Ben Bradley

***UPDATE! THE LAPD HAVE A SUSPECT IN CUSTODY!***

You can read about it here

We continue to pray that justice will be found for Ben.

I simply can't blog today. I've lost my humor. On New Years Day a friend of ours was brutally murdered. There's just no easy way to say it. There it is. This is a devastating loss for us, from the loss of him as an individual as he was such a kind and loving gentleman, someone who was so kind to me and to everyone who crossed his path; to the loss the theatre world in Los Angeles will feel now that he is gone.. And not that this is about me or my life, but this wrecks my heart in an all too familiar way, as my father was also murdered. Different method. Different murderer but yet another kind and loving man killed too soon and far too violently.

Ben (on the left) with Simon Levy, another Fountain director and another one of the all time greats.

So, this is for Ben Bradley. Director and Producer at the Fountain Theatre in Los Angeles, where I was blessed to take over for Tracy Middendorf in Stephen Sachs' Miss Julie when she went off to do LOST (thanks ABC!). Ben always made me vegetarian collard greens. Ben spent many hours telling me stories about his youth and his time in the theatre. Ben knew everyone's name. Everyone's children's names. He had a quick laugh and his eyes brightened when he smiled.  He directed beautiful shows and was in rehearsals for The Ballad of Emmett Till at the time of his murder. He really was an all around great guy.

I had been thinking of him all New Years morning, while everyone was talking about pork chops and collard greens this vegetarian thought to herself, I should really email Ben and beg for that recipe

The theatre will miss him. Zach and I will miss him. My heart goes out to those who knew him better than I did. Those who knew him for years and years, those who grew up with him. Those who loved him and those who he loved.

It sounds cliche to say "he was such a nice man, he wouldn't hurt a fly"...but honestly, that is Ben Bradley.

The Fountain Theatre is big on family. Stephen Sachs, Simon Levy, Deborah Lawlor and Ben Bradley were the heads of that family, which both reached far and wide and is yet small and intimate. They welcomed my husband and I into that family, and then welcomed our son. Zach and I wish we could be with our Fountain Family right now, to remember, to celebrate and to mourn the loss of a true gentleman.

LA TIMES Ben is remembered

I am pretty sure that right now Ben is helping God and all his Angels perfect their collard greens among many other of his famous dishes. (I just could never get enough of those vegetarian greens!)

And just in case....the tip line to the LAPD 1-877-LAWFULL (1-877-529-3855)