Michael Craig

  1. Keith Michel, The Gypsy and the Gentleman, 1958.        Craig was never happy being contracted to the UK’s  Rank Organisation. He rarely seemed happy with the actors’ lot. His earliest row (“Patrick McGoohan’s gypsy was the better role”) led to a meeting with director Joseph  Losey. “If he’d been honest with me…  ‘Look, it’s a piece of junk, but I think we can do something good with it,’  I would’ve  said OK. But he tried to tell me it was a good script.  And I thought: ‘How could you possibly have stood up against McCarthy, if you’re giving me this.’ So I said no and was suspended.”
  2. Mark  Burns, The Virgin and the Gypsy, 1970.         Burns was rushed into costume tests with Honor Blackman as his mistress in the DH Lawrence story, when Craig was delayed as the incestuously betrayed husband  in Country Dance… not  by Lawrence, just sounding like it.
  3. Richard Easton, Doctor Who # 122: Time Flight, TV, 1982.     The 19 nominations for Concorde pilot Captain Stapley in the worst Doc5 Peter Davison episode (the budget ranout…) were  Craig, Easton, Terence Alexander, Peter Arne, Keith Barron, Brian Blessed, John Carson, Paul Darrow, Peter Gilmore, Michael Gothard, John Hallam, Terrence Hardiman, Del Henney, Glyn Houston, Martin Jarvis, William Lucas, Conrad Phillips, Anthony Valentine and Frank Windsor.
  4. Patrick Stewart, Lifeforce, 1984.
  5. Michael Gothard, Lifeforce, 1984.
  6. Aubrey Morris, Lifeforce, 1984.  
  7. Frank Finlay, Lifeforce, 1984.
  8. Tom Adams, Doctor Who #130: Warriors of The Deep, 1984.     Competing for Commander Vorshak in Doc5 Peter Davison’s finale were 13 of the astonishing army of 203 candidates for just 18 roles in Lifeforce that year: Craig, Steven Berkoff, Kenneth Colley, Paul Darrow, Anton Diffring, Del Henney, Martin Jarvis, Ian McCulloch, Patrick Mower, Patrick Stewart, David Warner, Simon Williams and Peter Wyngarde. Plus three outsiders: Brian Blessed, Peter Gilmore, Gareth Hunt. The difference being that Who was science fiction, Lifeforce was science fart.
  9. Glyn Houston, Doctor Who #131: The Awakening, TV, 1984.      A dozen of producer John Nathan-Taylor’s usual suspects were up for Colonel Ben Wolsey opposite Doc5 Peter Davison… Craig, Houston, Joss Ackland, Terence Alexander, James Ellis, Peter Gilmore, John Hallam, Jeremy Kemp, Conrad Phillips, Patrick Stewart, John Stratton, Peter Vaughan.
  10. Laurence Payne, Doctor Who #140: The Two Doctors, TV, 1985.    Director Peter Moffatt shuffled 16 candidates for the dastardly Dastari, genetically experimenting on the Androgum race. Craig, Joss Ackland, Bernard Archard, George Baker, James Bree, Peter Cushing, Anton Diffring, Neil Hallett, Bernard Hepton, Peter Jeffrey, Freddie Jones, Jeremy Kemp, Clifford Rose, Nigel Stock, John Woodnutt. The semi-retired Payne won and joined the two (?) Time Lords, Doc2 Patrick Troughton and Doc 6, the short lived Colin Baker.

 Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls:  10