Alexander Martin Clunes, OBE (born 28 November 1961) is a British actor, best known for portraying Martin Ellingham in the ITV drama series Doc Martin and Gary Strang in Men Behaving Badly. Clunes has narrated a number of documentaries for ITV, the first of which was Islands of Britain in 2009. He has since presented a number of documentaries centred around animals.

Clunes was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2015 Birthday Honours for services to drama, charity and the community.

Biography

Clunes' first marriage was to actress Lucy Aston in 1990. They divorced in 1997 and Clunes married future Doc Martin producer Philippa Braithwaite late that year. In 1999, Braithwaite gave birth to their daughter Emily. Clunes lives with his family in Beaminster, Dorset where they run a farm with heavy horses.He became President of the British Horse Society on 1 June 2011.

Clunes supports Weldmar Hospicecare Trust in Dorset. The Buckham Fair is organised in support of the charity. In January 2011, Clunes also became Patron of Animal Care in Egypt.
He enjoys the music of Frank Zappa, as stated on his episode of Desert Island Discs, wherein one of his selections was "Doreen" from Zappa's album You Are What You Is.


Charity
A sponsor of numerous charities, Clunes made a short on-line film with Stephen Fry about HIV discrimination for the Terrence Higgins Trust. He is also a patron of the Born Free Foundation and has filmed several adverts for the wildlife charity. He has been involved in the Comic Relief charity which funds Survival International and African Initiatives, two organisations working with the Maasai on indigenous land rights issues. Clunes is also a celebrity supporter of The Dog Rescue Federation.

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