Actor Kan (aka Khan) Bonfils, best known to theater fans as the king in the 2000 West End revival of The King and I, has died after collapsing during rehearsal.
“During rehearsals for an upcoming performance, he collapsed and was unable to be resuscitated. His sudden loss is a tragedy, and he will be sorely missed,” says his agent Olivia Bell.
Bonfils was rehearsing for an upcoming performance in the Craft Theatre production of Dante’s Inferno, which is scheduled to open at London’s Rag Factory next week.
A statement from Craft Theatre states, "With great sadness, we announce the death of Kan Bonfils. His sudden loss is a tragedy and he will be sorely missed.”
The theater’s spokesman, Chris Hislop, reported that an ambulance was called as director Rocky Rodriguez Jr. performed CPR on location.
Bonfils played the king in The King and I at the London Palladium and performed in Miss Saigon. But his talents were not just on the West End. He is a postgraduate from the Webber Douglas Academy of Performing Arts and appeared as Tan in Macbeth False Memory with the Actors Touring Company in 2000 and in Paris in Romeo and Juliet with the Mu-Lan theatre company in 2001.
Bonfils was also active in film. He played Jedi Master Saesee Tiin in Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace (1999) and also appeared in the James Bond movie Skyfall (2012) and Batman Begins (2005).
The cause of his death is still unknown.
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