Patrick Bedford

Patrick Bedford (May 30, 1932 – November 20, 1999) was an Irish stage and television actor born in Dublin, Ireland, whose career spanned from the 1950s through the 1990s and encompassed more than 200 stage productions.

Bedford launched his career at Dublin's Gate Theatre in the 1950s, during the tenure of directors Hilton Edwards and Michael MacLiammoir, where he performed in works by Chekhov, Shaw, and Shakespeare. He subsequently pursued stage and television work in England, appearing in Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre and a number of television plays during his time in London.

His association with playwright Brian Friel proved central to his early career. Bedford was part of the original cast of Friel's Philadelphia, Here I Come! when it premiered at the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin in September 1964. He followed the production through its West End transfer at London's Criterion Theatre and onto Broadway, where his performance earned him a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Play in 1966, shared with Donal Donnelly, as well as an Outer Critics Circle Award. He returned to Friel's work with The Mundy Scheme, which he performed in New York in 1969.

Bedford's Broadway career extended from 1966 to 1974 and included appearances in Equus and the musical 1776, in which he played John Adams on a nationwide tour. In 1972, he was part of the premiere of Tennessee Williams's Small Craft Warnings at the New Theatre in New York City.

His screen work included a small role in Orson Welles's 1965 film Chimes at Midnight and a starring role opposite Sandy Dennis in the 1967 film Up the Down Staircase, set in a New York City high school. He also appeared in the 1976 film The Next Man and in the British science fiction television series Undermind in 1965, taking a featured role in the episode titled A Death in England.

Based primarily in New York City during the latter portion of his career, Bedford worked extensively both on and off Broadway as well as on the West Coast. He died on November 20, 1999, in Manhattan of cancer, six weeks after being hospitalized. He was 67 years old.