Jon Pertwee
(7 July 1919[1] – 20 May 1996) was the third actor to portray the Doctor. He began his run in 1970 with Spearhead From Space and departed in 1974 with Planet of the Spiders. Pertwee's Doctor was once again much different than the Doctor before him. Where Troughton wore hobo attire, Pertwee wore ruffles and smoking jackets. In The Three Doctors, the first Doctor refers to him as the Dandy, and that was a pretty apt description.
After the war he made a name for himself as a comedy actor, notably on radio in Waterlogged Spa, alongside Eric Barker, and Puffney Post Office in which he played a hapless old postman with the catch-phrase "It doesn't matter what you do, as long as you tears them up". From 1959 to 1977, he had a long-running role as the conniving Chief Petty Officer Pertwee in The Navy Lark on BBC Radio. He was known as a Danny Kaye look-alike, and his impersonation of Kaye can be seen in the 1949 film Murder at the Windmill.
On stage, he played the part of Lycus in the 1963 London production of on A Funny Thing Happened the Way to the Forum with Frankie Howerd and appeared in the smaller role of Crassus in the 1966 film version. He appeared as Sidney Tait in the 1963 comedy Ladies Who Do and later in four Carry On films: Carry On Cleo (1964, as the soothsayer), Carry On Screaming (1966, as Dr. Fettle), Carry On Cowboy (1965, as Sheriff Earp) and Carry On Columbus (1992, as Duke of Costa Brava). On television, he started off with small parts in children's shows like Mr Pastry. Later he made an appearance in The Avengers episode "From Venus with Love" as Brigadier Whitehead, and in the 1970s, he guest starred as a Vicar in The Goodies' episode "Wacky Wales".
In 1969, Pertwee was selected by producer Peter Bryant to take over as the Doctor from Patrick Troughton in the television series Doctor Who. Pertwee had already applied for the role and was surprised to find he had been shortlisted for it. Prior to becoming The Doctor, Pertwee had relatively little interest in the programme. In a departure from the Doctor's first two incarnations, Pertwee played the character as an active crusader with a penchant for action and fancy clothes, even while the character was exiled on Earth and serving with UNIT. He played the Doctor for five seasons from 1970 to 1974, at the time the longest stint of any of the actors who played the part, surpassing predecessors William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton's three years each in the role. Only his immediate successor, Tom Baker, would play the Doctor for longer (seven years from 1974–1981). In early 1974, Pertwee announced he would step down as the Doctor in order to resume his stage career in The Bedwinner, also citing typecasting in the role as a reason for quitting.