Bernard Braden

2022-02-09T14:31:42Z

2600:1700:1185:1600:FCDA:EBEA:F687:AB97:

{{short description|British actor}}
{{Use Canadian English|date=October 2012}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2020}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Bernard Braden
| image =
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1916|5|16}}
| birth_place = [[Vancouver]], [[British Columbia]], Canada
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1993|2|2|1916|5|16}}
| death_place = [[London Borough of Camden|Camden]], [[London]], England
| nationality = Canadian
| other_names =
| known_for = ''On the Braden Beat''
| occupation = Actor, comedian
| yearsactive = 1951–1989
| spouse = {{marriage|[[Barbara Kelly]]|1942}}
| children = 3, Christopher, Kelly and [[Kim 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==
Braden was born in [[Vancouver]], [[British Columbia]], and educated at [[Magee Secondary School]], [[Kerrisdale]], Vancouver. He produced plays on [[CKBD|CJOR]] Vancouver in the late 1930s and early 1940s.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.broadcasting-history.ca/personalities/personalities.php?id=259|title=Personalities - History of Canadian Broadcasting|website=Broadcasting-history.ca|accessdate=10 June 2018}}</ref> He married [[Barbara Kelly]] in 1942,<ref name="Daily Telegraph">{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/01/16/db1602.xml|title=Barbara Kelly Obituary|work=The Daily Telegraph|date=16 January 2007}}{{dead link|date=July 2021|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> and they moved to [[Toronto]] the same year. They had two children, Christopher and Kelly Braden.<ref>{{cite web|author=June Averill |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-bernard-braden-1471203.html |title=Obituary: Bernard Braden |work=The Independent|date=6 February 1993 |accessdate=2017-07-14}}</ref> Seven years later, he, his wife and two children moved to [[England]].<ref name="Daily Telegraph"/> A third child, [[Kim Braden|Kim]], was born in [[London]] in 1949.

He was the subject of ''[[This Is Your Life (UK TV series)|This Is Your Life]]'' in 1991, when he was surprised by [[Michael Aspel]] outside the [[Aldwych Theatre]].{{Citation needed|date=September 2021}}

Braden died in [[London Borough of Camden|Camden]], [[London]], aged 76, following a series of [[cerebrovascular accidents|strokes]].

==Career==
===Radio===
In ''Breakfast with Braden'' (for the [[BBC]], from January 1950) he played American serviceman "Brandon Marlow" (a caricature of Marlon Brando in ''[[A Streetcar Named Desire (play)|A Streetcar Named Desire]]''). Other cast members acted as stooges, including [[Pearl Carr & Teddy Johnson|Pearl Carr]] ("Sing, Pearl"), [[Benny Lee]] and bandleader [[Nat 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''; and ''Bedlam 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 in ''An Evening at Home with Bernard Braden and Barbara Kelly''.

===Television===
Braden presented ''On the Braden Beat'', a popular consumer affairs programme made for [[ITV (TV network)|ITV]] by [[Associated Television]], which ran from 1962 to 1967. Jock Watson and, later, [[Francis Coleman]] produced 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 included [[Peter Cook]], [[Jake Thackray]] and [[Tim 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 was cancelled when he advertised [[margarine]] on 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 of ''The Braden Beat'' for Canada's fledgling [[Global Television Network]].<ref name=scoffers>"A new TV network comes to life as the old scoffers just fade away". ''[[The Globe and Mail]]'', 5 January 1974.</ref>

Braden hosted a quiz show for [[London Weekend Television]] in 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 show ''[[All Our Yesterdays (TV series)|All 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 called ''Now and Then''<ref>[http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/1374884/index.html "Now and Then (1967-68)"], BFI screenonline</ref> but the series was never completed or sold to a broadcaster. The series was re-edited in 2008 as ''Sex Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll: The 60s Revealed'',<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1816971/reference|title=Sex, Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll: The 60s Revealed (TV Series 2008– )|accessdate=10 June 2018|website=IMDb.com}}</ref> in which the original interviewees saw their 1968 interviews for the first time.

===Film and stage===
His few film appearances included ''[[Love in Pawn]]'' (1953), ''[[Jet Storm]]'' (1959), ''[[The Full Treatment]]'' (1960), ''[[The Day the Earth Caught Fire]]'' (1961) (as the news editor of the ''[[Daily Express]]''), and the 1962 films ''[[Two and Two Make Six]]'' and ''[[All Night Long (1962 film)|All Night Long]]''. In the same year he played Flight Surgeon Randall in the British film ''[[The War Lover]]'', alongside [[Steve McQueen]], [[Robert Wagner]] and a young [[Michael Crawford]].

He also narrated the 20-minute British Transport Films short ''The 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 two [[Tennessee Williams]] plays, as Mitch in the London premiere of ''A Streetcar Named Desire'' alongside [[Vivien Leigh]], and later as the lead in ''[[Period of Adjustment]]''.

===Book===
Braden published an autobiography, ''The Kindness of Strangers''; the title is an allusion to ''A Streetcar Named Desire''.<ref>Much of the detail is confirmed in the ''This Is Your Life'' episode devoted to Braden.</ref>

===Discography===
* ''[[Bernard Braden Reads Stephen Leacock]]'' (1969), Capitol ST-6335

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* {{IMDb name|0102946}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Braden, Bernard}}
[[Category:1916 births]]
[[Category:1993 deaths]]
[[Category:British male stage actors]]
[[Category:British male television actors]]
[[Category:Male actors from Vancouver]]
[[Category:20th-century British male actors]]
[[Category:British television presenters]]
[[Category:Canadian male stage actors]]
[[Category:Canadian male television actors]]
[[Category:20th-century Canadian male actors]]
[[Category:Canadian television hosts]]
[[Category:Global Television Network people]]
[[Category:Canadian emigrants to the United Kingdom]]

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Bernard Braden