On this date in 1964, actor Christopher Eccleston was born in Little Hulton, near Lancashire, England, to working-class parents. He studied at the Central School of Speech and Drama and soon found himself performing the works of Shakespeare, Chekhov and Moliere. At 25 he made his professional stage debut in Bristol, performing in “A Streetcar Named Desire.” His role in the film, “Let Him Have It” (1991), brought him public notice. But it was the British TV series, “Cracker” (1993-94), which brought him fame in the UK.
In the movie based on the Thomas Hardy book “Jude” (1996), he played the title role opposite actress Kate Winslet. He played the ninth doctor in “Doctor Who,” winning “most popular actor” from the National Television Awards (2005). He has had numerous roles since on stage, screen and television, mainly in the UK.
After years of publicly declaring himself an atheist, Eccleston told NPR’s Terry Gross in 2016 that the death of his father and the birth of his children made him reconsider and call himself agnostic. Then in 2019 he returned to identifying as an atheist.
He and his wife Mischka, a copywriter 20 years his junior, married in 2011 and divorced in 2015 after having two children.
