Carole Ann Ford

Carole Ann Ford, or Carol Ann Ford as she is sometimes credited, played companion Susan Foreman from The Pilot Episode to The Dalek Invasion of Earth, and again in the anniversary stories, The Five Doctors and Dimensions in Time. She also played the role of Zorelle in the Reeltime Pictures spin-off video Shakedown: Return of the Sontarans. She was born 8 June 1940.

Ford has had a long and varied acting career. Her theatrical work includes many comedies, dramas and musicals such as The Jungle Book, Stranger in the House, Bakerloo to Paradise, The Owl and the Pussycat, The Rumpus, Pride and Prejudice, Inadmissable Evidence, Enrico, Expresso Bongo, Sleeping Beauty, You Never Can Tell, Ned Kelly, Mother, MacBett, The Boy Friend, Have You Seen Manchester and Private Lives.

Her films include Sarah (about the life of Sarah Bernhardt), Hiding Place, The Great St Trinian's Train Robbery, Mix Me a Person and the part of the blind French girl Bettina in the science fiction film The Day of the Triffids. She also worked as a glamour model in the late 1950s.

In addition to Doctor Who, her television appearances include Suspense (in the play Man on a Bicycle), Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?, Public Eye, Emergency Ward 10, Attorney General, Moonstrike, Compact, Probation Officer and Dial M for Murder. According to the documentary Doctor Who: Origins, it was an appearance on Z-Cars that led to Ford being tested for the role of Susan Foreman in Doctor Who. According to The Handbook: The Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to the Production of Doctor Who, Waris Hussein, director of the first Doctor Who episodes, recommended Ford after seeing her image on a studio monitor; this came after a number of other actresses (including future companions Jackie Lane and Anneke Wills) had been passed over for the part.

Playing the granddaughter of the Doctor, she was one of the first companions to appear in the show in 1963; although she was twenty-three at the time, Susan was depicted as being seventeen. She left the series in an emotional farewell scene in 1964 at the conclusion of The Dalek Invasion of Earth, but briefly returned for the twentieth anniversary special The Five Doctors in 1983 and also appeared in the thirtieth anniversary charity special Dimensions in Time. She has also appeared on Juke Box Jury (in fact she appeared on the programme only a couple of days after her first wardrobe fitting for Doctor Who), numerous quiz shows, and has done a multitude of voiceovers, dubbing, post synching and audio tapes.

She is older than Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann, Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant and more than twice the age of Matt Smith, all of whom play her on-screen grandfather.

In 1975, Ford was saddened and heartbroken when she learned that William Hartnell (The First Doctor) had died. She cried for weeks after Hartnell's death. She was close friends with Hartnell, and was devastated by his death.

Ford is married with two daughters. She is currently teaching voice, presentation skills and dialogue coaching to politicians, businessmen, after dinner speakers and actors.

She has also reprised the role of Susan in two Doctor Who Unbound audio plays by Big Finish Productions, Auld Mortality and A Storm of Angels. She again returned to the role in the Big Finish drama's An Earthly Child, Relative Dimensions, Here There Be Monsters and Quinnis.