Tony Award-winning actor Roger Rees, the stage’s original Nicholas Nickleby

Rees, who has an extensive resume, got his start in the 1970s, before making his mark in the eight-and-a-half-hour stage production of The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (1980), based on the Charles Dickens novel of the same name.

Rees won a Tony Award as well as an Olivier Award for his role Nicholas Nickleby.

“The world has lost a great actor, gentleman and soul”, said Chita Rivera, Rees’ co-star in “The Visit” this year.

Although Rees opened “The Visit” on Broadway, he was unable to complete the show’s run, departing the production a couple weeks after its April 23 opening to undergo treatment for an unspecified medical condition.

In film, Rees played the Sheriff of Rottingham in Mel Brooks’ “Robin Hood: Men in Tights” in 1993 and was in “The Scorpion King” in 2002 and “The Pink Panther” in 2006.

Initially a set painter, Rees turned to acting in the 1960s. Rees also enjoyed himself as The West Wing’s Lord John Marbury, a flamboyant diplomat who affects to think that the White House Chief of Staff is a butler and shamelessly flirts with the First Lady, Abbey Bartlet (Stockard Channing).

Tony Award winning actor Roger Rees passed away this week. He also directed several plays both on and off Broadway.

The last flight for US Airways will take place this fall, and one more name in airline history will disappear.

X-Men and Star Trek actor Sir Patrick Stewart said: ” Brilliant actor, dear friend and colleague, witty, kind, private man, Roger Rees died this morning.

He had lived in the United States for 25 years and it is understood that he died after a short illness. “I suddenly was an actor. I learned to be nervous later”, he admitted. An openly gay persona, Rees had his husband, playwright Rick Elice, by his side.

Rees also had recurring TV roles on the British sitcom Singles, Boston Common and M.A.N.T.I.S., and he recently popped up on Grey’s Anatomy, The Good Wife, The Middle and Elementary.