Bernie Braden

Bernard Chastey Braden (16 May 1916 – 2 February 1993) was a Canadian-born English actor and comedian. Braden was born in Vancouver, British Columbia and educated at Magee Secondary School, Kerrisdale, Vancouver. He produced plays on CJOR Vancouver in the late 30s and early 40s.[1] He married Barbara Kelly in 1942[2] and they moved to Toronto the same year. Seven years later, he, his wife and two children moved to England.[2] (A third child, Kim was born in London in 1949.) The couple’s first major success came in 1951 with An Evening at Home with Bernard Braden and Barbara Kelly. The radio show Breakfast with Braden began on Saturday morning, 21 January 1950, initially putting Bernard Braden alongside his dumb girlfriend, Pearl Carr (“Sing, Pearl”), second singer stooge Benny Lee and naive third stooge, bandleader Nat Temple (“Play, Nat!”). On 19 September the same year came the advent of the late evening Bedtime with Braden, with his signature sign-out song “Lullaby of Birdland” which he may have played himself on the piano, followed by various sequels including Between Time, Bathtime and Bedlam with Braden. Bernard is remembered for On the Braden Beat, a popular consumer affairs TV program made for ITV by Associated Television. It championed the cause of the British consumer for five years. Braden published an autobiography, The Kindness of Strangers, a reference to his role as Mitch in the London production of A Streetcar Named Desire. Bernard Braden died in Camden, London, aged 76, following a series of strokes.