Gordon Pinsent, Canadian acting icon, dead at 92
CBC
Gordon Pinsent, one of Canada's most prolific and iconic actors, has died. He was 92.
"Gordon Pinsent's daughters Leah and Beverly, and his son Barry, would like to announce the passing of their father peacefully in sleep today with his family at his side," said a note released late Saturday, written on behalf of Pinsent's family by his son-in-law, actor Peter Keleghan.
"Gordon passionately loved this country and its people, purpose, and culture to his last breath."
The Grand Falls, N.L., native and Canadian household name had a storied acting career spanning dozens of films and TV projects over six decades, including Due South, The Red Green Show, Babar and the Adventures of Badou, The Grand Seduction and The Shipping News.
Focusing on CBC programs alone, one could add The Forest Rangers, Quentin Durgens, M.P., the original Street Legal and Republic of Doyle, among others.
In the U.S., where he lived in Los Angeles for six years, it was such TV series and movies as It Takes A Thief, Silence of the North, Young Prosecutors, Banacek, and the feature film The Thomas Crown Affair.
"My whole career has depended on the happiness that I get when asked to do something," Pinsent said in a 2010 Toronto Life interview. "Pick up the phone and say 'yes.' I do that a lot."
Comedian and actor Mark Critch, a fellow Newfoundlander, said he will miss Pinsent as a mentor, friend, hero and "giant colossus of Canadian entertainment."
Actors in Canada are following "on a path that [Pinsent] cut through a forest," Critch said.
Born on July 12, 1930, Pinsent was the youngest of six children born to Stephen Pinsent, a paper mill worker and cobbler, and his wife, Flossie.
Pinsent said he was a shy, awkward child who once suffered from rickets but found freedom in acting, starting in the 1940s at the age of 17.
In the early 1950s, Pinsent took a break from acting and joined the Canadian Army, serving for about four years. But acting was his true love.
Pinsent joined the Stratford Festival in 1962 with roles in Macbeth, The Taming of the Shrew, The Tempest and Cyrano de Bergerac, and he returned to Stratford in the mid-'70s as a leading player.
He had more than 150 TV and movie acting credits to his name, with his Internet Movie Database resumé spanning from a 1957 TV movie to a cartoon voice in 2021.
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