Following a sad week after the deaths of iconic singer David Bowie and the much loved British actor Alan Rickman, both to cancer, Brian Bedford, the Tony award-winning stage actor, director and voice of Disney’s 1973 animated classic Robin Hood, has died from cancer. He was 80-years-old. Bedford died on Wednesday in California after suffering from cancer for more than two years.
Bedford was born in Yorkshire and attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts alongside fellow actors Peter O’Toole and Alan Bates, graduating in 1955.
He went on to star in Peter Shaffer’s Five Finger Exercise and in a number of plays on Broadway, including The Private Ear and Two Shakespearean Actors.
Bedford won a Tony Award in 1971 for his role in The School for Wives and in 1973 lent his voice to Disney’s adaptation of Robin Hood. His seventh Tony nomination for his performance as Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest, which he also directed, arrived in 2011. He performed in more than 50 Stratford productions, making his debut in 1975.
He is survived by his partner of almost 30 years, the actor Tim MacDonald.
