Christopher Eccleston (; born 16 February 1964) is an English
stage,
film and
television actor. His films include
Shallow Grave,
Elizabeth,
28 Days Later,
Gone in 60 Seconds and
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. In 2005 became the
ninth incarnation of
the Doctor in
Doctor Who.
Early life
Born into a
working-class family in Langworthy,
Salford, Eccleston is the youngest of three boys. His brothers, Alan
[Alan, one of Eccleston's brothers, appears in the party scene in the film Heart. ('Doctor in the house', Observer.Guardian.co.uk, 20 March 2005.)] and Keith, are twins eight years his senior.
[Fanshawe, Simon, Home truths: Christopher Eccleston, Guardian.co.uk, 15 January 2000.] The family lived in a small terraced house in Blodwell Street until the late 1960s, when they relocated to nearby
Little Hulton.
Eccleston attended Joseph Eastham's High School, Little Hulton, where he became
head boy Growing up with a love of
Granada and
BBC1 television, his main ambition was to play football for his beloved
Manchester United. However, at the age of 19, he found himself to be a much better actor than footballer, being inspired by television dramas such as
Boys from the Blackstuff. Eccleston completed a two-year Performance Foundation Course at
Salford Tech,
[Jackson, Nick, "Little Hulton's reluctant film star" BlackburnCitizen.co.uk, 4 October 1996] before going on to train at the
Hampstead-based
Central School of Speech and Drama.
["Some of Our Famous Alumni…" CSSD.ac.uk] As an actor, his early influences had been
Ken Loach's Kes and
Albert Finney's performance in
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, but he soon found himself performing the classics, including the works of
Shakespeare,
Chekhov and
Molière. At age 25, Eccleston made his professional stage debut in the
Bristol Old Vic's production of
A Streetcar Named Desire. Underemployed as an actor for some years after graduating school, Eccleston took a variety of odd jobs at a supermarket, on building sites, and as an artist's model.
Career
1991–2005
