To millions of others, who saw him on worldwide theatrical tours through the 1990s, he is Baron von Trapp or Henry Higgins. Or maybe Cyrano, Richard II, or Hamlet.

His latest incarnation will be as a Canadian ambassador in "The Stillborn Lover," which opens next month July 2003 at the Berkshire Theatre Festival.

In Canadian playwright Timothy Findley's mystery about love and Cold War politics, Harry Raymond and his wife are hiding out in an Ottawa safe house, where they're being questioned about a dead male prostitute in Russia.

Harry's career is endangered, atomic destruction threatens, and a secret is about to be revealed.

"The thing about Harry Raymond is there is a secret that he's held all of his life," says Kate Maguire, executive director of the Berkshire Theatre Festival. "The play is about what are the consequences when we keep secrets that long? What happens when they are revealed?"

"It was incredibly moving to listen to the first reading of the play," Maguire adds. "Richard was reading with Lois Nettleton, who plays his wife. And you realized the costs they have paid by holding this secret. Everyone was moved to tears. In great moments of theater you see the truth in front of you. It was shattering."

Starring:
Richard Chamberlain as Harry Raymond
Lois Nettleton as Marion Raymond
Keir Dullea as Michael Riordan
Jessica Walter as Juliet Riordan
Jennifer van Dyke as Diana
Robert Emmet Lunney as Jackman
Kaleo Griffith as Mahavolitch