Actor and star of Bewitched
Born: May 11, 1927;
Died: December 14, 2016
BERNARD Fox, who has died aged 89, was a Welsh-born actor who was known for his regular appearances on the TV comedy Bewitched. He also had the distinction of appearing in two films about the Titanic disaster: A Night to Remember in 1958 and James Cameron's Titanic 40 years later.
He appeared in Bewitched as Dr Bombay, a colourful warlock who would regularly turn up at the home of Samantha, a witch played by Elizabeth Montgomery who has married a mortal and is trying to live an ordinary life. The show, which also starred Dick York, ran for eight seasons between 1964 and 1972.
Fox's appearance in A Night to Remember came very early in his career and he only had one line - "Iceberg dead ahead sir!". But in 1997's Titanic, he had a major role as Colonel Archibald Gracie IV, although he remembered the experience of making the film, which involved pumping sea water into the set, as very gruelling.
Fox was born in Port Talbot in Wales, the son of two stage actors, and after serving in the Royal Navy during the Second World War, began to establish his career as a television actor in the UK, appearing in Dixon of Dock Green, Armchair Theatre and other popular shows of the time.
By the 1960s, he had moved to America and was appearing on The Dick Van Dyke Show and I Dream of Jeanie. He also worked as a voice artist on The Flintstones and the Disney film The Rescuers.
He played the bumbling Colonel Crittendon on the popular 60s sitcom Hogan's Heroes before landing the part of Dr Bombay, which he said he based on an officer he had encountered while 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 six Women's Royal Naval Service arrived to be put up," he recalled.
"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' .
"If I'd just gone for an ordinary doctor, you wouldn't have heard any more about it. But because I made him such a colourful character, that's why they wanted him back; he was easy to write for. They came up with the idea of him coming from different parts of the world all the time and in different costumes; that was their idea. The puns, I came up with, and in those days, they let you do that."
The character - who was summoned by the phrase "Dr. Bombay, calling Dr. Bombay. Emergency, come right away" - later appeared in the spin-off from Bewitched, Tabitha, which featured Samantha's daughter and ran for one season from 1977 until 1978.
Fox's other credits included appearances on Murder, She Wrote, Hart to Hart and MASH. He also appeared in the 1999 film The Mummy.
He is survived by his wife, Jacqueline, daughter Amanda, daughter-in-law Lisa and two grandchildren. Another daughter, Valerie, died in 2006.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here