Detailed Biography

Roger Rees is a Welsh-American actor. He is best known to American audiences for playing the character Robin Colcord on the American television show Cheers. He won a Tony Award for his performance as the lead in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby.

Biography

Rees was born in Aberystwyth, Wales, the son of Doris Louise , a shop clerk, and William John Rees, a police officer. He started his career with the Royal Shakespeare Company and attended the Slade School of Fine Arts. Rees created the title role in the original production of the play The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, winning both an Olivier Award and a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play in 1982 for it. He also starred in the original production of The Real Thing by Tom Stoppard in London in 1984.

Rees became an American citizen in 1989, and in the 1990s, continued his work in the theatre, both as an actor and a director. He did some television work in the 1970s and began his film career in the 1980s. From 1989 to 1993, he appeared intermittently on the long-running American TV series Cheers as the dashing, feckless English tycoon Robin Colcord. During this time he appeared with Laurence Olivier in The Ebony Tower . He then played an antagonist to a different Robin as the Sheriff of Rottingham, in Mel Brooks' 1993 film, Robin Hood: Men in Tights. Later television appearances include My So-Called Life as substitute teacher Mr Racine and British Ambassador Lord John Marbury on The West Wing. He was awarded an OBIE for his 1992 performance in the off-Broadway play The End of the Day, and in 1995, he was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his role in Indiscretions.

In November 2004, Rees was named artistic director of the Williamstown Theatre Festival in Williamstown, Massachusetts, only the fourth person to hold the post in its half century. He left the position October 2007.

He is set to replace Patrick Stewart as Vladimir in the revival of Waiting for Godot after a sold out national tour and extended run in the West End, at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in early 2010 alongside Ian McKellen, Ronald Pickup and Matthew Kelly .

Work

Film

Television

Theater