie while playing for Derry City.^[9]

At the age of three, Tennant told his parents that he wanted to become an actor because he was a fan of Doctor Who,^[10] but they tried to encourage him to aim for more conventional work.^[5] He watched almost every Doctor Who episode for years, and he spoke to Tom Baker at a book-signing event in Glasgow.^[5] Tennant says he was "absurdly single-minded" in pursuing an acting career. Tennant was educated at Ralston Primary and Paisley Grammar School, where he enjoyed a fruitful relationship with English language teacher Moira Robertson, who was among the first to recognise his potential.^[11] He acted in school productions throughout primary and secondary school.

Tennant's talent at this young age was spotted by actress Edith MacArthur; after seeing his first role at age 11, she told his parents he would become a successful stage actor.^[12] Tennant also attended Saturday classes at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama; at 16, he passed an audition for the Academy, one of their youngest students, and studied there between the ages of 17–20, taking his stage name from the Pet Shop Boys frontman Neil Tennant^[13] after reading a copy of Smash Hits magazine^[14] because there was another David McDonald already on the books of the Equity union. Tennant was flatmates with friend Louise Delamere while at the Academy and gained a bachelor's degree.

Career[link]

Early work[link]

Tennant made his professional acting debut while still in secondary school. When he was 16 he acted in an anti-smoking film made by the Glasgow Health Board which aired on television and was also screened in schools.^[12] The following year, he played a role in an episode of Dramarama. Tennant's first professional role upon graduating from drama school was in a staging of The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui costarring Ashley Jensen, one of a few plays in which he performed as part of the agitprop 7:84 Theatre Company. Tennant also made an early television appearance in the Scottish TV sitcom Rab C Nesbitt as a transsexual barmaid called Davina. In the 1990s, Tennant appeared in several plays at the Dundee Repertory Theatre.^[15]

Tennant's first major TV role was as the manic depressive Campbell in the Scottish drama series Takin' Over the Asylum (1994). During filming, Tennant met comic actress and writer Arabella Weir. When he moved to London shortly afterwards he lodged with Weir for five years and became godfather to her youngest child. He has subsequently appeared alongside Weir in many productions; as a guest in her spoof television series, Posh Nosh; in the Doctor Who audio drama Exile—during which Weir played an alternate version of the Doctor—and as panellists on the West Wing Ultimate Quiz on More4 (Weir later guest-starred on Doctor Who itself after Tennant left the series). One of his earliest big screen roles was in Jude (1996), in which he shared a scene with Christopher Eccleston, playing a drunken undergraduate who challenges Eccleston's Jude to prove his intellect. Coincidentally, Eccleston later portrayed the incarnation of The Doctor immediately preceding Tennant's.

Tennant developed his career in the British theatre, frequently performing with the Royal Shakespeare Company. His first Shakespearean role for the RSC was in As You Like It (1996); having auditioned for the role of Orlando, the romantic lead, he was instead cast as the jester Touchstone, which he played in his natural Scottish accent.^[16] He subsequently specialised in comic roles, playing Antipholus of Syracuse in The Comedy of Errors and Captain Jack Absolute in The Rivals, although he also played the tragic role of Romeo in Romeo and Juliet.

Tennant also contributed to several audio dramatisations of Shakespeare for the Arkangel Shakespeare series (1998). His roles include a reprisal of his Antipholus of Syracuse in The Comedy of Errors, as well as Launcelot Gobbo in The Merchant of Venice, Edgar/Poor Tom in King Lear, and Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, all of which he performs in his natural accent. In 1995, Tennant appeared at the Royal National Theatre, London, playing the role of Nicholas Beckett in Joe Orton's What the Butler Saw. The plot required Tennant to appear naked on stage. In television, Tennant appeared in the first episode of Reeves and Mortimer's revamped Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) in 2000, playing an eccentric artist. This is one of his few TV roles in his native Scottish accent.

During the Christmas season of 2002, he starred in a series of television advertisements for Boots the Chemists.^[17] Tennant began to appear on television more prominently in 2004 and 2005, when he appeared in a dramatisation of He Knew He Was Right (2004), Blackpool (2004), Casanova (2005) and The Quatermass Experiment (2005). In film, he appeared in Stephen Fry's Bright Young Things (2003) and played Barty Crouch Jr. in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005).

[edit] Doctor Who (2005–2010)

Tennant with Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies (left), regular director Euros Lyn (centre right), and executive producer Julie Gardner (right) at Comic-Con in July 2009

Doctor Who returned to British screens in 2005, with Christopher Eccleston playing the role of the Ninth Doctor. After Eccleston's announcement on 31 March 2005 that he would not be returning for a second series, the BBC confirmed Tennant as his replacement in a press release on 16 April 2005. He made his first, brief appearance as the Tenth Doctor in the episode "The Parting of the Ways" (2005) at the end of the regeneration scene, and also appeared in a special 7-minute mini-episode shown as part of the 2005 Children in Need appeal, broadcast on 18 November 2005. He began filming the new series of Doctor Who in late July 2005. His first full-length outing as the Doctor was a 60-minute special, "The Christmas Invasion", first broadcast on Christmas Day 2005.

Tennant has expressed enthusiasm about fulfilling his childhood dream. He remarked to an interviewer for GWR FM, "Who wouldn't want to be the Doctor? I've even got my own TARDIS!" In 2006, readers of Doctor Who Magazine voted Tennant 'Best Doctor!', over perennial favourite Tom Baker.^[18] In 2007, Tennant's Doctor was voted the "coolest character" on UK television in a Radio Times survey.^[19] When Tennant was cast as Eccleston's successor, he had wanted to use his native Scottish accent and become 'the first kilted Doctor' according to an interview in the Daily Star, but writer Russell T Davies did not want the Doctor's accent 'touring the regions', so he used "estuary" English instead.

Tennant had previously had a small role in the BBC's animated Doctor Who webcast Scream of the Shalka. Not originally cast in the production, Tennant happened to be recording a radio play in a neighbouring studio, and when he discovered what was being recorded next door managed to convince the director to give him a small role. This personal enthusiasm for the series had also been expressed by his participation in several audio plays based on the Doctor Who television series which had been produced by Big Finish Productions, although he did not play the Doctor in any of these productions. His first such role was in the Seventh Doctor audio Colditz, where he played a Nazi lieutenant guard at Colditz Castle. In 2004 Tennant played a lead role in the Big Finish audio play series Dalek Empire III. He played the part of Galanar, a young man who is given an assignment to discover the secrets of the Daleks. In 2005, he starred in UNIT: The Wasting for Big Finish, recreating his role of Brimmicombe-Wood from a Doctor Who Unbound play, Sympathy for the Devil. In both of these audio productions Tennant worked alongside Doctor Who alumnus Nicholas Courtney, who reprised the character of Sir Alastair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart. He also played an unnamed Time Lord in another Doctor Who Unbound play Exile. UNIT: The Wasting, was recorded between Tennant getting the role of the Doctor and it being announced. He also played the title role in Big Finish's adaptation of Bryan Talbot's The Adventures of Luther Arkwright (2005). In 2006, he recorded abridged audio books of The Stone Rose by Jacqueline Rayner, The Feast of the Drowned by Stephen Cole and The Resurrection Casket by Justin Richards, for BBC Worldwide.

He made his directorial debut on the Doctor Who Confidential episode that accompanies Steven Moffat's episode "Blink", entitled "Do You Remember The First Time?", which aired on 9 June 2007. In 2007, Tennant's Tenth Doctor appeared with Peter Davison's Fifth Doctor in a Doctor Who special for Children in Need, written by Steven Moffat and entitled "Time Crash". This was the first "multi-Doctor" story in the series since The Two Doctors in 1985 (not counting the 1993 special Dimensions in Time).^[20] Tennant also later performed alongside Davison's daughter, Georgia Moffett, in the 2008 episode "The Doctor's Daughter" with her taking the titular role as Jenny.

Tennant also featured as the Doctor in an animated version of Doctor Who for Totally Doctor Who, The Infinite Quest, which aired on CBBC. He also starred as the Doctor in another animated six-part Doctor Who series, Dreamland.^[21] Tennant guest starred as the Doctor in a two-part story in Doctor Who spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures, broadcast in October 2009.^[22] Tennant continued to play the Tenth Doctor into the revived programme's fourth series in 2008. However, on 29 October 2008, Tennant announced that he would be stepping down from the role after three full series.^[23] He played the Doctor in four special episodes in 2009, before his final episode aired on 1 January 2010. The Daily Mirror reported that Tennant was forbidden from attending Doctor Who fan conventions while playing the role. This was done to avoid the chance that Tennant could accidentally let slip any plot points during filming of the series.^[24] He said at the Children in Need concert that his favourite Doctor Who story is Genesis of the Daleks from the Tom Baker era, while another interview included him mentioning that his favourite classic monsters were the Zygons; although he never appeared in a television story with the Zygons, his Doctor confronted them in the novel Sting of the Zygons.

Other television roles (2005–present)[link]

While playing the Doctor, Tennant was also in the early December 2005 ITV drama Secret Smile. His performance as Jimmy Porter in Look Back in Anger at the Theatre Royal, Bath and Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh was recorded by the National Video Archive of Performance for the Victoria and Albert Museum Theatre Collection. He revived this performance for the anniversary of the Royal Court Theatre in a rehearsed reading. In January 2006, he took a one-day break from shooting Doctor Who to play Richard Hoggart in a dramatisation of the 1960 Lady Chatterley's Lover obscenity trial, The Chatterley Affair. The play was written by Andrew Davies and directed by Doctor Who's James Hawes for the digital television channel BBC Four. Hoggart's son Simon Hoggart praised Tennant's performance in The Guardian newspaper.^[25]

On 25 February 2007, Tennant starred in Recovery, a 90-minute BBC1 drama written by Tony Marchant. Tennant played Alan, a self-made building site manager who attempted to rebuild his life after suffering a debilitating brain injury. His costar in the drama was friend Sarah Parish, with whom he had previously appeared in Blackpool and an episode of Doctor Who. She joked that "we're like George and Mildred – in 20 years' time we'll probably be doing a ropey old sitcom in a terraced house in Preston."^[26] Later in 2007 he starred in Learners, a BBC comedy drama written by and starring Jessica Hynes (another Doctor Who costar, in the episodes "Human Nature", "The Family of Blood" and "The End of Time"), in which he played a Christian driving instructor who became the object of a student's affection. Learners was broadcast on BBC One on 11 November 2007. Tennant had a cameo appearance as the Doctor in the 2007 finale episode of the BBC/HBO comedy series Extras alongside Ricky Gervais. In November 2008 Tennant played Sir Arthur Eddington in the BBC and HBO biopic Einstein and Eddington, which was filmed in Cambridge and Hungary.^[27]

In 2009 he worked on a film version of the RSC's 2008 Hamlet for BBC2. From October 2009, he hosted the Masterpiece Contemporary programming strand on the American Public Broadcasting Service.^[28] In December 2009, he filmed the lead in an NBC pilot, Rex Is Not Your Lawyer, playing Rex, a Chicago lawyer who starts to coach clients to represent themselves when he starts suffering panic attacks.^[29] The pilot was not picked up and the project was shelved.^[30][31] In October 2010 he starred as Dave, a man struggling to raise five children after the death of his partner, in the British drama Single Father. For this role he was nominated as Best Actor at the Royal Television Society Programme Awards 2010.

In 2011 he starred in the BBC Two British TV film United, which tells the story of the Manchester United "Busby Babes" team and the 1958 Munich air disaster, playing coach and assistant manager Jimmy Murphy.^[32] In September 2011, he appeared in a guest role in one episode of the comedy series This is Jinsy, and also started filming True Love, a semi-improvised BBC1 drama series, on location in Margate, Kent. The series is due to air in June 2012. In April 2012, Tennant will play the lead in a one-off drama The Minor Character for Sky Arts.^[33] In April 2012 it was announced that he will star as Jean-François Mercier in BBC4 drama series Spies of Warsaw, which films in Poland between April and June.^[34]

Other work (2007–present)[link]

Tennant was the "Star in a Reasonably Priced Car" on Top Gear in December 2007, where he claimed to have unsuccessfully auditioned for a role on Taggart 26 times.^[35] Tennant is the voice behind the 2007 advertising campaign for catalogue retailer Argos, and appeared in adverts for The Proclaimers' 2008 album and learndirect in June 2008 (using his natural Scottish accent in both). Tennant also lent his voice to adverts for Tesco Mobile, Nintendo Wii, and American Express.

Tennant appeared in Derren Brown's Trick or Treat.^[36] In the 26 April–2 May issue of TV & Satellite Week, Brown is quoted as saying: "One of the appeals of Doctor Who for David is time travel, so I wanted to give him that experience. He was open and up for it, and I got a good reaction. He's a real screamer!" The episode aired on Channel 4 on 16 May 2008, and showed Tennant apparently predicting future events correctly by using automatic writing. Tennant also returned for the final episode of the series with the rest of the participants from the other episodes in the series to take part in one final experiment.

Tennant at Stratford-upon-Avon

Tennant appeared in the 2008 episode "Holofile 703: Us and Phlegm" of the radio series Nebulous (a parody of Doctor Who) in the role of Doctor Beep, using his Lothian accent. Also in 2008, Tennant voiced the character of Hamish the Hunter in the 2008 English language DVD rerelease of the 2006 animated Norwegian film, Free Jimmy, alongside Woody Harrelson. The English language version of the film has dialogue written by Simon Pegg, who also starred in it as a main voice actor. In early 2009, Tennant narrated the digital planetarium space dome film "We are Astronomers"^[37] commissioned by the UK's National Space Centre. On 13 March 2009, he presented Red Nose Day 2009 with Davina McCall. He joined Franz Ferdinand onstage to play the guitar on their song "No You Girls" on a special Comic Relief edition of Top of the Pops. In summer 2009, Tennant filmed St. Trinian's II: The Legend of Fritton's Gold. The film was released in December 2009.

At the October 2009 Spooky Empire convention, John Landis announced Tennant's casting in his movie Burke and Hare, starring alongside Simon Pegg.^[38] In January 2010 it was announced Tennant had dropped out of the film (replaced by Andy Serkis) due to scheduling problems. In November 2009, Tennant cohosted the Absolute Radio Breakfast Show with Christian O'Connell for three consecutive days.^[39] He returned to cohost the show for one day in October 2010^[40] and again in September 2011. Tennant also provides the narration and all the character voices for the audio book versions of the Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III stories by Cressida Cowell such as How to Train Your Dragon. In these audio books, Tennant employs his vocal skills to create a vast cast of recognisably distinct voices. Some of his most memorable characterisations include the Norfolk yokel of Norbert the Nutjob, the broad Glaswegian of Gobber the Belch, the hissing and whining of Toothless the Dragon and the sly insinuations of Alvin the Treacherous. He also played the role of Spitelout in the recent animated film adaption of said books.

On 7 March 2010, he also appeared as George in a one-part BBC Radio 4 adaptation of Of Mice and Men in the Classic Serial strand.^[41] Tennant appeared alongside former costar Catherine Tate in the Shakespeare comedy Much Ado About Nothing at London's Wyndham's Theatre from 16 May 2011 to 3 September 2011.^[42] For his performance as Benedick he won the BroadwayWorld UK Award for Best Leading Actor in a Play.^[43] In September 2011, it was announced that Tennant will voice a character in the movie adaptation of Postman Pat named You Know You're the One with a planned 3D theatrical release for spring 2013.^[44]

In October 2011, Tennant started shooting the semi-improvised comedy film Nativity 2: The Second Coming in Coventry.^[45][46] Tennant plays two roles: the main character, put-upon teacher Mr Peterson, and his "golden boy" twin brother and rival.^[47] In April 2012, Tennant was the subject of a Virgin Media advert that was voluntarily withdrawn after a complaint lodged by BBC Worldwide. The advert, part of a multi-million pound campaign featuring Tennant, broke the corporation's guidelines by featuring references to Doctor Who that appeared to be a commercial endorsement of the service.^[48]

Royal Shakespeare Company (2008–2009)[link]

Despite his recent focus on television work, Tennant has described theatre work as his "default way of being".^[49] It was announced on 30 August 2007 that he would join the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), to play Hamlet (alongside Patrick Stewart) and Berowne (in Love's Labours Lost) during 2008.^[50] From August to November 2008 he appeared at the Courtyard Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon as Hamlet, playing that role in repertory with Berowne that October and November.

Hamlet transferred to the Novello Theatre in London's West End in December 2008, but Tennant suffered a prolapsed disc during previews and was unable to perform from 8 December 2008 until 2 January 2009, during which time the role was played by his understudy Edward Bennett.^[51] He returned to his role in the production on 3 January 2009, and appeared until the run ended on 10 January. On 12 April 2011, a photograph of Tennant as Hamlet featured on a stamp issued by the Royal Mail to mark the RSC's fiftieth anniversary.^[52] In January 2012, Tennant was appointed to the Royal Shakespeare Company board, to be on the selection committee interviewing and choosing the new artistic director.^[53][54]

Personal life[link]

Tennant married actress Georgia Moffett on 30 December 2011.^[55] They have a daughter, Olive, born in March 2011,^[56][57] and he adopted her then nine-year-old son, Tyler, in September 2011.^[58] Tennant does not discuss his personal life, especially his relationships, in interviews.^[59] "Relationships are hard enough with the people you're having them with, let alone talking about them in public," he said in December 2009.^[60] He believes that religion "must have" shaped his character, and he is an occasional churchgoer.^[61]

In 2008 Tennant was voted "Greenest Star on the Planet" in an online vote held by Playhouse Disney as part of the Playing for the Planet Awards.^[62] Later that year he underwent surgery for a prolapsed disc. Tennant is a supporter of the Labour Party and appeared in a party political broadcast for them in 2005. In 2010 he declared his support for then UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown,^[63] and in April 2010 he lent his voice to a Labour Party election broadcast.^[64] He is a celebrity patron of the Association for International Cancer Research.

Popularity[link]

In December 2005, The Stage newspaper listed Tennant at No. 6 in its "Top Ten" listing of the most influential UK television artists of the year, citing his roles in Blackpool, Casanova, Secret Smile and Doctor Who.^[65] In January 2006, readers of the British gay and lesbian newspaper The Pink Paper voted Tennant the "Sexiest Man in the Universe" over David Beckham and Brad Pitt.^[66] A poll of over 10,000 women for the March 2006 issue of New Woman magazine ranked him 20th in their list of the "Top 100 Men".^[67] In October 2006, Tennant was named as "Scotland's most stylish male" in the Scottish Style Awards.^[68] He was named "Coolest Man on TV" of 2007 in a Radio Times survey. He also won the National Television Awards award for Most Popular Actor in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2010. He was voted 16th Sexiest Man In The World by a 2008 Cosmopolitan survey.^[69]

He was ranked the 24th most influential person in the British media, in the 9 July 2007 MediaGuardian supplement of The Guardian. Tennant appeared in the paper's annual media rankings in 2006.

In December 2008 Tennant was named as one of the most influential people in show business by British theatre and entertainment magazine The Stage, making him the fifth actor to achieve a ranking in the top 20 (in a list typically dominated by producers and directors). One of the editors for The Stage said that Tennant placed highly on the list because he was "the biggest box office draw in recent memory".^[70]

The popularity of Tennant has led to impersonations of him on various social networking sites, leading the BBC to issue a statement making it clear that Tennant does not use any of these sites and any account or message purporting to be or from him is fake.^[71]

Filmography[link]

Television[link]

Narration and personal appearances[link]

Film[link]

Radio and CD audio drama[link]

Theatre[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

Awards

• 2005 Critics Award for Theatre in Scotland, Best Male Performance: Jimmy Porter in Look Back in Anger^[130]
• 2006 TV Quick and TV Choice Award, Best Actor: Doctor Who^[131]
• 2006 National Television Award, Best Actor: Doctor Who^[132]
• 2007 Welsh BAFTAs, Best Actor, Doctor Who^[133]
• 2007 The Constellation Awards, Best Male Performance in a 2006 Science Fiction Television Episode: Doctor Who: The Girl In The Fireplace^[134]
• 2007 TV Quick and TV Choice Award, Best Actor: Doctor Who^[135]
• 2007 National Television Awards, Most Popular Actor^[136]
• 2007 Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Award, screen award^[137]
• 2008 The Constellation Awards, Best Male Performance in a 2007 Science Fiction Television Episode: Doctor Who: Human Nature/The Family Of Blood^[138]
• 2008 TV Quick and TV Choice Award, Best Actor: Doctor Who^[139]
• 2008 National Television Award, Outstanding Drama Performance: Doctor Who^[140]
• 2009 Critics' Circle Award for Best Shakespearean Performance: Hamlet (Shares the award with Sir Derek Jacobi for his performance as Malvolio in Twelfth Night)^[141]
• 2009 Theatregoers' Choice Awards, The AKA Theatre Event of the Year: Hamlet^[142][143]
• 2010 National Television Award, Outstanding Drama Performance: Doctor Who
• 2010 The Constellation Awards, Best Male Performance in a 2009 Science Fiction Television Episode: Doctor Who: The Waters of Mars^[144]
• 2011 TV Choice Award, Best Actor: Single Father^[145]
• 2012 BBC Audio Drama Awards, Best Actor: Kafka: The Musical^[146]

Nominations

• 1996 Theatre Management Association, Best Actor: The Glass Menagerie and An Experienced Woman Gives Advice.^[147]
• 2000 Ian Charleson Award, Best classical actor under 30: The Comedy of Errors.^[148]
• 2003 Olivier Award, Best Actor: Lobby Hero.^[149]
• 2006 Broadcasting Press Guild, Best Actor: Casanova, Secret Smile and Doctor Who.^[150]
• 2008 Royal Television Society Programme Awards, Best Actor: Recovery and Doctor Who.^[151]
• 2008 Satellite Awards, Best Actor in a Drama Series: Doctor Who^[152]
• 2009 Broadcasting Press Guild, Best Actor: Einstein and Eddington and Doctor Who.^[153]
• 2009 Scottish BAFTA, Acting in TV Male: Doctor Who.^[154]
• 2009 Standard Theatre awards longlist, Best Actor: Hamlet.^[155]
• 2009 Saturn Award for Best Actor on Television, Doctor Who: The End of Time^[156]
• 2010 Broadcasting Press Guild, Best Actor: Hamlet and Doctor Who.^[157]
• 2011 Royal Television Society Programme Awards, Best Actor: Single Father^[158]
• 2012 What's On Stage Awards, Best Actor: Much Ado About Nothing^[159]

See also[link]

• André Tchaikowsky#Skull

References[link]