Brian Bedford

Brian Bedford was an English stage and screen actor born on 16 February 1935 in Morley, West Riding of Yorkshire, the son of Ellen (née O'Donnell) and Arthur Bedford, a postman. He left St Bede's Grammar School in Bradford at the age of 15 and subsequently trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London from 1952 to 1955, where his classmates included Albert Finney, Alan Bates, and Peter O'Toole. Bedford's Broadway career spanned more than five decades, from 1959 to 2011, and he received seven Tony Award nominations over that period, winning once. He died on 13 January 2016 in Santa Barbara, California, at the age of 80.

Bedford's stage work was rooted primarily in classical and literary drama. An early Shakespearean credit came in 1958, when he played Ariel in The Tempest opposite John Gielgud's Prospero. He later performed at the Stratford Festival in Ontario, Canada, taking on roles including Angelo in Measure for Measure, Malvolio in Twelfth Night, and the title role in Richard III, directed by Robin Phillips. His Shakespeare work also extended to New York, where he appeared in the Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park production of As You Like It as Jacques, and played the title role in Timon of Athens on Broadway with the National Actors Theatre in 1993, earning both a Tony Award nomination and a Drama Desk Award nomination for that performance.

Bedford was particularly associated with the plays of Molière, appearing in English-language productions of several works by the French playwright. His performance in The School for Wives brought him the 1971 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play, as well as a Drama Desk Award. He received additional Tony nominations for The Molière Comedies, a double bill comprising The School for Husbands and The Imaginary Cuckold, and for Tartuffe in 2003. His Broadway credits also include Five Finger Exercise, Private Lives, Jumpers, The Misanthrope, The Seven Descents of Myrtle, Two Shakespearean Actors, and London Assurance, among other productions.

In 2009, Bedford took on the role of Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest at the Stratford Festival, marking his 27th season of acting and directing there. He reprised the role in 2010 for the Roundabout Theatre in New York, serving as both actor and director, which earned him a 2011 Tony Award nomination for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play and a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play.

Beyond the stage, Bedford appeared in the 1966 film Grand Prix alongside James Garner and was a regular on the CBS television series Coronet Blue in 1967. He provided the voice of the title character in the 1973 Disney animated film Robin Hood, a role that director Byron Howard has cited as a major inspiration for the Academy Award-winning animated film Zootopia. Bedford also appeared in the television series Cheers in 1988, playing Mr. Stone, the head of the consortium that owns the bar, and later appeared as a different character in the spin-off series Frasier in 2000.

Among his other honors, Bedford received the Obie Award for Outstanding Performance for The Knack in 1965, the Outer Circle Critics Award, and the L.A. Drama Critics Award. In 1997 he was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame. Bedford shared homes in Stratford, Ontario, and Santa Barbara, California, with actor Tim MacDonald, his partner since 1985 and husband since 2013. He died of cancer on 13 January 2016, and his remains were cremated.