Bernard Lawson (11 May 1927 – 14 December 2016) was a Welsh-born American film and television actor, known for his roles as Dr. Bombay from Bewitched, Archibald Gracie IV in Titanic, Captain Winston Havlock in The Mummy and as the naive, bumbling Colonel Crittendon on Hogan's Heroes.

Spouse Jacqueline Fox (1961–2016)

Children 2

Family Wilfrid Lawson (uncle)

Personal life and death

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 his uncle was veteran film and stage actor Wilfrid Lawson.

Fox married his wife Jacqueline in 1961, who survives him, along with their daughter, Amanda, and two grandchildren, David-Mitchel and Samantha.

Fox died on 14 December 2016 of heart failure at the age of 89 at Valley Presbyterian Hospital in Van Nuys, California.

Career

Fox began his film career at the age of 18 months and by the age of 14 he was an assistant manager of a theatre. After his naval services in the Royal Navy during World War II he resumed his career and soon was in 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 (1997) (as Colonel Archibald Gracie IV) and the earlier version of the tragedy A Night to Remember (1958) (uncredited as Frederick Fleet). In the latter, he delivered the line "Iceberg dead ahead, sir!" while playing the part of a sailor in the ship's crow's nest. His other screen roles ranged from supporting parts in broad comedies (Yellowbeard, Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo, and The Private Eyes, playing a homicidal butler in the last) to supplying the voice of the Chairmouse in the Disney animated features The Rescuers and The Rescuers Down Under. He played the role of Winston Havelock, a retired Air Force pilot, in the 1999 adventure film The Mummy. In 2004, Fox made his final appearance before retirement in Surge of Power: The Stuff of Heroes.

On television, Fox portrayed the warlock physician (or "witch doctor") Dr. Bombay on Bewitchedand the inept "Colonel" Crittendon (actually an RAF Group Captain, though always referred to as a Colonel) 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". Fox was the penultimate surviving adult recurring cast member of the sitcom Bewitched, leaving Nancy Kovack as the only remaining one. 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 season 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 who keeps beating up Richie Petrie. He also appeared in episode 95, "Teacher's Petrie," where he played a night school creative writing teacher, and in "Never Bathe on Saturday" as the house detective.

In 1965 Fox made a guest appearance on Perry Mason as murderer Peter Stange in "The Case of the Laughing Lady."

Fox also appeared in McHale's Navy, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. "The Thor Affair" As munitions magnate Brutus Thor, intent on assassinating a "Gandhi-like" figure who is trying to bring world peace (1966). And a two-part episode "The Bridge of Lion's Affair" in 1966, as THRUSH agent Jordin, whose 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. He co-starred with Michael Evans as Dr. Watson in "Sherlock & Me" in the early 1980s.

Television

• The Andy Griffith Show
• I Dream of Jeannie, season 1, episode 18 "Is There an Extra Jeannie in the House?"
• The Monkees, season 2, episode 55 "Monkees Mind Their Manor"
• Bewitched
• The Danny Thomas Show (1962-1963, "Danny's English Friend", and Danny's "Girl Shy" in the "Make Room For Daddy" series.) - Alfie Wingate
• McHale's Navy (1964) - Sub-Lieutenant Clivedon
• The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
• The Dick Van Dyke Show
• The Wide Open Door
• The Son-in-Law
• Intertect
• M*A*S*H
• F-Troop (Major Bentley Ross)
• Here Come the Brides
• Hogan's Heroes, as Colonel Crittendon and, in two-part episode "Lady Chitterly's Lover", as Sir Charles Chitterly
• Columbo: Dagger of the Mind
• Columbo: Troubled Waters
• Sherlock & Me
• What's Happening!!
• Twelve O'Clock High
• Dharma and Greg, "Without Reservations" as Henry Cooper
• Pee-wee's Playhouse, "Sick? Did Somebody Say Sick?" as Dr. Jinga-Janga
• Perry Mason

Filmography

• Soho Incident (aka Spin a Dark Web) (1956) - McLeod (uncredited), (First-Role)
• Home and Away (1956) - Johnnie Knowles
• The Counterfeit Plan (1956) - Detective Sergeant
• Blue Murder at St. Trinian's (1957) - Photographer (uncredited)
• The Safecracker (1958) - Shafter
• A Night to Remember (1958) - Lookout Frederick Fleet (uncredited)
• The Two-Headed Spy (1958) - Lieutenant
• Captured (1959)
• The Longest Day (1962) - Pvt. Hutchinson (uncredited)
• Honeymoon Hotel (1964)
• Quick, Before It Melts (1966)
• Strange Bedfellows (1965)
• Hold On! (1966)
• Munster, Go Home! (1966)
• One of Our Spies Is Missing (1966)
• The Bamboo Saucer (1968) - Ephram
• Star! (1968)
• Big Jake (1971) - Scottish Shepherd (uncredited)
• The Million Dollar Duck (1971) - Car Salesman (uncredited)
• The Hound of the Baskervilles (1972) - Dr. Watson
• Arnold (1973) - Constable Hooke
• The Rescuers (1977) - The Chairman (voice)
• Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo (1977) - Max
• Gauguin the Savage (1980)
• The Private Eyes (1980)
• Yellowbeard (1983)
• 18 Again! (1988) - Horton
• The Rescuers Down Under (1990) - Chairman / Doctor (voice)
• Titanic (1997) - Col. Archibald Gracie
• The Mummy (1999) - Captain Winston Havlock
• Surge of Power: The Stuff of Heroes (2004) - Himself (final film role)