Peter Hawkins

**Peter John Hawkins** (3 April 1924 – 8 July 2006) was a British actor. During the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, he was one of the most sought-after voice artists for radio and television, becoming a regular face and voice around the Soho-based circuit of commercial production studios, appearing in titles such as *Rainbow*, *SuperTed* and *Doctor Who*. His final performance in voice acting was being the original voice of Mr. Krabs in *SpongeBob SquarePants* among other characters in the first three series.

## Biography

### Early Life

A policeman and piano player’s son, Peter John Hawkins was born on 3 April 1924 in Brixton, south London. He made his first stage appearance as a member of the chorus in a musical. During his last year at school, he wrote, with three friends, a revue entitled The Five Bs. Hawkins joined the Royal Navy, and survived, though shrapnel pierced his clothing when HMS Limbourne sank after being torpedoed. He was rescued by Ronnie Hill, a theatre actor at the time, and while recovering he took part in plays, which resulted in his being taken into Combined Operations Entertainments.

### Career

Hawkins did a two-year course at the Central School of Speech and Drama. His association with British children's television began in 1950 voicing the BBC's children's show *Whirligig* character Mr Turnip. He hosted Can We Help You? voiced Willoughby and Petrio in Stranger from Space within it as well. In 1952 he voiced both Bill and Ben, the *Flower Pot Men*, whose Oddle-Poddle language Peter devised himself. He also provided all the voices for the animated series *Captain Pugwash*, Adolphus, Little Watha and Little Jimmy, *Bleep and Booster*, *The Adventures of Sir Prancelot*, *Windfalls*, Chris and Crumble, It’s Fun to Learn with Spot and Little Brrm. He was also the narrator for *The Tomfoolery Show*, *The Perishers*, *The Adventure Game*, *SuperTed*, *The Family-Ness* and *Jimbo and the Jet-Set*.

In 1956, Peter married actress Rosemary Miller, who he met doing voices in *Toytown* (Rosemary was Larry the Lamb). The two would provide voices together in The Land of Grot and *Stowaways on the Ark*.

He voiced several characters on *Doctor Who* in the show's early years, especially the Daleks and the Cybermen, the former which he would reprise in *the* *two* 1960s feature films. He was friends with fellow Dalek voice David Graham , who he worked with again on *Stowaways on the Ark*. He was also the original voice of Zippy on *Rainbow* during the first year of its run (1972). He was struggling with frequent policy changes, so he chose his replacement, Roy Skelton, who with Hawkins voiced the Cybermen in *The Tenth Planet* and *The Wheel in Space*, and Daleks in *The Evil of the Daleks*. Hawkins also voiced Daleks in A World of His Own, The Roy Castle Show, Out of the Unknown and Dave Allen at Large.

Certain creators regularly used Hawkins. The BBC used him for regular programmes during his entire career, Nick Spargo used him in *Joe and Petunia*, Dinosaur, Dial 999 and Ask for the Coastguard, Changing Plans and Super Natural Gas. *Bob Godfrey* used him in *Great*, *Noah and Nelly in Skylark* and The Key. Between 1988 and 1990 he dubbed three German-coproduced films, Stowaways on the Ark, Asterix and the Big Fight and Peter in Magicland.

In the 1960s and 1970s, Hawkins made live-action appearances on The Big Spender, The Wednesday Play, Softly, Softly, Hark at Barker, A Family at War, Dave Allen at Large and Father Brown, but he became more well-known for his voice work. He did, however, appear on Points of View, The Today Show, the 1976 children’s magazine programme Watch, Blue Peter, 31Who on the Galaxy Channel, The Trouble with the Fifties and I Was a Doctor Who Monster! to talk about his work on Bill and Ben, Captain Pugwash and Doctor Who. Through archive footage he contributed to the BBC DVD documentaries Future Memories and Talking Daleks.

Hawkins voiced early instalments of Hergé's *Adventures of Tintin*, the PG Tips Monkey and Willo the Wisp and was the original voice for the characters of Frankie Mouse in the fourth radio episode of *The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy*, originally broadcast in March 1978. He also provided the voice of the Pilsbury Doughboy for two adverts in the UK in 1976, the Smash Martians, Money, a walking, talking pound sign on the UK adverts for the Access credit card, during the 1980s, and he even recorded a voice for Gromit of *Wallace and Gromit* before it was decided he would be mute. His final venture into voice acting was being the original voice actor for Mr. Krabs and other characters in the popular children’s animated series, *SpongeBob SquarePants*.

### Hobbies and Collections

Hawkins was the owner of a fine art collection, including works by Monet, Pissarro and Alfred Sisley, Graham Sutherland, Sir Jacob Epstein, and Dame Elisabeth Frink. He also owned a collection of Japanese sword guards and was very keen on Japanese delicacy.

### Health Issues and Death

In 1992, Hawkins developed a brain tumour which, although successfully treated, left him with short-term memory problems and his retirement from the profession. Due to this he was unable to contribute to any DVD release of *Doctor Who* outside of archive footage.

Hawkins died in London, aged 82, on 8 July 2006, coincidentally the same day that the 2006 season finale of *Doctor Who*, “Doomsday”, the first to feature Daleks and Cybermen confronting each other, was transmitted. His son Silas is also an actor and voice artist, and even appeared in the *Doctor Who* Big Finish Productions story Rise of the New Human.

Nicholas Briggs, who has voiced the Daleks on television since the revival of *Doctor Who* in 2005, paid tribute to him in *Doctor Who Magazine*, praising him as the best Dalek voice artist, saying “...all of us who've provided Dalek voices over the last 40 years owe him a massive debt. None of us have been as good as Peter, but he supplied our inspiration. He was truly the Emperor of the Daleks.”

Sean Connery, who had previously voiced the Scottish fish character Pike Roach in SpongeBob, took over for Mr. Krabs starting with the first movie. In 2014, the year of Hawkins’ 90th birthday, Connery said about Hawkins, “I’m only a mere voice of the crustacean. Peter Hawkins was Mr. Krabs; with his timid twist on an otherwise manly father figure for SpongeBob and even the dried up voice for SpongeBob himself, he really will be blessed and missed.” Connery would end up passing away six years later on 31 October 2020.

## Roles (seasons 1 – 3)

* SpongeBob SquarePants (dried up and sick voices)
* Eugene H. Krabs
* Flats Flounder
* Mzeebo the Vulture
* Tom
* Potty the Parrot
* Anchovies (along with Tom Kenny and Frank Welker
* Old Man Jenkins (along with Paul Winchell)
* The Tattle-Tale Strangler
* Sandals
* Harold
* Wobbles
* Frank
* Clay
* Charlie
* Jimmy
* Nat
* Clamhead
* Betsy’s Mum
* Officer Trumpet
* Zonk
* Nematodes (along with various others)
* The Octopus’s Gargoyles (along with Maurice LaMarche, Rob Paulsen and Frank Welker)
* Audience Members 1 & 2 (“Sleepytime”)
* Rock Bottom Bus Station Clerk
* Pirate Captain
* Pirate Fish #1
* Seagulls (“Pressure”) (along with Frank Welker)
* Alaskan Wereworm (speaking)