Bernard Braden
Bernard Braden | |
|---|---|
| Born | 16 May 1916 Vancouver,British Columbia,Canada |
| Died | 2 February 1993(aged 76) London, England |
| Occupation(s) | Actor, comedian |
| Years active | 1951–1989 |
| Known for | On the Braden Beat |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3, includingKim Braden |
Bernard Chastey Braden(16 May 1916 – 2 February 1993) was a Canadian-born British actor and comedian, who is best known for his appearances in UK television and radio shows.
Life
[edit]Braden was born inVancouver,British Columbia,and educated atMagee Secondary School,Kerrisdale,Vancouver. He produced plays onCJORVancouver in the late 1930s and early 1940s.[1]He marriedBarbara Kellyin 1942,[2]and they moved toTorontothe same year. They had two children, Christopher and Kelly Braden.[3]Seven years later, he, his wife and two children moved toEngland.[2]A third child,Kim,was born inLondonin 1949.
He was the subject ofThis Is Your Lifein 1991, when he was surprised byMichael Aspeloutside theAldwych Theatre.[citation needed]
Braden died inCamden,London,aged 76, following a series ofstrokes.
Career
[edit]Radio
[edit]InBreakfast with Braden(for theBBC,from January 1950) he played American serviceman "Brandon Marlow" (a caricature of Marlon Brando inA Streetcar Named Desire). Other cast members acted as stooges, includingPearl Carr( "Sing, Pearl" ),Benny Leeand bandleaderNat Temple( "Play, Nat!" ).
Other BBC radio shows followed:Bedtime with Braden(from September 1950), which included his signature sign-out song "Lullaby of Birdland";Between Time;Bathtime;andBedlam with Braden.Ronald Fletcher, the announcer, was drawn into the script which added to the ingenuity and enjoyment.
Braden also appeared in 1951 alongside his wife inAn Evening at Home with Bernard Braden and Barbara Kelly.
Television
[edit]In 1960, Braden interviewed Orson Welles in Allen King's documentary, "Orson Welles: The Paris Interview," produced for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Braden presentedOn the Braden Beat,a popular consumer affairs programme made forITVbyAssociated Television,which ran from 1962 to 1967. Jock Watson and, later,Francis Colemanproduced this Saturday late-night show, which also examined current political issues affecting the British public. The show was interspersed with lighthearted sketches and music, and helped a number of actors to get a start on television. Performers frequently featured includedPeter Cook,Jake ThackrayandTim Brooke-Taylor.
A successor with essentially the same format,Braden's Week,appeared when he transferred to the BBC from 1967 to 1972. This show may have been cancelled because he advertisedmargarineon the BBC's commercial rival ITV; the BBC felt this was inconsistent with his role as the consumers' spokesman,.Esther Rantzen,one of the researcher/presenters, went on to front a similar consumer-focused show,That's Life!.In 1974, Braden also hosted a short-lived Canadian edition ofThe Braden Beatfor Canada's fledglingGlobal Television Network.[4]
Braden hosted a quiz show forLondon Weekend Televisionin 1976,The Sweepstakes Game.Two contestants decided which of six star guests were most likely to help them to win cash and prizes.
He later (1987-1989) presented episodes of the showAll Our Yesterdays.
Braden independently produced and shot in 1967-68 an extended series of interviews of public figures, conducted by himself (and sometimes by his wife), for a series calledNow and Then[5]but the series was never completed or sold to a broadcaster. The series was re-edited in 2008 asSex Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll: The 60s Revealed,[6]in which the original interviewees saw their 1968 interviews for the first time.
Film and stage
[edit]His few film appearances includedLove in Pawn(1953),Jet Storm(1959),The Full Treatment(1960),The Day the Earth Caught Fire(1961) (as the news editor of theDaily Express), and the 1962 filmsTwo and Two Make SixandAll Night Long.In the same year he played Flight Surgeon Randall in the British filmThe War Lover,alongsideSteve McQueen,Robert Wagnerand a youngMichael Crawford.
He also narrated the 20-minute British Transport Films shortThe Coasts of Clyde,in which he announces himself as a Canadian traveller arriving in Scotland in pursuit of an ancestor in the land of his parents.
On the stage he appeared in twoTennessee Williamsplays, as Mitch in the London premiere ofA Streetcar Named DesirealongsideVivien Leigh,and later as the lead inPeriod of Adjustment.
Book
[edit]Braden published an autobiography,The Kindness of Strangers;the title is an allusion toA Streetcar Named Desire.[7]
Discography
[edit]- Bernard Braden Reads Stephen Leacock(1969), Capitol ST-6335
References
[edit]- ^"Personalities - History of Canadian Broadcasting".Broadcasting-history.ca.Archived fromthe originalon 12 June 2018.Retrieved10 June2018.
- ^ab"Barbara Kelly Obituary".The Daily Telegraph.16 January 2007.[dead link]
- ^June Averill (6 February 1993)."Obituary: Bernard Braden".The Independent.Retrieved14 July2017.
- ^"A new TV network comes to life as the old scoffers just fade away".The Globe and Mail,5 January 1974.
- ^"Now and Then (1967-68)",BFI screenonline
- ^"Sex, Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll: The 60s Revealed (TV Series 2008– )".IMDb.com.Retrieved10 June2018.
- ^Much of the detail is confirmed in theThis Is Your Lifeepisode devoted to Braden.
External links
[edit]| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
- 1916 births
- 1993 deaths
- British male comedians
- British male stage actors
- British male television actors
- British television presenters
- Canadian male comedians
- Canadian male stage actors
- Canadian male television actors
- Canadian television hosts
- Comedians from Vancouver
- Global Television Network people
- Canadian emigrants to the United Kingdom
- Male actors from Vancouver
- 20th-century British comedians
- 20th-century British male actors
- 20th-century Canadian comedians
- 20th-century Canadian male actors