Bernard Cribbins OBE, best known for his returning role in Doctor Who, has died at the age of 93. The cause of death was not produced. The actor, singer, and comedian had an ornamental career that spanned seven decades, during which he also narrated the children’s program The Wombles in the 1970s.
Earlier on Thursday morning, Cribbin’s representative Gavin Barker Associates confirmed the saddening news to Variety. The statement from Barker expressed that his “contribution to British entertainment is without question. He was unique, typifying the best of his generation, and will be greatly missed by all who had the pleasure of knowing and working with him.”
Cribbins, who hails from Oldham and lost his wife Gillian Cribbins last year, had appeared on the big screen multiple times including Carry on Jack and Carry on Columbus besides Alfred Hitchcock’s 1972 film Frenzy, before breaking into the Doctor Who universe in the 1966 film Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.
The actor came into light as the Doctor’s companion Tom Campbell, following which he made consistent advents from 2007 to 2010 on Doctor Who as Wilfred Mott, the grandfather of the Doctor’s popular companion Donna Noble.
“I love this man. I love him,” Doctor Who showrunner Russel T. Davies wrote on Instagram, “He knew everyone! He’d talk about the Beatles and David Niven, and how he once sat on the stairs at a party impersonating bird calls with T H White. Then he’d add, ‘I said to Ashley Banjo last week…’ He loved being in Doctor Who. He said, ‘Children are calling me grandad in the street!’ His first day was on location with Kylie Minogue, but all eyes, even Kylie’s, were on Bernard. He’d turned up with a suitcase full of props, just in case, including a rubber chicken. And what an actor. Oh, really though, what a wonderful actor.”
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Aside from his work in Doctor Who, Cribbins is famed among the young generation for being the narrator of The Wombles, from 1973 through 1975. The animated series was based on a family of creatures that lived underground in London’s Wimbledon Common collecting and recycled human rubbish. Though the series had ended in 1975, it was repeated for decades to being hugely popular. In the 1970 movie The Railway Children, Cribbins played the role of station porter named Albert Parks.
Cribbins is also acclaimed for Jackanory, The Mouse on the Moon, The Girl on the Boat, and Blackball, and so on. Throughout this year, he was featured in many podcasts, such as Dr. Who & The Daleks: The Official Story of the Films and The Jungle Book: The Mowgli Stories. He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2011 Birthday Honours for services to drama and received his OBE from the Princess Royal at Windsor Castle in November 2011,
