‘Titanic’ star Bernard Fox has died aged 89.
The Welsh-born actor – who starred in two movies about the doomed ship 39 years apart – passed away in Van Nuys, California’s Valley Presbyterian Hospital, on Wednesday (14.12.16) after he suffered heart failure, his publicist Harlon Boll has announced.
Fox played blustering colonel Archibald Gracie IV in the 1997 hit blockbuster ‘Titanic’ and delivered the famous line "Iceberg dead ahead, Sir!" in the 1958 biopic ‘A Night To Remember’.
He was in the Royal Navy during World War II before he embarked on an impressive, transatlantic career that spanned movies and television over seven decades and he was famed for playing stiff, upper class type characters.
Fox’s Hollywood resume comprised of hit comedy ‘Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo,’ ‘The Private Eyes,’ ‘Yellowbeard’ and ‘The Mummy’ and true to form, he starred as the womanizing witch doctor Dr. Bombay on the hit ABC series ‘Bewitched’ from 1966-72 and then again in the 1977 sequel ‘Tabitha’.
Speaking about the part, he said previously that he drew inspiration from a man he served under in the army.
He said: "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 we got six Women’s Royal Naval Service arrived to be put up.
"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.]’ And that’s the way I played him."
Fox left behind his wife of 50 years, Jacqueline, their daughter Amanda and grandchildren David-Mitchel and Samantha.
Bewitched and Titanic star Bernard Fox dies aged 89
