Jonathan Welsh, veteran Canadian actor
deb...@comcast.net
Last Updated Fri, 28 Jan 2005 15:05:50 EST
CBC Arts
BELLEVILLE, ONT. - Jonathan Welsh, an actor whose career included stage
and several high-profile Canadian television programs, died Thursday in
his sleep after a brief illness. He was 57.
Welsh got his start in the 1960s at the Shaw and Stratford festivals,
but he earned national recognition thanks to his roles on the popular
1980s TV shows E.N.G. and Adderly.
The Toronto actor had also played recurring roles on more recent
Canadian productions such as Earth: Final Conflict, Total Recall 2070
and Dracula: the Series.
Welsh, who had recently moved to Belleville, began his acting career as
an apprentice at the Shaw Festival in the 1960s.
His big break came when he won a role in the national debut of the
stage musical Hair, which opened at Toronto's Royal Alexandra Theatre
in 1969.
In the 1970s he moved into television with guest parts on a number of
Canadian dramas including The Littlest Hobo, which led to a starring
role in the CBC Television police drama Sidestreet.
But it was his role as the gay character Eric "Mac" MacFarlane on the
CTV show E.N.G. that he was most proud of, his wife, Heather, said.
"He was always very proud that he portrayed the first openly gay
character on a North American TV show," she said Friday.
In recent years Welsh had turned to TV production with a lifestyle show
called New World Wine Tours, which aired on specialty channel Ontv.
He also founded Performers for Literacy, a non-profit organization that
encouraged children to read.
Welsh is survived by his wife Heather, and three children, Hilary, 20,
Owen, 18, and Julia, 15.
Hyfler/Rosner
BYLINE: Jim Bawden, Toronto Star
January 31, 2005
A memorial service is being planned Saturday for Jonathan
Welsh, the talented actor who co-starred in three Canadian
TV series. The service will take place at Little Trinity
Church (425 King St. E. near Parliament) at 2 p.m. Welsh
died in his sleep Thursday in Belleville at the age of 57
after a brief illness.
Welsh was a fixture on Canadian TV in the 1970s and 1980s
and co-starred in CBS's police series Sidestreet (1978-79)
opposite Donnelly Rhodes, Adderly (1986-88) opposite Winston
Rekert and Dixie Seatle, which ran on both Global and CBS,
and CTV's ENG (1989-94) opposite Art Hindle and Sara
Botsford.
Born in St. Catharines, he studied at Niagara College,
before persuading his parents in 1967 to bankroll him to see
if he could make it in theatre. One of his first stops in
Toronto was to the Star, where he walked into drama critic
Nathan Cohen's office requesting career counselling. A
startled Cohen obliged with an hour-long dissertation on the
state of Canadian theatre.
So Welsh mounted his own Centennial project and toured U.K.
universities in a one-man show of Canadian poetry. By 1971,
he had joined the Toronto cast of Hair, neatly cast as
Berger. One Star critic wrote, "Jonathan has the blonde,
tense appearance of an intelligent-looking Cagney."
Also in 1971, he was the first Canadian guest star on the
new series Police Surgeon, one of the first U.S. series to
shoot in Toronto. In 1972 he made his Stratford debut and
appeared in the CBC miniseries Pierre Berton's The National
Dream. He also had roles on CBC's King of Kensington, The
Play's the Thing and The Collaborators.
On Sidestreet, Welsh was nicely cast as the eager, young
sidekick to Donnelly Rhodes' experienced cop. Scenes were
shot on the streets of Toronto. Adderly was a stylish
espionage series with Rekert as the dashing spy and Welsh
cast to advantage as his nominal boss, petty bureaucrat
Melville Greenspan.
ENG, developed for CBC but running on CTV, was an ambitious
attempt to document the action in a Toronto TV newsroom with
Welsh again scene stealing as Eric "Mac" MacFarlane. Welsh
told me he was proudest of the episode when "Mac" came out
to his startled co-workers, the first recurring character to
do so on a prime-time North American TV show.
An enthusiastic promoter of Canadian TV and movies, Welsh
paid his own way to Montreal in 1979 to promote City on
Fire, the $5 million disaster epic that co-starred him with
a gaggle of U.S. stars of a certain age. No American stars,
including Henry Fonda and Ava Gardner, would come to the
premiere and Shelley Winters even requested her name be
dropped from the credits (she was talked out of that). When
Welsh arrived on set he was given a standard trailer but as
the U.S. has-beens trickled in, "I was despatched to the
changing rooms used by the extras."
After ENG ran its course (with 96 episodes), Welsh had
recurring roles on such series as Total Recall (1999), Psi
Factor (1999) and Earth: Final Conflict (2000). He also
moved into production with a lifestyles series New World
Wine Tours (which he also hosted) and founded Performers for
Literacy, a non-profit organization encouraging children to
read.
Unlike friends who moved to L.A., Welsh declared (in 1978):
"I don't want to leave. Anyway, I'm NOT leaving. I live in
Toronto and you can reach me there."
Recently Welsh had moved to Belleville. He died after a
brief illness. He is survived by wife Heather and three
children, Hilary, 20, Owen, 18 and Julia,
GRAPHIC: Canadian actor Jonathan Welsh, seen in 1990, died
on Thursday in Belleville.
Brad Ferguson
<rel...@rcn.com> wrote:
> Toronto Star obit:
>
>
>
>
> BYLINE: Jim Bawden, Toronto Star
>
> January 31, 2005
>
>
> A memorial service is being planned Saturday for Jonathan
> Welsh, the talented actor who co-starred in three Canadian
> TV series. The service will take place at Little Trinity
> Church (425 King St. E. near Parliament) at 2 p.m. Welsh
> died in his sleep Thursday in Belleville at the age of 57
> after a brief illness.
Pic (from 2001) of him at
http://www.fave.ca/p122p01.htm
and another at
http://www.fave.ca/p077p01.htm
which also has a nice pic of actor Gordon Pinsent, who seems to have
lost all the weight he gained in middle age. Pinsent played the
Kennedyesque president in the 1970 film "Colossus: The Forbin Project."
> Also in 1971, he was the first Canadian guest star on the
> new series Police Surgeon, one of the first U.S. series to
> shoot in Toronto.
This series (which starred Scott Groom) was just about the first series
specifically made for the 7:30-8 p.m. ET primetime access slot that the
FCC had taken from the networks that year. "Police Surgeon" has
sometimes been called the worst TV series ever made.