Mary McMillen was born unto a virgin in the small town of Nunthorpe Dingcock in 1938. She worked among sailors during the war before training at RADA and the Royal Shakespeare Company, where she obtained a diploma in tea-making with Honours in the summer of 1959. It was whilst washing the floors of Elstree Studio B that McMillen was first noticed by "Doctor Who" producer Innes Lloyd. Lloyd recognised raw talent in McMillen's theatrical way with a mop, and offered her a role in an upcoming "Doctor Who" adventure in exchange for seven guineas an episode and if she slept with him.

McMillen was originally given the role of Kemel in "Evil of the Daleks", but unfortunately Innes Lloyd slept with Sonny Caldinez as well and he got the part. She then auditioned for the role of "Fish Person" in Geoffrey Orme's stunning new script "Doctor Who Under The Sea" which was at that time being rescued from the bin because William Emms had died of boredom mid-way through preparing his "Doctor Who and the Imps" story. Script Editor Gerry Davis today recalls: "Out of all the people on our list, Mary was among the few to turn up. And she vaguely smelt of fish as well, which was an added bonus."

Several leading movie producers were interested in hiring McMillen after her Doctor Who episodes had aired. As Mary herself explains: "There is a famous anecdote from my time on Doctor Who which I always share, and that is that several people watching the show were under the misapprehension that I was a real fish. And the problem with that is, there are limited opportunities in the business for marine amphibians, although I almost got to voice a salmon in Moby Dick the next year. Sadly Sonny Caldinez got there first. I guess I was just a victim of typecasting, like so many others."

Mary quit the acting profession the next year, and became a product tester for Birdseye five years later.

"It's the fish connection again," she sighs today. "My husband also says my fanny smells of fish, so it's a link that has followed me through my career."

In 1996 Mary was given the chance to relive her experiences as a Fish Person when she was interviewed for the Reeltime documentary "I Was A Doctor Who Monster", in which she demonstrated the facial expressions she first employed when she became one of the fearsome sixties monsters (see picture, above).

"It showed that people out there are still interested in me," Mary explained in footage sadly not included in the final cut of the documentary. "To the Doctor Who fanatics, the Fish People are up there with the Daleks and the Cybermen, I'm told. But it's just nice to be remembered."