William Russell, who died on June 3, 2024, at the age of 99, played the very first Doctor Who companion, Ian Chesterton, when the show began in 1963. Russell also held roles in The Great Escape, the 1978 film Superman, and as Ted Sullivan in Coronation Street.
Who was William Russell Enoch?
William was an English actor whose career on stage and screen spanned over seven decades. He achieved prominence when he took the title role in the ITV television series The Adventures of Sir Lancelot. In 1963, he became part of the original lead cast of BBC1’s Doctor Who, playing the role of schoolteacher Ian Chesterton opposite William Hartnell from the show’s first episode until 1965. He reprised his Doctor Who role in 2022 in the special episode The Power of the Doctor, 57 years after his character’s last appearance.
William Russell’s Acting Career On Doctor Who
In 1963, Russell was cast in Doctor Who as science teacher Ian Chesterton, the Doctor’s first male companion, appearing in all episodes of the first two seasons of the programme except the last four. His first involvement in the series took form in the pilot episode, which was later reshot and broadcast as the first episode of An Unearthly Child, the programme’s first serial. He eventually departed, alongside Hill, in “The Planet of Decision,” the final episode of The Chase, which served as the penultimate story of the second season.
It was intended that Russell would reprise the role of Ian in the 1983 story Mawdryn Undead alongside Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor for the twentieth season. Scheduling conflicts left him unavailable. After leaving Coronation Street in 1992, Russell had maintained his association with Doctor Who, having lent his voice as a narrator to several of the audiobook releases of the lost 1960s episodes. He appeared in The Game, one of the continuing Doctor Who audio stories produced by Big Finish Productions. He also recorded readings for some of the CD audio adaptations of Doctor Who story novelizations originally published by Target Books.
