Twice BAFTA award-winning English satirist, writer, and director, the son of chemist shopkeeper Horace Bird and his wife, Dorothy (née Haubitz),born in Bulwell, Nottingham, was a graduate of the Cambridge Footlights troupe.
He was best known for his lengthy association with fellow Cambridge alumnus John Fortune, with whom he appeared in the trailblazing BBC satire That Was the Week That Was in 1962, contributing scripts. His greatest success came later as support for Rory Bremner in the long-running improvisational political sketch comedy Bremner, Bird and Fortune in 1997.
Bird was particularly noted for his lampooning of political leaders, such as Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson and Ugandan dictator Idi Amin.
Other prominent roles saw him as a private detective in 30 Is a Dangerous Age, Cynthia in 1968, a university vice-chancellor in A Very Peculiar Practice in 1986, a feckless civil servant in If It Moves, File It in 1970, pompous barrister John Fuller-Carp in Chambers in 2000, and Professor Peter Plum in season 4 of the game show Cluedo in 1990.
He also made guest appearances in episodes of popular TV shows like Armchair Thriller in 1978, Yes, Prime Minister in 1986, One Foot in the Grave in 1990, Jonathan Creek in 1997, and Midsomer Murders in 1997.
Bird admitted to drug and alcohol dependency at some point in the mid- to late 70s, which for some time seriously affected both his physical and mental health.
Bird was married and divorced from Ann Stockdale, the daughter of a US ambassador to Ireland, and to television presenter Bridget Simpson. His third wife, concert pianist Libby Crandon, predeceased him in 2012.
