He appeared in films including Take A Girl Like You (1970) and Jabberwocky (1977) as well as in television shows such as Joint Account, Marmalade Atkins, El C.I.D.

In 1956 he passed the entrance exam for King’s College, Cambridge; he read English literature and stayed for postgraduate studies with a thesis entitled "European Drama 1888–1914".

[3] Bird acted in straight and comic roles in several television series and in films including My Father Knew Lloyd George (1965), Red and Blue (1967), A Dandy in Aspic (1968), 30 Is a Dangerous Age, Cynthia (1968), This, That and the Other (1969), Take A Girl Like You (1970), The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976) and Jabberwocky (1977).

[4] Bird also became an active stage director writer and actor, directing The Naming of Murderers’ Rock in 1960 at the Royal Court Theatre in London.

Milligan played Mr. Van Gogh (in brownface) alongside Bird as Mr. Rembrandt, father and son illegal Asian immigrants who are first seen being rowed ashore in England, having been told that the beach is in fact Piccadilly Circus.

In 1984 he played the part of Jack Ormand, a local gang boss, in the tenth episode of the Granada TV series Travelling Man.

From 1986 to 1988 he starred as Ernest Hemmingway, the university vice chancellor, in the first series of A Very Peculiar Practice, working alongside Peter Davison.

[18] Bird played the director of the British National Theatre in an episode of the BBC situation comedy Yes, Prime Minister broadcast in 1988.

In 1993, Bird featured in the role of Professor Plum in the fourth series of Cluedo and appeared as a newspaper editor in the political drama To Play the King.

In the series of sketches with Fortune, The Long Johns, one of the two men interviewed the other, with the latter in the guise of a senior figure such as a politician, businessman or government consultant.

[1] Bird died from complications of a stroke at Pendean House Care Home in Midhurst, West Sussex, on 24 December 2022, aged 86.