14-05-2025
Thunderbirds & Doctor Who legend famed for being voice of the Daleks leaves behind eye-watering amount in will
ACTOR David Graham - the voice of cockney chauffeur Parker in the Thunderbirds - left a £1.2million fortune in his will, probate documents reveal.
Voice artist Graham, who died aged 99 last September, was familiar to millions as the voice of the Daleks on BBC's Doctor Who.
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He later wowed generations of children as Peppa Pig 's lovable Grandpa, and as the Wise Old Elf in Ben and Holly's Little Kingdom.
His will saw him leave an estate valued at £1,235,001 - most of which was passed on to his niece Elizabeth Rehfeld and nephew Jonathan Smit, who both live in the United States.
He found fame as Lady Penelope's croaky-voiced driver Parker - a cult TV figure whose famous 'Yus, m'lady' expression is still a popular catchphrase.
Parker, a reformed safecracker, drove his employer Lady Penelope around in a pink Rolls Royce in Thunderbirds and won immortality among the show's legions of fans.
Graham - born into a Jewish household in London in 1925 - provided voices for many other characters in all 32 episodes of the much repeated hit show, which first ran in the mid-1960s.
The inspiration for the voice of Aloysius 'Nosey' Parker was said to have been a cockney waiter that served Graham and Thunderbirds creator Gerry Anderson at a pub lunch.
Explaining how they based the character on him, Graham said in an interview: 'A lovely grey-haired old gentleman came over and said, 'Would you like to see the wine list, sir?'
'I looked at Gerry and Gerry looked at me. We kept him talking and it turned out that he had 'worked for 'is majesty at Windsor Castle '.'
Graham provided the voices of up to seven different characters in the each of the episodes including that of Gordon Tracy, Kyrano - the Tracy family's loyal servant - and Brains.
He provided some of the voices for the Daleks first appearances on Doctor Who although the words were electronically processed to give them their distinctive sound.
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And, from 2004 onwards Graham won million of new fans as the voice behind Grandpa in the smash-hit cartoon series Peppa Pig.
He gave Grandpa a jovial, faltering upper-class voice that helped give the character an upbeat but occasionally grumpy nature.
And his distinctive tones came through as the Wise old Elf in magic-themed British animated series Ben and Holly.
Graham, who served as an RAF radar mechanic during World War Two, later trained as an actor in New York after being invited to the city by his sister who had married an American GI.
His time in the US helped him to pick up an American accent which proved useful in his later voice artist career on his return to the UK.
He also provided the voice of Big Brother in the landmark TV advert, first screened during the 1984 US Superbowl, that introduced the world to the Apple Macintosh computer.
Graham, who lived in Hampstead, north London also played on-screen roles in Coronation Street and Casualty as well as the scientist Professor Kerensky in Doctor Who.
His will also stipulate donations to Prostate Cancer, The Medical Foundation for the Victims of Torture, the Actors Benevolent Fund, a north London hospice and two Jewish charities.
And he left a small chunk of his fortune to a local friend, Christopher, or his wife.
The probate document said: "I would like Christopher to know that this small gift is a token of my gratitude for his devoted friendship to me throughout my professional life. Man has no better friend."
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