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Companion of the First and Second Doctors.  The Doctor met Ben on Earth, during his battle with the mad computer WOTAN. Ben was an able-bodied sailor who was anxious to get away from his on-shore posting and back to his ship , when he met Polly and Dodo in a bar whilst on leave, and got involved with things when Dodo went missing (BB). 

Along with Polly Wright, he boarded the TARDIS to pass on Dodo Chaplet's farewell message when the Ship dematerialised, and was soon witness to the Doctor's first regeneration (DD).

Brought up in London, Ben was fearless , and at the same time, thoughtful. He was often wary of the Doctor, especially after his regeneration, but ultimately he trusted the Doctor implicitly. He was particularly close to Polly, always more than willing to jump into any situation to save her.

Polly and Ben then aided the Second Doctor against the Daleks, the Cybermen, Professor Zaroff and the Macra  Finally after defeating the Chameleons, they discovered they were back in London on the same day that they had left, and chose to remain there (KK).

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Michael Craze was born on 29 November 1942 in Cornwall and got into acting quite by chance as, at the age of twelve, he discovered through Boy Scout Gang Shows that he had a perfect boy soprano voice. This led him to win parts in "The King and I" and "Plain and Fancy", both at Drury Lane, and "Damn Yankees" at the Coliseum.

Once he had left school, he went into repertory and got into TV through his agent. His first televison was a show called "Family Solicitor" for Granada which was followed, amongst others, by a part in ABC TV's 1960 series "Target Luna" (written by Malcolm Hulke and Eric Price and produced by Sydney Newman).

When he was twenty Michael wrote, directed and acted in a film called "The Golden Head" which won an award at the Commonwealth Film Festival in Cardiff.

Following Doctor Who, Michael worked on several ITV productions, including one episode (The Last Visitor) of Hammer Films' first TV series "Journey to the Unknown" in 1968.

Apart from Doctor Who, Michael made several TV appearances during the sixties. During the Seventies and Eighties, however, acting took second place as he managed several pubs. More recently, he appeared in Kenneth Brannagh's 1994 movie "Mary Shelly's Frankenstein". In the eighties Michael acted only occasionally and also managed a pub. England.

Sadly Michael passed away 87th December 1998 at 2 am local time (GMT). He fell down some steps while picking up his neighbor's paper for her, according to friend and Doctor Who companion Anneke Wills (PollY). Because of his heart condition, they could not operate. Apparently he woke up long enough to say goodbye to his son, Ben.

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