Carole Ann Ford

Carole Ann Ford (born 8 June 1940) is a British actress best known for her role as Susan Foreman in the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who. She also appeared in the 1962 film version of The Day of the Triffids.

Ford has had a long and varied acting career. Her theatrical work includes many comedies, dramas and musicals such as The Jungle Book, Stranger in the House, Bakerloo to Paradise, The Owl and the Pussycat, The Rumpus, Pride and Prejudice, Inadmissible Evidence, Enrico, Expresso Bongo, Sleeping Beauty, You Never Can Tell, Ned Kelly, Mother, MacBett, The Boy Friend, Have You Seen Manchester, and Private Lives.

Her films include Sarah (about the life of Sarah Bernhardt), Hiding Place, The Great St Trinian's Train Robbery, Mix Me a Person and the part of the blind French girl Bettina in the science fiction film The Day of the Triffids.

In addition to Doctor Who, her television appearances include Suspense (in the play Man on a Bicycle), Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?, Public Eye, Emergency Ward 10, Attorney General, Moonstrike, Compact, Probation Officer, and Dial M for Murder. According to the documentary Doctor Who: Origins, it was an appearance on Z-Cars that led to Ford being tested for her role in Doctor Who.

Playing the granddaughter of the Doctor, she was one of the original companions to appear in the show in 1963. She left the series in an emotional farewell scene in 1964 at the conclusion of The Dalek Invasion of Earth, but briefly returned for the 20th anniversary special The Five Doctors in 1983 and also appeared in the 30th anniversary charity special Dimensions in Time and (as a different character) the independent Doctor Who spin-off film Shakedown: Return of the Sontarans. She has also appeared on Juke Box Jury, numerous quiz shows, and has done a multitude of voiceovers, dubbing, post synching and audio tapes.

Ford is married with two daughters. She stopped acting after an illness in 1977 and has since taught voice and presentation skills and dialogue coaching to politicians, businessmen, after dinner speakers and actors. She has also reprised the role of Susan in four Doctor Who audio plays by Big Finish Productions; two Doctor Who Unbound stories, Auld Mortality and A Storm of Angels, two Companion Chronicles stories, Here There Be Monsters and Quinnis and a special release An Earthly Child, where her character is reunited with the Doctor (Played by Paul McGann).