Deborah Watling, Former Doctor Who Companion, Dies at Age 69

Actress Deborah Watling, who played companion Victoria Waterford on Doctor Who in the 1960s, has passed away at the age of 69 of lung cancer. She was diagnosed with the disease just six weeks ago.

Watling appeared on two years on Doctor Who, serving as an assistant and companion to Patrick Troughton's Second Doctor. Her character Victoria Waterford was a young girl orphaned by Daleks and adopted as a sort of surrogate daughter for the Doctor. Watling became known for screaming a lot more than previous companions, although it made sense because she was just a teenager experiencing alien species for the first time.

Because of the BBC's policy of erasing older TV series from their archive, only two of Watling's adventures with the Doctor are completely intact. Only 21 of the 41 episodes she appeared in exist today. However, Watling was a popular actress among the Doctor Who fanbase and made frequent appearances at various conventions.

Watling also reprised her role as Waterford for radio adventures featuring the Sixth Doctor. She also appeared in the spinoff video "Downtime," in which she plays an unwitting pawn of the Great Intelligence before being found and rescued by Sarah Jane Smith and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart.

Watling was the daughter of Jack Watling and Patricia Hicks, both of whom were well-known actresses in the 1940s. She began acting at an early age and had her first regular television role at the age of ten on BBC's Invisible Man series. Watling appeared periodically on television shows and in movies through the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, but appears to have largely retired from acting after 1981.

At the time of her death, Watling was living in England with her husband.