On this date in 1961, actor and television presenter Alexander Martin Clunes was born in Wimbledon, England, the son of noted Shakespearean actor Alec and Daphne (née Acott) Clunes, who worked as his secretary. She had worked previously for Orson Welles. Martin Clunes has frequently noted in interviews that his mother spent what she recalled as a “very miserable” and grim year keeping up with Welles’s notoriously demanding personality. His father died of lung cancer when he was 8.
Clunes is best known for portraying Martin Ellingham in the comedy-drama series “Doc Martin” on ITV — the British public broadcasting network — as well as Gary Strang in the BBC sitcom “Men Behaving Badly” and William Shawcross in “William and Mary.”
After attending ArtsEd, a drama and performing arts secondary school in West London, he had minor stage and small-screen roles, including the ’80s BBC sitcom “No Place Like Home,” but it was his role as the manager of a security sales office in “Men Behaving Badly” (1992-98) that turned the 6-foot-3 Clunes into a household name in the UK.
He added movie roles to his acting credits (106 as of this writing), most notably in “The Russia House” (1990, Tom Stoppard screenplay), “Swing Kids” (1993), “Shakespeare in Love” (1998) and “Saving Grace” (2000).
But it was on British television where his talents and presence were most evident. The comedy-drama “Doc Martin,” e.g., featured Clunes in the titular role in 79 episodes over 18 years, starting in 2004. He played Martin Ellingham, a surgeon who develops a debilitating fear of blood, forcing him to abandon the operating room and take up a position as a general practitioner in a small village in Cornwall.
He married actress Lucy Aston in 1990, a union that lasted until 1997. In the ’90s he was a renowned party animal and later said he lived life like “one big stag night” and “would often wake up in the morning wishing the night before had never happened.” (The Mirror, Feb. 3, 2012)
“We had a very hedonistic life,” Aston said. “We spent a fortune on beer, wine, food and drugs. The problem was Martin carried on and I grew up.” She had begged him to give up drugs and alcohol so they could have a baby. (Scottish Daily Record, April 14, 1997) Clunes did get to raise a child after he married television producer Philippa Braithwaite. Their daughter Emily was born in 1999. She is an accomplished equestrian based at the Clunes’ 130-acre farm.
Clunes played a disgraced newsreader in “Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards,” a 2026 British made-for-TV docudrama. He played a guest role in season 1 of “Best Medicine,” an American medical comedy drama series based on “Doc Martin.” Fox renewed the series for a second season, which premiered in September 2026.
A sponsor of numerous charities, Clunes made a short online film with Stephen Fry about HIV discrimination. He has been president of the British Horse Society since 2011 and was a patron of the Born Free Foundation until he was dropped by the foundation in 2019 after he was filmed riding an elephant in an episode of the ITV documentary series “My Travels with Other Animals.”
PHOTO: Clunes during a break of filming “Doc Martin” in 2019; photo by Millifanti under CC 4.0.
