Actor Brian Bedford dies at the age of 80

Stage and screen actor Brian Bedford has died in California. The actor trained at RADA in the 50s and worked onstage in several high profile Shakespeare productions.

In 1958 he starred as Ariel, opposite John Gielgud's Prospero in The Tempest. He starred in the 1966 film Grand Prix and voiced Robin Hood in the 1973 Disney film of the same name.

He made his Broadway debut in 1959 when he starred in Peter Shaffer's Five Finger Exercise, directed by Gielgud.

In 2009 he starred as Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Canada, for which he earned his seventh Tony nomination.

Bedford passed away after a two-year battle with cancer.

Read TheaterMania's full obituary on the actor here.