Theater Director Stabbed to Death in Apt

Los Angeles - Police asked for the public's help today in solving the fatal stabbing of a 59-year-old man -- a director at an East Hollywood theater -- in his Wilshire Center apartment.

Bennett Bradley was found dead around 5:50 p.m. Saturday in his apartment in the 100 block of South New Hampshire Avenue, said Officer Karen Rayner of the Los Angeles Police Department. He had been stabbed multiple times, she said.

Rayner said the apartment appeared to have been ransacked, suggesting the slaying may have occurred during a robbery.

"We don't have anything at the point, nothing at all," she said. "That's why we are really asking for the public's help."

Bradley had worked at the Fountain Theatre for 16 years. He was largely responsible for managing box office operations, but, like the other principal managers at the theater, he wore many hats and was also a talented director and producer, producing director Simon Levy told the Los Angeles Times.

"We've all been together for such a long time," Levy said. "We're just all in shock. We're baffled... There is hardly anybody in this theater community who does not know Ben in one way or another. He was just this big, loving personality."

The theater is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, and Bradley was directing "The Ballad of Emmett Till," scheduled to open in February, The Times reported. The show is based on the real-life story of a black teenager whose murder helped spark the civil rights movement.

The body was discovered by a stage manager who went to the apartment to check on Bradley because he did not show up for rehearsals Friday.

Levy told The Times that the theater staff met for four hours Sunday and decided to go forward with the show "to honor" Bradley.

Police urged anyone with information on the crime to contact LAPD Homicide Detectives Herman Frettlohr or Matthew Gares at (213) 382- 9470 or 1- 877-LAPD-24-7.