ACTOR ROBERT COLE MAINTAINED A FLAIR FOR THE DRAMATIC RIGHT UP TO THE END

THE SEATTLE TIMES

Author: MARY F. POLS

Robert Allen Cole ended his life with the kind of perfect timing his friends who'd seen him performing Shakespeare on stage had come to expect.

Gathered around his bed on Jan. 23, they were singing to him - show tunes from "Sweeney Todd," a Beatles song, then finally an old Bing Crosby song called "Count Your Blessings."

"When I get weary and I can't sleep, I count my blessings instead of sheep," Mr. Cole's friends sang. "Count your blessings."

On the last note of the song, he took his last breath.

"It was an extraordinarily Hollywood ending," said his longtime companion, Jonathan Harris. "I kind of pictured him pulling out of his body and looking down and saying, `There's a nicely staged picture.' "

Mr. Cole was 34. He died at home from complications of acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

First and foremost, he was an actor, with the kind of flair for the dramatic that extends naturally from stage to real life. He was particularly proud of continuing to work as an actor despite having AIDS.

His friends said he kept auditioning and performing long beyond the time when most would have given up and retreated to their beds.

He had two roles in last summer's Seattle Shakespeare Festival: Pompey in "Measure for Measure" and Don John in "Much Ado About Nothing."

"He was so completely alive and glowing on stage that it didn't matter that when he got off he'd be ready to collapse," Harris said.

"He believed that keeping active kept him alive. Our good friends counted him dead at least five times in the last year, but he kept saying no, now is not the time because I have things to do still."

As Mr. Cole got sicker, work naturally got harder. At one point, he had to check into a hospital while rehearsals were going on for the Shakespeare festival. He fought to convince the director he could still handle the role, and he succeeded.

Typecasting could be a problem for him. He had the kind of classic good looks and well-sculpted face that tended to land him roles as dukes and noble lords.

But Mr. Cole loved playing character roles, like that of Pompey.

On his last birthday, Jan. 18, he was thrilled to get a phone call from Patrick Stewart, who plays Capt. Jean-Luc Picard on "Star Trek: The Next Generation."

He'd long worshiped the English actor, who is a classically trained Shakespearean performer, and friends had arranged for the call.

When the Los Angeles earthquake happened the day before Mr. Cole's birthday, they worried that Stewart wouldn't be able to call.

But he did, from his home, with the sounds of construction crews making repairs in the background. They talked for 20 minutes, then Mr. Cole fell asleep, happy and, as usual, surrounded by friends.

"He was one of the most social people I have ever known," said friend Julie Grant.

Mr. Cole grew up on a dairy farm in Ohio. He discovered theater while studying at Kent State University and graduated with a degree in acting and directing.

Beside taking part regularly in the Seattle Shakespeare Festival, he also performed with the Northwest Shakespeare Ensemble, CaberEggs, the Alice B. Theatre, the Village Theatre, the Bellevue Repertory Theatre, the Alabama Shakespeare Festival and the American Players Theater in Spring Green, Wis.

Besides Harris, survivors include his parents,

of Warren, Ohio; two sisters,

of Ohio; and four brothers,

all of Ohio, and

, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

A memorial service was held in Ohio, and friends are planning a Seattle memorial. Call Julie Grant at 281-8521 for more details, after today.