Bernard Frederic Bemrose Kay (23 February 1928 – 25 December 2014) was an English actor with an extensive theatre, television, and film repertoire.

Career

Kay began his working life as a reporter for the ''

Bolton Evening News ''The Bolton News'' – formerly the ''Bolton Evening News'' – is a daily newspaper and news website covering the towns of Bolton and Bury in north-western England. Published each morning from Monday to Saturday and online every day, it is pa ...

'', and a stringer for the ''

Manchester Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the G ...

''. He was conscripted in 1946 and started acting in the army. Kay gained a scholarship to study at the Old Vic Theatre School and became a professional in 1950, as a member of the company which reopened the

Old Vic Old or OLD may refer to: Places *Old, Baranya, Hungary *Old, Northamptonshire, England * Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD) *OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, M ...

after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. He appeared in hundreds of TV productions including '' Emmerdale Farm'', ''

The Champions ''The Champions'' is a British espionage thriller/science fiction/occult detective fiction adventure television series. It was produced by Lew Grade's ITC Entertainment production company, and consists of 30 episodes broadcast in the UK on ...

'', ''The Cellar and the Almond Tree'', ''Clayhanger'', '' A Very British Coup'', '' Casualty'', '' Casualty 1909'', '' Doctors'', ''

Z-Cars ''Z-Cars'' or ''Z Cars'' (pronounced "zed cars") is a British television police procedural series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby, near Liverpool. Produced by the BBC, it debut ...

'', ''

Coronation Street ''Coronation Street'' is an English soap opera created by ITV Granada, Granada Television and shown on ITV (TV network), ITV since 9 December 1960. The programme centres around a cobbled, terraced street in Weatherfield, a fictional town based ...

'', ''

Jonathan Creek ''Jonathan Creek'' is a long-running British mystery crime drama series produced by the BBC and written by David Renwick. It stars Alan Davies as the titular character, who works as a creative consultant to a stage magician while also solvi ...

'', '' Foyle's War'' and '' London's Burning'' in 1989. He also portrayed a mutant in the '' Space: 1999'' episode "A Matter of Balance". He portrayed Captain Stanley Lord of the SS ''Californian'' in the BBC dramatisation ''Trial by Inquiry: Titanic'' in 1967. The 1970s saw Kay play the role of Philip Bentley in ''

The Protectors ''The Protectors'' is a British television series, an action thriller created by Gerry Anderson. It was Anderson's second TV series to exclusively use live actors as opposed to marionettes (following '' UFO''), and his second to be firmly set in ...

'' episode ''A Pocketful of Posies'' (1973) and appear as the

underworld The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underworld ...

crime boss Harry Scott in an episode of the hard-hitting British police drama '' The Professionals'', the episode entitled ''When the Heat Cools Off'' (1978). Later television credits include as bandit leader Cordova in the ''

Zorro Zorro ( Spanish for 'fox') is a fictional character created in 1919 by American pulp writer Johnston McCulley, appearing in works set in the Pueblo of Los Angeles in Alta California. He is typically portrayed as a dashing masked vigilant ...

'' television episode "Alejandro Rides Again" in 1991 which was filmed in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), an ...

, Spain. Kay also gave a sympathetic performance as Korporal Hartwig in an early episode of ''

Colditz Colditz () is a small town in the district of Leipzig, in Saxony, Germany. It is best known for Colditz Castle, the site of the Oflag IV-C POW camp for officers in World War II. Geography Colditz is situated in the Leipzig Bay, southeast of the ...

''. Kay has appeared four times in the '' Doctor Who'' series in various roles, most notably as

Saladin Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shadi () ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known by the epithet Saladin,, ; ku, سه‌لاحه‌دین, ; was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from an ethnic Kurdish family, he was the first of both Egypt and ...

in the classic ''Doctor Who'' story '' The Crusade'' in 1965. He also appeared in the serials ''

The Dalek Invasion of Earth ''The Dalek Invasion of Earth'' is the second serial of the second season in the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. Written by Terry Nation and directed by Richard Martin, the serial was broadcast on BBC1 in six weekl ...

'' (1964), ''

The Faceless Ones ''The Faceless Ones'' is the mostly missing eighth serial of the fourth season in the British science fiction television series '' Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 8 April to 13 May 1967. In this serial, the ...

'' (1967) and '' Colony in Space'' (1971). In 2006, he guest-starred in the ''Doctor Who'' audio adventure '' Night Thoughts''. His best-known film appearance was his role as a Bolshevik leader in '' Doctor Zhivago'' (1965).

Stage

He also acted extensively on the stage. In 1952, for the Nottingham Rep, he learned, rehearsed, and played ''Macbeth'' in less than 24 hours. In 1984, he played Shylock in a British Council tour of Asia, ending in Baghdad, in the middle of the Iraq/Iran war. Other theatre includes ''An Inspector Calls'' (

Garrick Theatre The Garrick Theatre is a West End theatre, located in Charing Cross Road, in the City of Westminster, named after the stage actor David Garrick. It opened in 1889 with ''The Profligate'', a play by Arthur Wing Pinero, and another Pinero play, ...

), ''Macbeth'' (Nottingham Playhouse), ''Titus Andronicus'' (European Tour), '' A Man for All Seasons'' (International Tour), ''The Merchant of Venice'' (International Tour), ''Galileo'' (Young Vic), ''Death of a Salesman'' (Lyric Theatre, Belfast)—for which he was nominated as best actor in the RITA awards in 1998—and ''Halpern and Johnson'' (

New End Theatre The New End Theatre, Hampstead, was an 80-seat fringe theatre venue in London, at 27 New End in the London Borough of Camden which operated from 1974 until 2011. It was founded in 1974 by Buddy Dalton in the converted mortuary of the now-defun ...

). He twice appeared at the

Finborough Theatre The Finborough Theatre is a fifty-seat theatre in the West Brompton area of London (part of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea) under artistic director Neil McPherson. The theatre presents new British writing, as well as UK and world pr ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

: in 2006 in ''After Haggerty'' and in 2010 in ''Dream of the Dog''.

Personal life

Bernard Kay was married to the actress Patricia Haines from 1963 until her death from cancer in 1977. He never quite recovered from her death. He died on Christmas Day 2014, aged 86.

Selected filmography

* ''

Carry On Sergeant ''Carry On Sergeant'' is a 1958 British comedy film about National Service starring William Hartnell, Bob Monkhouse and Eric Barker; it is the first in the series of ''Carry On'' films, with 31 entries released from 1958 to 1992. The fil ...

'' (1958) – Injured Recruit * ''Backfire'' (1962) – Fire Chief * '' Doctor Who'' (1965) -

* '' Doctor Zhivago'' (1965) – The Bolshevik * '' Doctor Who'' (1967) - Inspector Crossland * ''The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'' (1967, TV Series) -

Aslan Aslan () is a major character in C. S. Lewis's '' The Chronicles of Narnia'' series. Unlike any other character, he appears in all seven chronicles of the series. Aslan is depicted as a talking lion, and is described as the King of Beasts, the ...

* '' They Came from Beyond Space'' (1967) – Richard Arden * '' The Shuttered Room'' (1967) – Tait * '' Torture Garden'' (1967) – Dr. Heim (segment 2 "Terror Over Hollywood") * '' Interlude'' (1968) – George Selworth * '' Witchfinder General'' (1968) – Fisherman * '' Darling Lili'' (1970) – Bedford * ''

Trog ''Trog'' is a 1970 British science fiction horror film directed by Freddie Francis, and starring Joan Crawford in a story about the discovery of a troglodyte (or Ice Age "caveman") in twentieth-century United Kingdom. The screenplay was wr ...

'' (1970) – Inspector Greenham * '' Doctor Who'' (1971) – Caldwell * '' The Hunting Party'' (1971) – Buford King * '' Running Scared'' (1972) – Mr. Willis * ''

Lady Caroline Lamb Lady Caroline Lamb (née Ponsonby; 13 November 1785 – 25 January 1828) was an Anglo-Irish aristocrat and novelist, best known for '' Glenarvon'', a Gothic novel. In 1812 she had an affair with Lord Byron, whom she described as "mad, bad, ...

'' (1972) – Benson * '' The Hiding Place'' (1975) – Fred Koonstra * '' Voyage of the Damned'' (1976) – Cuba Harbour pilot (uncredited) * '' Spy Story'' (1976) – Commander Wheeler * '' Sweeney!'' (1977) – Matthews * '' Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger'' (1977) – Zabid * '' The Professionals'' (1978) – Harry Scott * '' The Great Riviera Bank Robbery'' (1979) – Commissaire * '' The Case of Marcel Duchamp'' (1984) * ''The Most Dangerous Man in the World'' (1988) – Dogan * '' London's Burning'' (1989) - Chief Fire Officer * ''

A Ghost in Monte Carlo ''A Ghost in Monte Carlo'' is a 1951 novel by Barbara Cartland. It was the gayest season Monte Carlo had ever known, Mademoiselle Fantôme was causing a sensation. Who was the exquisite "ghost", with her shining golden hair and dreaming dark e ...

'' (1990) – Police Chief Gutier * ''

'' (1994) – Mr Phillips * ''

Steal This Movie ''Steal This Movie!'' is a 2000 American biographical film directed by Robert Greenwald and written by Bruce Graham, based on the 1976 book '' To America with Love: Letters From the Underground'' by Anita and Abbie Hoffman and 1992 book '' Abbie ...

'' (2000) – John Hoffman * '' Foyle's War: The White Feather'' (2002) - Robert Woolton * ''Puritan'' (2005) – The old man * '' Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman'' (2005) – Uncle Tom * ''

Joy Division Joy Division were an English rock band formed in Salford in 1976. The group consisted of vocalist Ian Curtis, guitarist/keyboardist Bernard Sumner, bassist Peter Hook and drummer Stephen Morris. Sumner and Hook formed the band after att ...

'' (2006) – Bothringaye * ''

Psychosis Psychosis is a condition of the mind that results in difficulties determining what is real and what is not real. Symptoms may include delusions and hallucinations, among other features. Additional symptoms are incoherent speech and behavior ...

'' (2010) – Reverend Swan (final film role)

References

External links

*
Obituary
(''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publishe ...

'')
Obituary
(''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ...

'')
Obituary: Bernard Kay, actor
(''

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until August 2004. Its pa ...

'')
Bolton-born Doctor Who actor Bernard Kay dies
(''

The Bolton News ''The Bolton News'' – formerly the ''Bolton Evening News'' – is a daily newspaper and news website covering the towns of Bolton and Bury in north-western England. Published each morning from Monday to Saturday and online every day, it is pa ...

'')
Bernard Kay Tribute
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kay, Bernard 1928 births English male film actors English male television actors 2014 deaths Actors from Bolton 20th-century English male actors 21st-century English male actors Alumni of Bristol Old Vic Theatre School