It’s Still Hard To Believe One Of Our Favorite Actors Is Gone. You Will Be Missed. RIP
By Timfly
A Los Angeles-area hospital has just issued the bad news. Actor Bernard Fox, famed for his roles as Dr. Bombay in “Bewitched” and Colonel Crittendon in “Hogan’s Heroes” has just passed away from heart failure at the tender age of 89.
The amazing actor was born in Wales in May 11, 1927 to a family of two stage actors. Stardom was his destiny as he landed his first role at just 18-months of age. He focused his life on perfecting the art of acting, except when he heroically put it aside to fight the Nazis as a member of the Royal Navy during World War II.
Fox was a regular appearance on “Bewitched”, appearing in 19 episodes. He based his popular Dr. Bombay character on a man he knew during his time in the Navy.
“He was the officer in charge of the camp that we were in, and it was an all-male camp, and one evening, I was on duty and we got six Women’s Royal Naval Service arrived to be put up.”
“So I went to this officer and said, ‘What shall I do?’ And he said, ‘Oh, I don’t know, give ’em a hot bran mash, some clean straw and bed ’em down for the night.’ And I thought, ‘What a great way to play (Dr. Bombay.)’ And that’s the way I played him, and (the ‘Bewitched’ writers) kept writing him back in.”
While acting for “Bewitched”, Fox admitted to Bewitched.net, that he frequently improvised his own lines in the heat of the moment: “If I saw something where a pun could come in, I would put it in and see how it went, and nine times out of ten, they let it go. I spent a lot of time in comedy and farce in London in the west end, and a little bit on television, and so I came up with these outrageous characters. Dr. Bombay was an outrageous character. Colonel Crittenden on Hogan’s Heroes was another outrageous character – a different kind of character.”
But his favorite role was always Colonel Crittendon, as he told HoganHeroesFanClub.com: “I thought he was a much bigger idiot than Dr. Bombay,” he said. “I really liked the outrageous behavior of Colonel Crittendon. And I may have got a little bit more comedy of my own in on Hogan’s Heroes than I did on Bewitched. I remember one time, in the episode with the crossbow, Crittendon’s crossbow—I deliberately got the handle of the crossbow caught behind Bob Crane’s leg, so that when I charged off, I dragged his leg up with it. They thought it was an accident. It wasn’t; I did that.”
Besides his famous slots, Fox also played an uncredited role in “A Night To Remember”, which was about the sinking of the Titanic. He later played Colonel Gracie in James Cameron’s “Titanic.”
Fox also played Capt. Winston Havelock in the 1999 movie “The Mummy” with Brendan Fraser. He appeared on The Dick Van Dyke Show.
Fox is survived by his daughter Amanada, daughter-in-law Lisa, his wife Jacqueline and two grandchildren.
You are currently reading about It’s Still Hard To Believe One Of Our Favorite Actors Is Gone. You Will Be Missed. RIP. If you've found this helpful, please share It’s Still Hard To Believe One Of Our Favorite Actors Is Gone. You Will Be Missed. RIP on your favorite social media site, such as Facebook, Twitter, or Google+
