Profile of Paul McGann on Famous Like Me

Paul McGann (born November 14, 1959) is an actor who made his name on the BBC serial The Monocled Mutineer, in which he played the lead role. Following on from that part, he was cast as the eponymous "I" in Bruce Robinson's cult film comedy, Withnail and I (1987). He also starred as Anton Skrebensky in Ken Russell's 1989 adaptation of D. H. Lawrence's The Rainbow.

Since then his career has concentrated on television work including the Hornblower series and playing the eighth incarnation of the Doctor in the 1996 Doctor Who television movie. He has had small roles in a number of high-profile American films including Alien³ and Queen of the Damned. His voice also featured in the 1997 video game Ceremony of Innocence together with those of Isabella Rossellini and Ben Kingsley. Coincidentally, his co-star in Withnail, actor Richard E. Grant, also played the Doctor in the 2003 animated webcast Scream of the Shalka.

Although McGann played the Doctor on screen only once, he has reprised the role of the Eighth Doctor in an extensive series of audio plays by Big Finish Productions and was treated as the "current" Doctor by the majority of fandom until Christopher Eccleston assumed the role in 2005. This makes McGann the longest-serving "official" Doctor, his approximately 9-year tenure surpassing the 7 years accorded Tom Baker and Sylvester McCoy. McGann's audio work as the Eighth Doctor is expected to continue despite the change of current actors.

He was born in Liverpool. His brothers Mark, Joe, and Stephen are also actors; the four of them starred together (as four brothers) in the 1995 television miniseries The Hanging Gale. They also formed the pop quartet "The McGanns", releasing the single "Everything But The Boy".

This content from Wikipedia is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Paul McGann