Bernard Fox (1927)

 personal life

Fox, a "fifth generation performer", was born Bernard Lawson in Port Talbot, Glamorgan, Wales, the son of Queenie (née Barrett) and Gerald Lawson, both of whom were stage actors. He had an older sister, Mavis, and has been married to his wife Jacqueline since 1961 and together they have 2 children. His uncle was veteran film and stage actor Wilfrid Lawson.

 career

His 30 film credits from 1956 to 2004 include two films revolving around the sinking of RMS Titanic, separated by 39 years. Fox was in both Titanic and the earlier version of the tragedy A Night to Remember . In the latter, he delivered the line, "Iceberg dead ahead, sir!" Other film roles ranged from supporting parts in broad comedies to supplying the voice of the chairmouse in the Disney animated features The Rescuers and The Rescuers Down Under. His last part was that of Winston Havelock, a retired Air Force pilot in the 1999 adventure film The Mummy.

In television, his best-known role was as the warlock physician Dr. Bombay on Bewitched and as the inept British Colonel Crittenden on Hogan's Heroes. However, his first appearance in Bewitched was not as Dr. Bombay, but as a professional witch debunker. He repeated the role of Dr. Bombay on the 1977 sequel Tabitha, and again in 1999 on the soap opera Passions, and spoofed it as a genie doctor ("wish doctor") in a 1989 episode of Pee-wee's Playhouse. He appeared in two episodes in the mystery series Columbo, "Dagger of the Mind" and "Troubled Waters", starring Peter Falk as the rumpled detective. , Fox is one of only three surviving adult recurring cast members of Bewitched, . Fox also appeared as English valet Malcolm Meriweather on The Andy Griffith Show and in Knight Rider as Commander Smiths in season 2 episode 8.

Fox appeared as a British Major in "The Phantom Major", Episode 3 of F Troop, and in "Tea and Empathy", Episode 17 of Series 6 of M*A*S*H.

In 1964, Fox appeared in episode #117 of The Dick Van Dyke Show titled "Girls Will Be Boys". Fox plays the father of a little girl that keeps beating up Richie Petrie. He also appeared in episode #94 of The Dick Van Dyke Show, "Teacher's Petrie" where he played a night school creative writing teacher and in "Never Bathe on Saturday" as the house detective.

Fox also appeared in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. two-part episode, "The Bridge of Lion's Affair", in 1966 as THRUSH agent Jordin who's constant response to each additional assignment is "I'll look into it", and in the Murder, She Wrote episode, "One White Rose for Death", in 1986.