Born into a theatrical family, he became known as a comedy actor, playing Chief Petty Officer Pertwee (and three other roles) in the BBC Radio sitcom The Navy Lark (1959–1977) and appearing in four films in the Carry On series (1964–1992).

Towards the end of his life he maintained a close association with Doctor Who by appearing at many fan conventions related to the series and giving interviews.

[10] While still at school, Pertwee worked as a circus performer riding the Wall of Death on a motorcycle with a toothless lion in the sidecar.

[13] He was a crew member of HMS Hood and was transferred off the ship for officer training shortly before she was sunk by the German battleship Bismarck,[4] losing all but three men in May 1941.

Teaching commandos how to use escapology equipment, compasses in brass buttons, secret maps in white cotton handkerchiefs, pipes you could smoke that also fired a .22 bullet.

[15] Whilst stationed on the Isle of Man he was actively engaged in amateur variety shows appearing in character sketches.

[17] During his time in the Navy, Pertwee woke up one morning after a drunken night out while in port to find a tattoo of a cobra on his right arm.

[18] After the war, Pertwee worked as a stage comedian, which included performing at the Glasgow Empire Theatre and sharing a bill with Max Wall and Jimmy James.

[20] He featured Waterlogged Spa, alongside Eric Barker, and Puffney Post Office in which he played a hapless old postman with the catch-phrase "It doesn't matter what you do, as long as you tears them up."

In his 1996 memoir he attributed this to producer Herbert Wilcox refusing to employ his co-star Dennis Price on the grounds that "he was gay", a decision Pertwee made clear that he thought "was ridiculous".

On stage, he played the part of Lycus in the 1963 London production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum with Frankie Howerd and appeared in the smaller role of Crassus in the 1966 film version.

[25][page needed] In a lost interview from 1986, which was later rediscovered and published in 2008, he said did not want his work on the Carry On films to overshadow his reputation as a serious actor.

[26] His television career had started off with small parts in children's shows featuring Richard Hearne's Mr Pastry character.

He played the Doctor for five seasons from early 1970 to mid-1974, a longer stint than either of his predecessors in the role,[20] although he ultimately appeared in fewer episodes than William Hartnell as the BBC had reduced the production schedule.

[20] This was because the BBC's Head of Drama, Shaun Sutton, had advised him to act the Doctor as himself: in effect, to "play Jon Pertwee".

In early 1974, Pertwee announced he would step down as the Doctor to resume his stage career in The Bedwinner, also citing potential typecasting in the role as the reason for leaving, though he later said that the catalyst for his departure was the death of his good friend and co-star Roger Delgado (The Master) and the departures of co-star Katy Manning, producer Barry Letts and scriptwriter Terrance Dicks.

[33] Also, according to Elisabeth Sladen in an interview on the DVD release of Invasion of the Dinosaurs, Pertwee asked for a substantially increased fee for another year on the series, however, the request was rejected, and he subsequently resigned from the role.

[9] His last full-time appearance in the series was in the story Planet of the Spiders in June 1974, which finished with Tom Baker replacing him in the role.

After a stint between 1974 and 1978 as the host of the Thames Television murder-mystery game show Whodunnit?, Pertwee took the starring role in Worzel Gummidge, based on the books written by Barbara Euphan Todd.

Pertwee had first been approached to play the part of Worzel Gummidge in a film to be written by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall.

Pertwee later admitted that he "began to lose faith in the project", until Southern Television's Lewis Rudd heard about it and enthusiastically agreed that the company would make the series.

Writing shortly before his death in 1996, Pertwee stated that while he enjoyed his association with Doctor Who, he had perhaps spent too long in the title role.

Ultimately, Pertwee was successful in seeing the Third Doctor return to the airwaves with two audio productions for BBC Radio, The Paradise of Death and The Ghosts of N-Space.

In April 1995, he appeared in Devious, an amateur video drama set between the second Doctor's trial at the end of The War Games and before the start of Spearhead from Space.

At the time of his death, Pertwee was regularly being seen in the closing moments of a UK TV advert for mobile phone operator Vodafone, dressed in the style of his version of the Doctor.

This character walked wordlessly across Pilgrim Street, Liverpool, entering a garage marked 'Doctor on Call' evidently containing some kind of time machine.

Pertwee continued on the Doctor Who convention circuit, and with his voice and television acting, until his death; he died in his sleep from a heart attack in Connecticut on 20 May 1996, at the age of 76.