Paul John McGann (photo ©Florida Supercon) was born on November 14, 1959 in Liverpool, England.
Paul McGann studied acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He doesn’t come from a family of actors but his three brothers have become actors as well. After a few small roles in television productions, the first major role came playing a regular in the TV show “Give Us a Break”, although it only lasted an 8-episode season in 1983-84.
In subsequent years, Paul McGann started finding more or less important roles in cinema productions such as “Withnail and I” (1986), “Empire of the Sun” (1987) and “The Rainbow” (1989). He continued to have roles in television productions such as the TV movie “The Importance of Being Earnest” (1986) and the miniseries “The Monocled Mutineer” (1986).
In the 1990s, Paul McGann played a few roles in movies such as “Alien 3” (1992) but worked mainly for television in productions such as the miniseries “Nice Town” (1992), the TV movie “Catherine the Great” (1995) and the miniseries “The Hanging Gale” (1995). He also started working as a narrator of audiobooks.
In 1996 the “Doctor Who” TV movie was released in which Paul McGann played the Eighth Doctor. It was a BBC co-production with Universal Studios and Fox Broadcasting Network which aimed to revive the famous show, which was canceled in 1989. The high ratings in Great Britain but low in the USA led Fox to give up its option to start a new series. Despite this, it wasn’t the end of McGann’s experience linked to the saga, although initially, it was only his face on the covers of a series of novels with the Eighth Doctor as their protagonist. Beginning in 2000, audio adventures started being released in which the actor really reprised his role, in 2003, an animated version of the serial “Shada” came out with the Eighth Doctor as the protagonist and in 2013 the mini-episode “The Night of the Doctor” showing the end of the Eighth Doctor.
Between the end of the 1990s and the following decade, Paul McGann alternated his activity between television and cinema productions. At the cinema, he appeared in movies such as “FairyTale: A True Story” (1997), “Downtime” (1997), “Queen of the Damned” (2002) up to the horror comedy “Lesbian Vampire Killers” (2009). On television he played important roles in some miniseries such as “Tripping Over” (2006) and “Collision” (2009) and in some TV movies part of the “Hornblower” series.
In recent years, Paul McGann has lent his voice as a narrator of documentaries and continued his activity as an actor, especially on television. He was a protagonist for some seasons of the TV show “Luther”.
Paul McGann continues his work as an actor and narrator. “Doctor Who” fans can continue to enjoy new audio adventures of the Eighth Doctor.
