Josh Charles leads Fox comedy as a grumpy heart surgeon in 'Best Medicine'

Josh Charles, long known for playing smarmy or blunt characters, is the lead of Fox’s new comedy Best Medicine, an adaptation of the British series Doc Martin. He plays Martin Best, a successful but rude heart surgeon who must relocate from Boston to a small New England town, where the quirky locals are poised to soften him.

Charles, 54, said his career has been “feast or famine,” and added, “I just want to do good work.” The role drew him partly because he liked the original and because the part offers chances for physical comedy and to reveal the vulnerability under a misanthropic exterior. Liz Tuccillo, the showrunner, put Charles at the top of her short list for Martin, saying he could be “very grumpy and very unlikable in one way, but of course deeply charming.” Co-stars and collaborators praised his warmth; Annie Potts noted that having a fundamentally kind actor helps when playing a brittle character.

Charles’s career began early: he made his professional debut at 15 in John Waters’s Hairspray and soon after appeared in Dead Poets Society. He has balanced film and television work with extensive stage roles in plays by writers such as Richard Greenberg and Caryl Churchill. On television he has had standout turns in Sports Night, the HBO series In Treatment and The Good Wife, where his charm helped reshape a character and led to a memorable exit.

Key Topics

Culture, Josh Charles, Best Medicine, Doc Martin, Fox, Liz Tuccillo