Trivia

He is the third Scottish actor to play the role of the Doctor in the TV series, following Sylvester McCoy, who played the Seventh Doctor, and David Tennant, who played the Tenth Doctor.

He became an actor because of his love of Doctor Who (1963) and the hope that he would one day get to appear on the show.

Like David Tennant, he was a lifelong Doctor Who (1963) fan before he got to play the role.

He was the lead singer of a punk rock band, Dreamboys, which included Craig Ferguson as the drummer and Temple Clark as the bassist.

He played a character called "W.H.O. Doctor" in World War Z (2013) before being cast in the lead role for Doctor Who (2005).

He is the first actor to play the Doctor in the revamped Doctor Who (2005) to be born before the original series first premiered.

He is a patron of the Association for International Cancer Research and of a Scottish children's charity, the Aberlour Child Care Trust.

He is a huge fan of David Bowie, whose "Station to Station" album cover from 1976 was an influence on his own costume as the Doctor according to an article in the Radio Times.

Special rings were designed for his roles in The Musketeers (2014) and Doctor Who (2005) in order to hide his own wedding ring, which he doesn't like to take off.

When he was 15, he wrote a letter to the Radio Times in tribute to Roger Delgado who played The Master in the original Doctor Who (1963) series.

He is the only Oscar winner to play the Doctor, although not for acting; he won it for best live-action short film.

He declined an OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) for his services to drama.

He is the second actor to play the Doctor who also played a previous role in the show. The first was Colin Baker.

He is a second cousin once removed to Scottish singer-songwriter Lewis Capaldi, and appears in one of his music videos, Lewis Capaldi: Someone You Loved (2019).

He was offered the role of the Eighth Doctor in Doctor Who: The Movie (1996), but declined to audition because he thought it was unlikely that he would be given the part. He would later play the Twelfth Doctor.

His paternal grandfather, Giovanni Batiste Capaldi, was Italian, born in Picinisco, Frosinone, Lazio, Italy. The rest of Peter's ancestry is Scottish and Irish.

He is only the third actor to play the Doctor who was older than the actor he replaced in the role. The others were Jon Pertwee, who was a year older than Patrick Troughton, and Colin Baker, who was eight years older than Peter Davison. Capaldi is tied with the First Doctor, William Hartnell, as the oldest actor to be cast in the role. Both were aged 55 when cast.

He had been to an audition in the morning where he felt that he was made "to jump through hoops" for a small role by people he had worked with before. This frustrating audition gave him the mind-set at the next audition on that day, for the role of Malcolm Tucker in The Thick of It (2005). Armando Iannucci found him perfect for the role.

He is a patron of Worldwide Cancer Research, and the Scottish children's charity, the Aberlour Child Care Trust.

He auditioned for a place in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA) but was rejected.

He was seriously considering giving up acting when he was cast as Malcolm Tucker in The Thick of It (2005).

On The All New Alexei Sayle Show (1994), he played intoxicated time traveler Doug Hatton in the recurring 'Drunk in Time' sketch.

He is a huge fan of the HBO show Game of Thrones (2011). In Season 9 of Doctor Who (2005) he worked alongside Maisie Williams, who plays Arya Stark.

Son of Gerald (1927-2005) and Agnes (née Soutar) Capaldi (1932-2015). His father was born in Durham, England, and his mother in Glasgow, Scotland.

In 1992 he auditioned for another famous sci-fi role, Commander Sisko in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993).

Maternal grandson of Alexander (1900-1981) and Mary (née Prior) Soutar (1911-1967).

Maternal grandson of John (1886-1946) and Agnes (née Dougan) Capaldi (1896-1974).

Long before World War Z (2013), he was considered for a another zombie film: He was favored to play Rawlings in Lifeforce (1985).

Maternal great grandson of Peter (1865-1912) and Isabella (née Flett) Dougan (1864-1931).