Tony Award winner and 'Cheers' actor Roger Rees dies aged 71

NEW YORK - Roger Rees, the Tony Award-winning British stage actor who had roles in US television hits including "Cheers" and "The West Wing", died on Friday aged 71, his representative said on Saturday. Rees' representative Rick Miramontez did not provide further details. Rees' performance in title role in the Royal Shakespeare Company's "The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby" won him an Olivier Award and a Tony in the early 1980s. Born in Aberystwyth, Wales in 1944, Rees spent more than 20 years with the Royal Shakespeare Company. He also took on major television and film roles, including the 1993 spoof "Robin Hood: Men in Tights" and "The Scorpion King" in 2002. In the US television series "Cheers", he played the affluent Brit Robin Colcord and in "The West Wing" he was British ambassador Lord John Marbury. -Reuters