Roger Rees, RIP

[dirac]

Roger Rees has died at age 71. I was never sorry to see him. A wonderful actor and man of the theater.

On the small screen, he was entertainingly supercilious and duplicitous as the English tycoon Robin Colcord in NBC’s Cheers, in which he appeared intermittently from the late 1980s as the love interest of Kirstie Alley’s character Rebecca. Rees also enjoyed himself as The West Wing’s Lord John Marbury, a flamboyant diplomat who affects to think that the White House Chief of Staff is a butler and shamelessly flirts with the First Lady, Abbey Bartlet (Stockard Channing). Though he became an American citizen in 1989, he was often the first port of call when American television programs needed a supercilious Englishman, and popped up in guest parts in shows from Elementary to Grey’s Anatomy and Warehouse 13.

Related.

To remember the legend, we bring you three illustrations of his work by caricature artist Ken Fallin- two from his appearance in The Addams Family, and the third from The Visit.

Broadway's lights will be dimmed in his honor on Wednesday.

The Broadway League says the lights will be dimmed for one minute at 7:45 p.m. Mr. Rees died Friday night at his home in New York after a brief battle with cancer.

[abatt]

I just saw him in The Visit on Broadway in April. Just goes to show how your life can change in an instant after a cancer diagnosis. RIP.

[dirac]

I had the same thought, abatt. It seems to have happened so fast.

[sandik]

I remember first seeing him in Nicholas Nickleby, and just being blown away.