Reg Cranfield (actor)

Reg Cranfield played the policeman seen during the opening credits of The Pilot Episode and An Unearthly Child. (DWMS Summer 1994) Some sources, such as The Complete History volume 1, credit the role to Fred Rawlings, despite the fact that Cranfield is listed as playing the part in the production paperwork for both versions of the first Doctor Who television story. Either these sources are mistaken or Rawlings played the part in one of the unused versions.

Cranfield, therefore, has the unique distinction of being the very first actor to appear on Doctor Who; he later went on to appear in more than a half-dozen other Doctor Who stories into the 1970s.

A character in the 2013 novel, Shroud of Sorrow, is named Reg Cranfield perhaps intended to be the same policeman played by the real Cranfield in An Unearthly Child. In the book, Cranfield is featured patrolling along Totter's Lane as the actor did on TV.

Other Doctor Who roles

 * The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve - Parisian (DWM 233)
 * The Gunfighters - Tombstone resident (DWM 221)
 * The Underwater Menace - Priest & Man in market (DWM 209)
 * The Invasion - Extra (DWM 189)
 * Doctor Who and the Silurians - UNIT soldier (DWM 222)
 * The Mutants - Solonian (DWM 230)
 * The Green Death - Villager (DWM 320)
 * The Deadly Assassin - Time Lord (DWM 187)