Ah, yes...
Today would have been Simon Oakland's 98th birthday. To commemorate, there is a post that I made on the tribute blog!
For those of you who don't know who Simon Oakland is, he is a character actor, just like Patrick Troughton. And I adore him just as much as I adore Patrick. And as I was putting together my post for today, I noticed some intriguing parallels between Simon and Patrick.
For starters, they both played the role of a well-intentioned alien who recruits human companions to help save the galaxy. Simon was the Empyrian in The Outer Limits, while Patrick, of course, was the Second Doctor in Doctor Who.
Secondly, both Simon and Patrick's best-known roles were in a sci-fi series: Kolchak: the Night Stalker for Simon as Tony Vincenzo and, again, Doctor Who for Patrick as the Second Doctor. They also played the roles of Tony and Two non-consecutively; Simon played Tony first in The Night Stalker movie, then again in The Night Strangler sequel before a third time in the series proper. Patrick had a three-year run as the Second Doctor (alas, half of it was wiped by the BBC...) before returning three more times in different arcs--"The Three Doctors," "The Five Doctors," and "The Two Doctors."
Also, Simon and Patrick were very close friends with their respective costars in the aforementioned sci-fi series; Simon was friends with Darren McGavin, who played the title role of Carl Kolchak, while Patrick was friends with Frazer Hines, who played the longest-serving companion Jamie McCrimmon (also, those two pics I linked to illustrate the *characters'* relationships perfectly, LOL). Also, both Simon and Patrick had acted with Darren and Frazer before K:tNS and DW; Simon and Darren first acted together in The Problem Child before acting together in another show and Gunsmoke and then K:tNS, and Patrick and Frazer first acted together in Smuggler's Bay before DW.
And then there's the rather unpleasant parallel that Simon and Patrick passed away so heartbreakingly close to their birthdays; Simon passed away the day after his 68th, and Patrick passed away 3 days after his 67th. MOVING ON...
And then there's how both Simon and Patrick have the best facial expressions ever. Observe just a few examples:
The "I am definitely plotting something" smile:
Simon demonstrates
Patrick demonstrates
The classic "WTH!?" expression:
Simon demonstrates
Patrick demonstrates
The also-classic "I AM 500% DONE" expression:
Simon demonstrates
Patrick demonstrates
And the squeeful "I will charm you with my smile" expression:
Simon demonstrates
Patrick demonstrates
...No wonder why I love them so much....
For those of you who don't know who Simon Oakland is, he is a character actor, just like Patrick Troughton. And I adore him just as much as I adore Patrick. And as I was putting together my post for today, I noticed some intriguing parallels between Simon and Patrick.
For starters, they both played the role of a well-intentioned alien who recruits human companions to help save the galaxy. Simon was the Empyrian in The Outer Limits, while Patrick, of course, was the Second Doctor in Doctor Who.
Secondly, both Simon and Patrick's best-known roles were in a sci-fi series: Kolchak: the Night Stalker for Simon as Tony Vincenzo and, again, Doctor Who for Patrick as the Second Doctor. They also played the roles of Tony and Two non-consecutively; Simon played Tony first in The Night Stalker movie, then again in The Night Strangler sequel before a third time in the series proper. Patrick had a three-year run as the Second Doctor (alas, half of it was wiped by the BBC...) before returning three more times in different arcs--"The Three Doctors," "The Five Doctors," and "The Two Doctors."
Also, Simon and Patrick were very close friends with their respective costars in the aforementioned sci-fi series; Simon was friends with Darren McGavin, who played the title role of Carl Kolchak, while Patrick was friends with Frazer Hines, who played the longest-serving companion Jamie McCrimmon (also, those two pics I linked to illustrate the *characters'* relationships perfectly, LOL). Also, both Simon and Patrick had acted with Darren and Frazer before K:tNS and DW; Simon and Darren first acted together in The Problem Child before acting together in another show and Gunsmoke and then K:tNS, and Patrick and Frazer first acted together in Smuggler's Bay before DW.
And then there's the rather unpleasant parallel that Simon and Patrick passed away so heartbreakingly close to their birthdays; Simon passed away the day after his 68th, and Patrick passed away 3 days after his 67th. MOVING ON...
And then there's how both Simon and Patrick have the best facial expressions ever. Observe just a few examples:
The "I am definitely plotting something" smile:
Simon demonstrates
Patrick demonstrates
The classic "WTH!?" expression:
Simon demonstrates
Patrick demonstrates
The also-classic "I AM 500% DONE" expression:
Simon demonstrates
Patrick demonstrates
And the squeeful "I will charm you with my smile" expression:
Simon demonstrates
Patrick demonstrates
...No wonder why I love them so much....