Who Was The First Person To Die From Doctor Who?

[Si Hunt]

Okay, you'll have to excuse the rather grim nature of the topic, I hope no-one finds it in bad taste.

But basically I got to wondering over the weekend, while pondering on the many actors, writers and production staff we have lost who have worked on Doctor Who down the years, who was the first person to have worked on Doctor Who to have died?

The earliest person I could initially think of was Roger Delgado, who died in 1973. But did anyone to have worked on the show die before this?

Who was the first person we lost?

Si.

[Pip Madeley]

Mervyn Pinfield died in 1965, as far as I know.

[Andrew Curnow]

Maybe I'm just hard-hearted, but I find this thread title very funny. I had visions of a coroner pronouncing a verdict of 'death by Doctor Who'.

Anyway, I think we'll be hard-pressed to beat Pip's suggestion (he must have died very soon after working on Galaxy 4 - interestingly I notice Wikipeida comments at the end of his page "Apparently, he died in 1965" which suggests that it may be not wholly certain). David Whitaker, Antony Coburn, and all those other names that are long-since dead were still around sometime after 1965 I think.

[Andrew Curnow]

I can't find any works listed for C E Webber after 1964, so he may be a contender.

[Logo Polish]

Keith Pyott (Autloc in The Aztecs) died in 1968.

[WhiteCrow]

From the title, it sounds like a kind of the Goodies "Kung Fu Capers" killer episode.

I predict that next weeks Doctors Daughter might go far enough to cause one or two couch potato fans to expire whilst screaming, "but the Doctor doesn't have sex".

I'm gunning for Ian Levine myself.

[Andrew Curnow]

From the title, it sounds like a kind of the Goodies "Kung Fu Capers" killer episode.

Indeed! Can you imagine if anybody had actually died of fright from Doctor Who, Mary Whitehouse would have had a field day.

[Dave Tudor]

I can't find any works listed for C E Webber after 1964, so he may be a contender.

He died in 1969, I believe.

I think Pip's picked the winner. Or the loser, as the case may be.

(Sorry!)

[SiHart]

I thought it was Peter R Newman, but apparently he died in 1969, so he's not even a contender.

Si xx

[Ralph]

I thought it was a Cave Dweller or something such like

[Logo Polish]

First character to die on screen in the series was Old Mother, as played by Eileen Way, I think.

[Zbigniev Hamson]

One of the schoolchildren can quite clearly be seen suffering a massive heart attack in the background in the opening episode

[SiHart]

That's IN Doctor Who, not FROM Doctor Who anyway

Si xx

[Dirk Gently]

I think Carol Ann Ford's career died as soon as she opened her mouth if that's any help.

[Ian Lethbridge-Stewart]

I think Carol Ann Ford's career died as soon as she opened her mouth if that's any help.