Frazer Hines
Frazer Hines is an actor, born 1944.
Frazer Hines was working before he was a teenager. He is an uncredited urchin in The Long Arm and a boy in Moby Dick, both from 1956, takes a named part as Ian Osborn in the Hammer science-fiction picture X: The Unknown in the same year, and appears opposite Charlie Chaplin in A King in New York in 1957.
Then came the job that defined him. As Jamie McCrimmon, the Highlander picked up in the eighteenth century, Hines was a regular on Doctor Who alongside Patrick Troughton's Second Doctor between 1966 and 1969, and he has appeared in more episodes than any other companion. The partnership is the reason: he and Troughton play the double act as genuine friendship rather than banter, which was not the house style at the time. He returned for The Five Doctors in 1983, The Two Doctors in 1985, and again as Jamie in Tales of the Tardis in 2023.
The other long run was soap. He played Joe Sugden in Emmerdale Farm from 1972 to 1994, twenty two years in one part, which by itself would be a career. Around all of that sit smaller things: an uncredited voice in You Only Live Twice, Corg in The Last Valley, an appearance as himself on Duty Free, Mr. Hemmings in The Smoke in 2014.
Movies (7)
TV (4)
Where to start with Frazer Hines
The obvious entry is Doctor Who, and specifically the Troughton stretch from 1966 to 1969, where Jamie McCrimmon sits at the centre of the show. Pick a serial that survives complete rather than a reconstruction, and the chemistry between Hines and Patrick Troughton does the rest.
Tales of the Tardis is the moving postscript, returning him to Jamie decades on, and it works best once you have seen the original run. For the pre-fame work, X: The Unknown is a solid Hammer picture with a real part for him, and A King in New York appeals if you like the idea of a child actor sharing scenes with Chaplin.
The Last Valley is the strongest of his adult film credits, a bleak Thirty Years War drama, and The Smoke is the late television appearance. His twenty two years on Emmerdale Farm are the other half of the career and sit outside these credits.