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David Tennant Profile |
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Birth Date: April 18, 1971
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Birth Place: Bathgate, West Lothian, Scotland, UK
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Birth Name: David John McDonald
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Height: 6'1"
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Biography |
David Tennant is the stage name of David John McDonald (born
18 April 1971), a Scottish actor from Bathgate in West
Lothian, best known as the tenth actor to portray the Doctor
in the television series Doctor Who.
Already a well-known theatre actor, Tennant achieved wider
fame for his TV roles in Casanova and Doctor Who, as well as
his film role as Barty Crouch Jr in Harry Potter and the
Goblet of Fire.
Tennant was born in Bathgate, West Lothian, but grew up in
Ralston, Renfrewshire, where his father (the Reverend
Alexander ("Sandy") McDonald) was the local Church of
Scotland minister (and Moderator of the General Assembly of
the Church of Scotland in 1997). Tennant was educated at
Ralston Primary, Paisley Grammar School, and the Royal
Scottish Academy of Music and Drama where he was friends
with Louise Delamere.
At the age of three, Tennant told his parents that he wanted
to become an actor because he was mad about Doctor Who.
Although such an aspiration might have been common for any
British child of the 1970s, Tennant says he was "absurdly
single-minded" in pursuing his goal. He adopted the
professional name "Tennant" — inspired by Neil Tennant, the
lead singer of the Pet Shop Boys — because there was another
David McDonald already on the books of the actors' union
Equity.
Tennant's first professional role upon graduating from drama
school was in a staging of The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui
co-starring Ashley Jensen, one of several plays in which he
performed as part of agitprop 7:84 Theatre Company.
Moving to London in the early 1990s, Tennant lodged with
comic actress and writer Arabella Weir, with whom he became
close friends and then godfather to one of her children. 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 and as panelists
on the West Wing Ultimate Quiz on More4.
Tennant developed his career in the British theatre,
frequently performing with the Royal Shakespeare Company for
whom he specialised in comic roles such as Touchstone in As
You Like It, Antipholus of Syracuse in The Comedy of Errors
(a role he recorded for the 1998 Arkangel Complete
Shakespeare production of the play) and Captain Jack
Absolute in The Rivals, although he also played the tragic
role of Romeo in Romeo and Juliet.
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
near-naked on stage.
Tennant appeared in several high-profile dramas for the BBC,
including Takin' Over the Asylum (1994), He Knew He Was
Right (2004), Blackpool (2004), Casanova (2005) and The
Quatermass Experiment (2005). In film, he has appeared in
Stephen Fry's Bright Young Things, and as Barty Crouch Jr.
in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. One of his earliest
big screen roles was in Jude (1996), in which he shared a
scene with his Doctor Who predecessor Christopher Eccleston,
playing a drunken undergraduate who challenges Eccleston's
Jude to prove his intellect.
In December 2005, The Stage newspaper listed Tennant at #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. 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. 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". In October
2006, Tennant was named as "Scotland's most stylish male" in
the Scottish Style Awards. He was named 'Coolest Man on TV'
in 2007.
Tennant is dating actress Sophia Myles, who appeared with
him in the Doctor Who episode "The Girl in the Fireplace" as
Madame de Pompadour. They started dating after filming in
October 2005.
Tennant traced his family tree in an episode of BBC One's
popular genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are?,
broadcast on 27 September 2006. His episode explored both
his Scottish ancestry and that from Northern Ireland,
against the backdrop of the Troubles in the latter.
Tennant's maternal great-great-grandfather, James Blair, was
a prominent Ulster Unionist member of Derry City Council
after the partition of Ireland. The programme also revealed
that Archie McLeod, the husband of Nellie Blair who once
played with Derry City F.C., was Tennant's grandfather.
Tennant is now a member of the club's Exiles Supporter's
Club.
According to an interview in issue 375 of Doctor Who
Magazine, Tennant drives a Škoda in which he was caught
twice on the same day on the M4 for speeding while returning
to London from Cardiff in October 2006.
Tennant is a supporter of the Labour Party and appeared in a
Party political broadcast for them in 2005. |
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Other Information |
David Tennant is a respected classical actor who has
performed numerous starring roles for the Royal Shakespeare
Company, including Touchstone in "As You Like It", Romeo in
"Romeo and Juliet", Antipholus of Syracuse in "The Comedy of
Errors" and Captain Jack Absolute in "The Rivals".
He was nominated for a 2003 Laurence Olivier Theatre Award
for Best Actor of 2002 for his performance in "Lobby Hero"
performed at the Donmar Warehouse and the New Ambassador's
Theatres.
Attended Paisley Grammar.
Graduated from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and
Drama.
Acted with the 7:84 Theatre Company, a genre-bending,
ground-breaking, political Scottish Theatre Group.
Decided to be an actor at the age of three.
Cast as "Tenth Doctor" for BBC "Doctor Who" (2005) series to
star alongside Billie Piper (April 2005).
While attending Paisley Grammar School, he wrote an essay on
how his greatest desire was to play Doctor Who on TV.
Best friends with Louise Delamere ("No Angels" (2004)). They
went to Glasgow's Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama
together and shared a flat.
Chose his acting surname from Neil Tennant, singer with Pet
Shop Boys. This came after reading an interview with Tennant
in Smash Hits shortly after learning that he would have to
change his professional name in order to join the actors'
union, Equity, as there was already a registered member with
his real name, David McDonald.
Nominated for Best Classical Actor Under 30, Ian Charleson
Award for his theatre role in "Comedy of Errors" as
Antipholus of Syracuse. [2000]
Won Best Male Performance, Critics Award for Theatre in
Scotland for his theatre role in "Look Back in Anger" as
Jimmy Porter. [2005]
Won Best Actor, Theatre Management Association for his role
in "The Glass Menagerie" as Tom |
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