Roger Rees was born on 5 May 1944 in Aberystwyth, Cardiganshire, the son of a shop clerk mother and a police officer father. The family later moved to Balham in London, where Rees grew up. He studied art at Camberwell College of Arts and the Slade School of Fine Art, and it was while painting scenery backdrops at the Wimbledon Theatre that he was asked to fill a small part in a play, a chance opportunity that turned him toward acting instead.
Rees joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, where his career-defining role arrived in 1980 when he created the title role in David Edgar's stage adaptation of Charles Dickens' novel, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. His performance won him the Laurence Olivier Award for Actor of the Year in a New Play in 1980 and the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play in 1982, and a recorded television version of the production earned him an Emmy nomination in 1983.
He went on to build a substantial career in film and television, playing English businessman Robin Colcord opposite Kirstie Alley in Cheers, British Ambassador Lord John Marbury in The West Wing, and the Sheriff of Rottingham in Mel Brooks' comedy Robin Hood: Men in Tights. His film credits also include Frida, The Prestige and The Pink Panther, alongside a continuing stage career that brought him a further Tony nomination for Indiscretions in 1995 and Tony nominations for his co-direction of Peter and the Starcatcher in 2012.
Rees became a naturalized United States citizen in 1989 and served as artistic director of the Williamstown Theatre Festival from 2004 to 2007. He married playwright Rick Elice, his partner of over thirty years, in 2011. Diagnosed with brain cancer in October 2014, he continued performing on Broadway in the musical The Visit before his health made further performances impossible. Roger Rees died in New York City on 10 July 2015 at the age of 71; Broadway theatre marquees were dimmed in his honour, and he was posthumously inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame that November.