Bradford Meade

Bradford Meade is a fictional character in the American dramedy series Ugly Betty. He is played by Alan Dale. Bradford's character is equivalent to Roberto Mendoza, Armando's father, with Armando equalling Daniel.

Background

Bradford Meade is a famous publishing mogul whose company, Meade Publications, publishes the popular fashion magazine MODE. He is also the father of Daniel Meade, the womanizing editor-in-chief, and Alex/Alexis Meade, his post-op transgendered (male-to-female) daughter.

Bradford also was responsible for making major changes at the magazine after the mysterious death of chief editor Fey Sommers, including handing over the day-to-day operations to the inexperienced Daniel. He was also responsible for getting Betty Suarez hired as Daniel's personal assistant because he believes Betty is the only woman in New York City that Daniel will never ever sleep with.

Bradford's decision to put Daniel in charge and to make Betty his assistant are reasons alone for Creative Director Wilhelmina Slater -- who wanted the editor-in-chief job -- to plot against them in an effort to manipulate Bradford into reconsidering her for the top job.

However, Bradford is also skeptical about Fey's death. He had tampered with the steering wheel in her car and she later died in a car accident. After noticing Fey's casket was closed at her funeral, he hired a private detective, Steve, to find out any information that could implicate him and whether she faked her death. Prior to her death, Bradford and Fey had an affair and later he broke into her apartment and retrieved a photo of them together. After the funeral, he burned the photo to hide it from Daniel and Bradford's wife Claire.

Bradford has shown signs of being more sinister after learning that Fey is still alive and that Steve was actually working for her (It was later discovered in "Sofia's Choice" that Steve was really working for Wilhelmina). In turn, he hired a henchman, Mr. Green, to "clean up messes" starting with Mr. Green burying Steve in Fey's empty tomb - though Steve survived. Bradford plans to step up his scheme to bring Fey out into the open by any means, dead or alive, even though he is unaware that his "late" son, Alex, is actually behind this scheme and is planning to frame him for Fey's murder, which happened during Fashion Week, when he is arrested after Alexis stuns him by revealing his sex-change in front of the world as he was about to hand over the reins to Daniel. He is actually innocent though, because it was revealed in the episode Brothers, that Claire killed her. When Claire visits him at Rikers Island and tells him that she will turn herself in, Bradford is not happy about this, since he might be trying to protect her in more ways than one, but in the end she does and he is released immediately.

With that turn of events out of the way, it is expected that his damaged relationship with both Alexis and Daniel will resume, and with Alexis back in the picture still trying to reclaim a piece of the Meade empire, expect Bradford to make his distrust of her a priority, especially after going through with the sex-change operation even as he tried to mold his son into the "Golden Boy" that would carry on the tradition, which he was hoping to distill on Daniel before the arrest.

It was later revealed that Bradford's company only publishes MODE; Claire is the actual owner of the magazine and has the ability to pull the strings. She was able to do this as Bradford had put the magazine under her name to evade taxes.

In the episode Punch Out it is revealed that Bradford is turned on by womens' feet (a fetish that Fey Sommers exploited to keep their relationship alive). Wilhelmina uses this information to her advantage and seduces Bradford (successfully), so she could "own" and control Meade Publications. She also succeeds in convincing Bradford to divorce Claire after Wilhelmina made Marc beat her up, and told Bradford the injuries were caused by someone Claire hired.

In the season finale, he gives Wilhelmina an engagement ring that he made himself, setting things up for a November wedding. Unbeknownst to Bradford, Claire has just escaped while en route to prison, hoping to stop him from marrying Wilhelmina. In the finale it is also revealed the brakes on Bradford's car have been cut by the hitman Alexis hired to kill her father; ironically, Alexis makes this discovery while driving the car in order to take Daniel to the hospital.

As the second season starts, Bradford is unaware that Wilhelmina is making sure that once they are married that she fully take over Meade Publications without his knowing and that Claire is trying to reach him so she can warn him and save their marriage (but Wilhelmina is roadblocking these attempts successfully), while speculation loomed over whether he had a illegitimate child with Fey...who happens to be Amanda Tanen, the magazine receptionist and ex-girlfriend of son Daniel (the results would comeback negative), and will take advantage of Alexis' amnesia by altering her previous life as Alex by trying to bond with her despite being skeptical of his motives by Daniel.