Peter Davison

Birthday

Apr 13, 1951

Birthplace

Streatham, London, England, UK

Bio: Peter Moffett, now better known by his stage name Peter Davison, was born on13 April 1951 in the Streatham area of London. In 1961, he and his family -parents Sheila and Claude (an electrical engineer who hailed from BritishGuiana) and his sisters Barbara, Pamela and Shirley - moved to Woking inSurrey, where Davison was educated at the Maphill School. It was here… More Bio: Peter Moffett, now better known by his stage name Peter Davison, was born on13 April 1951 in the Streatham area of London. In 1961, he and his family -parents Sheila and Claude (an electrical engineer who hailed from BritishGuiana) and his sisters Barbara, Pamela and Shirley - moved to Woking inSurrey, where Davison was educated at the Maphill School. It was here thathe first became interested in acting, taking parts in a number of schoolplays, and this eventually led to him joining an amateur dramatic society,the Byfleet Players. On leaving school at the age of sixteen, havingachieved only modest academic success with three O Levels of undistinguishedgrades, he took a variety of short-lived jobs ranging from hospital porterto Hoffman press operator. He was still keen to pursue an acting career,however, and so applied for a place at drama school. He was accepted intothe Central School of Speech and Drama and stayed there for three years.Davison's first professional acting work came in 1972 when, after leavingdrama school in the July of that year, he secured a small role in a run of"Love's Labour's Lost" at the Nottingham Playhouse. This marked the start ofa three-year period in which he worked in a variety of different repertorycompanies around the UK, often in Shakespearean roles. He then made histelevision debut, playing a blond-wigged space cowboy character called Elmerin "A Man for Emily", a three-part story in the Thames TV children's series"The Tomorrow People" (1973), transmitted in April 1975. Appearing alongsidehim in this production was his future wife, American-born actress SandraDickinson, whom he had first met during a run of "A Midsummer Night's Dream"in Edinburgh. They married on 26 December 1978 in Dickinson's home town ofRockville in Maryland, USA. Davison spent the following eighteen monthsworking as a file clerk at Twickenham tax office. He also took theopportunity to pursue an interest in singing and song-writing, which led himto record several singles with his wife. He later provided the theme tunesfor a number of TV series, including "Mixed Blessings" (1978) and "ButtonMoon" (1980). Davison played the romantic lead, Tom Holland in _"Love forLydia" (1978) (mini)_, a London Weekend Television (LWT) period drama serialtransmitted in 1977. His greatest acting success came when he played Tristanin the BBC's "All Creatures Great and Small" (1978), based on the books ofcountry vet James Herriot, a highly successful series, which ran initiallyfor three seasons between 1978-1980. His success in "All Creatures Great andSmall" brought him many other offers of TV work. Amongst those that he tookup were lead roles in two sitcoms: LWT's "Holding the Fort" (1980), in whichhe played Russell Milburn, and the BBC's "Sink or Swim" (1980), in which heplayed Brian Webber. Three seasons of each were transmitted between 1980 and1982, consolidating Davison's position as a well-known and populartelevision actor. He announced he was taking the lead role in "Doctor Who"(1963) on the BBC's lunchtime magazine programme "Pebble Mill at One", on 3December 1980, when he discussed with the presenter a number of costumeideas sent in by viewers and was particularly impressed by a suggestion fromone of a panel of young fans assembled in the studio that the new Doctorshould be 'like Tristan Farnon, but with bravery and intellect'. Hisappearance in "The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy" (1981), was recorded on19 December 1980 and transmitted on 2 February 1981, by which time theviewing public were well aware that he would soon be taking over the leadrole in Doctor Who. There was in fact only a month to go before he wouldmake his on-screen debut in the series - albeit a brief one, in theregeneration sequence at the end of "Logopolis". His first full story was in"Castrovalva", the first story of season nineteen transmitted on 4 January1982. His final story was season twenty-one's story "The Caves ofAndrozani". The final episode of this story was transmitted on 16 March1984. He became a father when on Christmas day 1984 his wife gave birth to adaughter, Georgia Elizabeth, at Queen Charlotte's Hospital in London. Tenyears later, however, his marriage to Dickinson broke down and theyseparated. Although he has taken occasional roles in theatre, radio andfilm, most of the actor's work has been in the medium for which he is bestknown: television. His credits have included regular stints as Henry Myersin "Anna of the Five Towns" (1985) (mini), as Dr. Stephen Daker in "A VeryPeculiar Practice" (1986), as Albert Campion in "Campion" (1989) and asClive Quigley in "Ain't Misbehavin" (1994) all for the BBC, and as Ralph inYorkshire TV's "Fiddlers Three" (1991). In addition, he has reprised hispopular role of Tristan Farnon on a number of occasions for one-off specialsand revival seasons of "All Creatures Great and Small". He has also returnedseveral times to the world of Doctor Who. In 1993 he appeared as the fifthDoctor in "Dimensions in Time", a brief two-part skit transmitted as part ofthe BBC's annual Children in Need Charity appeal, and in 1985 he narrated anabridged novelisation of the season twenty-one story "Warriors of the Deep"for BBC Worldwide's Doctor Who audio book series. In addition, he hasappeared in a number of video dramas produced by Bill Baggs Video. In 2003and 2004 he appeared as quiet and unassuming detective 'Dangerous' Davies in"The Last Detective" (2003), the Meridian TV adaptations of Leslie Thomas'snovels.