- Reginald Tate, The Quatermass Experiment, TV, 1953. The veteran Morell rejected what became writer Nigel Kneale’s BBC sensation of the year. It emptied streets and pubs as people stayed home, hooked by the gripping sf serial. Both actors had been in a previous gig for the same director, Rudolph Cartier: It Is Midnight, Dr. Schweitzer.
- John Robinson, Quatermass II, TV, 1955. When Reginald Tate died just before shooting began, Aunty called on Morell again and he still refused. When the second sequel came along in 1958, Quatermass and the Pit, he eagerly became Professor Bernard Quatermass, Director General of the British Experimental Rocket Group. For most fans, his was the definitive portrait of the rocket man. .
- Andrew Keir, Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2159 AD, 1965. Catchy title…! Ironically, the fourth Professor Quatermass couldn’t make the Doctor Who film (with Peter Cushing) because he was booked for Doctor Who #22: The Massacre of St Barthomolew’s Eve. Keir became the fifth Prof in the cinema re-make, known in the US as Five Million Years to Earth, 1967. And he hated it. “Seven weeks of hell… The director Roy Ward Baker didn’t want me – he wanted Kenneth More.”Not true, said Baker, who apparently didn’t even notice his star was unhappy during the shoot.
Birth year: 1909Death year: 1978Other name: Casting Calls: 3