Brian Bedford (actor)

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Brian Bedford (born February 16, 1935 in Morley , West Yorkshire , † January 13, 2016 in Santa Barbara , California ) was a British actor and theater director .

Life

Family and education

Bedford was born in West Yorkshire to Arthur Bedford and his wife Ellen O'Donnell. His father was a postman. Bedford grew up in poverty, left school at the age of 15 and joined an amateur theater company in Bradford . From 1952 to 1954 he attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London ; his fellow students included Peter O'Toole , Albert Finney, and Alan Bates . Sir John Gielgud was Bedford's main mentor when he first started out on the stage in London. In 1955 he graduated from RADA with an acting diploma.

Beginnings and successes on Broadway

Bedford made his stage debut in 1951 as the conspirator Decius Brutus in Julius Caesar at the Bradford Civic Theater. He made his London debut in 1956 at the ArtsTheatre Club, as Travis de Coppet in The Young and the Beautiful (based on stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald ). Stage roles in the 1950s included Rodolpho in View from the Bridge by Arthur Miller (Comedy Theater, London, 1956), Arviragus in Cymbeline (Memorial Theater, Stratford-upon-Avon, 1957) and Ariel in Der Sturm (Memorial Theater, later also at the Drury Lane Theater, London, 1957/1958; on the side of Sir John Gielgud as Prospero).

His Broadway debut was in it in December 1959 as Clive Harrington Five Finger Exercise (dt. Five Finger Exercise ) by Peter Shaffer on Music BoxTheatre in New York City ; Directed by John Gielgud. Bedford appeared in numerous productions on Broadway, where he was particularly successful in plays by Molière and William Shakespeare . He played on Broadway a. a. Acaste in The Misanthrope (October 1968 – April 1969, Lyceum Theater), Arnolphe in Die Schule der Frauen (February – May 1971, Lyceum Theater), Alceste in Der Misanthrope (January – March 1983, Circle in the Square Theater), the title role in Timon of Athens (November – December 1993, Lyceum Theater), Sganerelle in Sganarelle or The Alleged Cuckold and The School of the Husbands of Molière (February – March 1995 as The Molière Comedies , Criterion Center Stage Right) and Orgon in Tartuffe (January– February 2003, American Airlines Theater). From January to June 2011, he played Lady Bracknell in a Broadway revival of Oscar Wilde's salon comedy The Importance of Being Earnest at the American Airlines Theater in New York.

In the 1960s he played theater on both sides of the Atlantic , u. a. in London, Los Angeles and New York City. From the 1970s onwards, he concentrated his theater performances on North America (United States / Canada). In the 1970s and 1980s, he made several extensive theater tours of various cities in the United States. From 1989 to 1993 he toured North America with the one-person Shakespeare play The Lunatic, the Lover, and the Poet .

Stratford Shakespeare Festival

Since the mid-1970s Bedford worked as an actor and director at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Stratford , Ontario . He was artistically active there for almost 30 years. He made his Stratford debut as Angelo in Maß für Maß (1975). Here he also appeared in particular as a Shakespeare actor; however, he also took on numerous roles in pieces of classical modernism. Other Shakespeare roles of Bedford were there a. a. the title role in Richard III. (1977), Jacques in As You Like It (1977–1978), Leontes in Ein Wintermärchen (1978), Benedict in Much Ado About Nothing (1980), Malvolio in What You Want (1980), Shylock in The Merchant of Venice ( 1989), the title role in Macbeth (1990), Brutus in Julius Caesar (1991), the title role in Timon of Athens (1991) and Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1993).

In addition, he impersonated Dr. at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. Ástrow in Uncle Wanja (1978), Doktor Dorn in Die Möwe (1980), Alceste in Der Menschenfeind (1981), Bluntschli in Helden (1982), Arnolphe in Die Schule der Frauen (1991) and Salieri in Amadeus (1995/1996) .

He has been a director in Stratford since the early 1990s. He created u. a. Productions of Waiting for Godot (1991), A Winter's Tale (1998), Fallen Angels by Noël Coward (1995), The Importance of Being Earnest (2009) and Der Menschenfeind (2011).

Late theater appearances

In 2007 he took on the title role in King Lear at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival , where he also directed. In 2009, Bedford played Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival for the 27th consecutive season ; he directed this production again. In 2010 he played this role (again in personal union as actor and director) at the Roundabout Theater in New York City. 2011 took on this role again on Broadway. In 2013 he canceled his participation in the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in The Merchant of Venice due to illness . He also had to drop out of a touring production of The Last Confession by Roger Crane in 2014 due to illness.

Movie and TV

Bedford also took part in some film and television productions. However, his film work is largely to be seen as marginal compared to his stage career. He made his television debut in 1955 at the side of Rosalie Crutchley . This was followed by a few rather insignificant supporting roles in British cinema and television films. In the American feature film Grand Prix (1966), with James Garner and Eva Marie Saint in the leading roles, Bedford played the role of the racing driver Scott Stoddard; his role was based on Jim Clark .

In 1967 he had a leading role in the short-lived American television series The Secret of the Blue Crown . In the Walt Disney cartoon Robin Hood (1973) he lent his voice to the title hero Robin Hood . Bedford played a supporting role as Mr. Fezziwig in the musical adaptation of A Christmas Carol (2004). With this role he later went on tour in a theater production.

Private and death

Bedford was gay . He was dating actor Tim MacDonald since 1986; the couple married in 2013. Bedford and MacDonald lived together in Stratford, Ontario. Bedford died on January 13, 2016 in Santa Barbara, California, of complications from cancer that had suffered from over two years.

Awards / nominations

Bedford received a total of seven nominations for the Tony Award in the course of his stage career ; only Jason Robards received more Tony nominations than Bedford , with eight nominations . In 1971 he received the Tony Award for Best Actor for The School of Women . He received another Tony nomination in 1992 for Two Shakespearean Actors . In 1994 a Tony nomination for best actor for the revival of Timon von Athen on Broadway, 1995 for The Molière Comedies , 2003 for Tartuffe . He received his last Tony nomination in 2011 for Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest at the Roundabout Theater.

Bedford was a multiple winner at the Drama Desk Awards ; In 1965 he won the Obie Awards for his performance in The Knack .

Filmography (selection)

  • 1955: Madeleine (TV movie)
  • 1957: A Bride on Every Street (Miracle in Soho)
  • 1960: Angry Silence
  • 1961: Traitor in a steel Helmet (TV movie)
  • 1965: The Holy Terror (TV movie)
  • 1966: Grand Prix (Grand Prix)
  • 1967: The Secret of the Blue Crown ( Coronet Blue ; TV series)
  • 1973: Robin Hood (cartoon; voice)
  • 1988: Murder Is Her Hobby ( Murder, She Wrote ; TV series)
  • 1994: Scarlett (TV miniseries)
  • 2002: Santa Claus against his will ( Mr. St. Nick ; TV movie)
  • 2004: A Christmas Carol (musical adaptation)
  • 2011: The Importance of Being Earnest (theater recording, American Airlines Theater, NY)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j British Theater Actor Brian Bedford Dies at 80 in: Variety, January 14, 2016. Retrieved January 23, 2016
  2. ^ A b c Brian Bedford, Stage Actor Who Brought the Classics to Life, Dies at 80 Obituary in: New York Times January 13, 2016. Retrieved January 23, 2016
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Brian Bedford Biography (1935-) , FilmReference.com. Retrieved January 23, 2016.
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j The Importance of Being Astonished in: New York Times, January 5, 2011. Retrieved January 23, 2016
  5. ^ Brian Bedford RADA Student and Graduate Profiles. Retrieved January 23, 2016
personal data
SURNAME Bedford, Brian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British actor and theater director
DATE OF BIRTH February 16, 1935
PLACE OF BIRTH Morley , West Yorkshire
DATE OF DEATH January 13, 2016
Place of death Santa Barbara , California