Brian Bedford was born in Morley, West Yorkshire, the son of Ellen (née O’Donnell) and Arthur Bedford, a postman. He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London from 1952-55. Primarily a stage actor, he was known for his English-speaking interpretations of the French playwright Molière, including Tony Award nominated performances in Tartuffe, The Molière Comedies (a double bill of the short plays The School for Husbands and The Imaginary Cuckold) and The School for Wives, for which he received the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play. He did a great deal of Shakespearean work, notably as Ariel in The Tempest opposite John Gielgud’s Prospero in 1958, Angelo in Measure for Measure at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in 1975 and 1976, and The Public Theater’s New York Shakespeare Festival Shakespeare in the Park productions of As You Like It (as Orlando), and Timon of Athens (as Timon), the latter based on a production he originated with the National Actors Theatre in 1993 and which he eventually played on Broadway. Brian Bedford’s additional Broadway credits include The Seven Descents of Myrtle, Private Lives, Two Shakespearean Actors, London Assurance and Jumpers. Brian Bedford appeared with James Garner in the 1966 film Grand Prix, and in 1967 he was a regular on the short-lived CBS series Coronet Blue. He provided the voice of Robin Hood in the 1973 Disney film of the same name. In 1997 Bedford was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame. Other honours include the Obie, the Outer Circle Critics Award, the Drama Desk Award, and the LA Drama Critics Award. In 2009, Bedford starred as “Lady Bracknell” in The Importance of Being Earnest, marking 27 seasons of acting and/or directing, at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Canada. He repeated the role in 2010 (in a double role as both actor and director) for the Roundabout Theatre in New York, which earned him a 2011 Tony Award nomination for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play. Brian Bedford shared a renovated home in Stratford, Ontario with fellow actor Tim MacDonald, his partner since 1986 and husband since 2013. Brian Bedford died from cancer on January 13, 2016 in Santa Barbara, California, at the age of 80.