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Disney’s Robin Hood Brian Bedford Dies Aged 80

Brian Bedford – the voice of Disney’s Robin Hood – has died, aged 80.

The British-born actor, renowned for voicing the title character in Disney’s ‘Robin Hood’, had reportedly been battling cancer for the last two-and-a-half years, according to a Stratford rep who also told Canadian press that doctors had been “astounded by his will to live.”

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Born in Yorkshire, Brian Bedford had shared Royal Academy classrooms with the likes of Peter O’Toole and Albert Finney… and while he was known as the voice of Robin Hood, he was perhaps even more renowned on the world stage.

Primarily a stage actor, Bedford made appearances at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival since 1975 – starring in some of the Bard’s most notable works including ‘Measure For Measure’, ‘As You Like It’ and ‘King Lear’.

And he was just as comfortable directing the company as acting within it – directing numerous Shakespeare plays at the festival since 1989.

“Brian Bedford was the prime reason I went into the theatre,” said Stratford Festival artistic director Antoni Cimolino. “I saw him in Molière’s Misanthrope, and it made me feel that he embodied the spirit of comedy itself… He was brilliantly witty, completely relaxed, and made us all adore him. But to see him in tragedy was another revelation. He was absolutely in the moment, with a strongly personal point of view, a vital intelligence keyed to a modern sensibility.”

“When I had the great privilege of working with and eventually directing Brian, I was overwhelmed by his generosity,” he continued. “He became a mentor, a role model and an inspiration.”

Adding to his somewhat varied career, Bedford also appeared on the small screen, in a variety of different TV shows including ‘Coronet Blue’, ‘Cheers’, ‘Alfred Hitchcock Presents’ and ‘Frasier’.

Notably, he took to the big screen in ‘Nixon’ opposite Anthony Hopkins as Associate Director of the FBI, Clyde Tolson.

Brian Bedford died 14 January 2016, aged 80.

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Picture Credit: Disney, WENN.