Stage actor:
Bernard Bresslaw performed with the Young Vic Theatre Company, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre. One of his last stage performances was as Malvolio in Twelfth Night at the Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park (1990), where he demonstrated the fine line between pathos and comedy to perfection.
He also played the genie in the lamp in Aladdin at the Theatre Royal, Newcastle, in the 1990's.
He also played the genie on the Sooty Show.
He also voiced Gorilla on The Giddy Game Show.
He played Mephistopheles, alongside James Warwick in the title role of an Oxford Stage Company regional touring production of Doctor Faustus in 1987.
He was a member of the oldest theatrical fraternity in the world, the elite Grand Order of Water Rats.
He had collapsed in his dressing room at the Open Air Theatre in Regent's Park, London, where he was to play Grumio in the New Shakespeare Company's production of Taming of the Shrew.
Carry On London! 4 October 1973 – March 1975 Victoria Palace Theatre, London Talbot Rothwell; Dave Freeman; Eric Merriman Sid James, Barbara Windsor, Kenneth Connor, Peter Butterworth, Bernard Bresslaw and Jack Douglas.
Carry On Laughing: The Slimming Factory 16 June – September 1976 Royal Opera House, Scarborough Sam CreeLiz Frazer, Kenneth Connor, Peter Butterworth, Jack Douglas and Anne Aston.
Wot a Carry On in Blackpool 22 May – 25 October 1992 North Pier, Blackpool Barry Cryer; Dick Vosburgh Bernard Bresslaw and Barbara Windsor.
(1980) New Shakespeare Company Dogberry in 'Much Ado About Nothing', Bottom in A Midsummer Nights Dream', Ferrovious in 'Androcles and the Lion.
Radio play: "Saturday Night Theatre: Burglar's Bargains", first broadcast on BBC Radio on 15th December, 1979.
(1992) He acted in William Shakespeare's play, "Love's Labours Lost," at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester, England with Stephen Tomkinson, Linus Roache, Ray Fearon, Meredith Davies, David Ross, Peter Hugo-Daly, Suzan Sylvester, and John Bennett in the cast. James Macdonald was director.
(1957) He acted in Michael V. Gazzo's play, "A Hatful of Rain," at the Princes Theatre in London, England with Bonar Colleano, Sally Ann Howes, and Sam Wanamaker in the cast. Sam Wanamaker was also director.
(1963) He acted in Frank Hilton's play, "Day of the Prince," at the Royal Court Theatre in London, England in an English Stage Company production with Angela Baddeley, Arnold Yarrow, Pauline Boty, Christopher Sandford, and Bari Johnson in the cast. Keith Johnstone was director.
(1991) He played Jonathan Brewster in Joseph Kesselring's "Arsenic and Old Lace" in a Chichester Festival Production at the Chichester Festival Theatre in Chichester, West Sussex, England with Elizabeth Spriggs, Rosemary Harris, Peter Davison, Geoffrey Freshwater, Allan Corduner and Harry Towb in the cast. Annie Castledine was director.
(1965) He acted in Lionel Bart's musical, "Twang!," at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London, England with James Booth, Barbara Windsor, Ronnie Corbett, Bob Grant, Ben Aris, Tudor Davies, and Lesley Judd in the cast. Bert Shevelove was director. Oliver Messel was designer.
(1953) West End debut in The MacRoary Whirl directed by Laurence Olivier at the Duchess Theatre, London
(1955) Leroy in 'The Bad Seed' Aldwych Theatre, London.
(1989) A lecherous Centurion in 'The Swagger'
(1958) Pantomime debut in 'The Sleeping Beauty' London Palladium.
(1969) Home and Beauty at The National Theatre.
(1958) Radio series 'Educating Archie' with Peter Brough and Archie Andrews.
(1974) Son of Oblanov at Old Vic