Tony Award-winning classical actor Brian Bedford dies at 80

In southwestern Ontario, Bedford acted and directed for 29 seasons at Canada’s famous Stratford fest, where he would develop his proclivity for the classics and perform the works of Shakespeare, Chekhov, and Molière, among others.

His last Broadway appearance was in the 2011 revival of The Importance of Being Earnest, in which he donned skirts to play Lady Brackell, earning him his seventh Tony nomination.

The Tony award victor passed away in his sleep at his home in Santa Barbara, California on Wednesday (13Jan16).

He said he chose to go drag as a way to add a farcical element to the production and as a professional challenge, although he admitted he had played a woman once before.

“I’m most alive when I’m acting”, he once said. But that early role turned out to be less about choice than necessity: Bedford was at an all-boys Roman Catholic boarding school at the time. Bedford won a Tony Award for his 1971 star-turn in Moliere’s The School for Wives, and received another seven Tony nominations over his career.

Bedford’s big break came with “Five Finger Exercise”, which moved from London to Broadway with co-star Jessica Tandy in 1959.

One of his most memorable performances was in Richard Nelson’s 1992 Two Shakespearean Actors, based on the rivalry of two actors appearing on proximate stages as Macbeth in New York City in the mid-19th century whose rivalry was so intense that fans were given to riots outside the theaters. Although he guest-starred in numerous television series including Murder, She Wrote, Cheers, and Frasier, his film work was more limited: He is best remembered as the voice of Robin Hood in Disney’s 1973 animated feature, and as Federal Bureau of Investigation number two Clyde Tolson in Oliver Stone’s 1995 Nixon, opposite Anthony Hopkins as the President and Bob Hoskins as J. Edgar Hoover. He’s survived by his longtime partner and husband, actor Tim MacDonald.

“He was not only kind, loving and generous, but one of the finest classical actors in North America”, Todd Haimes, the Roundabout’s artistic director, told Deadline. If you have the luck, as I have had, to get these opportunities, your technique actually improves. For the Canadian organization, he played Shakespearean roles including Richard III, Jacques (As You Like It), Leontes (The Winter’s Tale), Benedick (Much Ado About Nothing), Malvolio (Twelfth Night), The Merchant of Venice (Shylock), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Bottom), and the title character in King Lear. “When you are young, you have all these fabulous ideas, but you haven’t got the technique to realize them”.

Tony-winning actor Brian Bedford has died at the age of 80.