Peter Donaldson: Stratford Festival actor
Charlene
Acclaimed actor Peter Donaldson dies
Canadian legend of stage and screen
Last Updated: Sunday, January 9, 2011 | 12:47 PM ET
CBC News
Peter Donaldson, an acclaimed and prolific Canadian actor of the stage
and screen, has died after a two-year battle with cancer.
Donaldson died Saturday in a Toronto hospital. Few details have
emerged concerning his illness and death.
The versatile actor, known for his Shakespearean roles, captured a
supporting actor Genie in 1996 for his work in the film version of
Long Day's Journey Into Night.
He also appeared in Atom Egoyan's The Sweet Hereafter and portrayed
Ian Bowles on the series Emily of New Moon.
" Peter Donaldson was one of Canada's acting treasures, a consummate
classical actor with a gorgeous voice just made for speaking
Shakespeare. He was so at ease on Stratford's Festival stage, you felt
like he was in his living room," said theatre critic Martin Morrow,
who writes about the arts for CBCNews.ca and is the author of Wild
Theatre.
"Whenever you saw his name in a theatre program, you knew you were
guaranteed a witty, rich and deep performance," Morrow said.
"He was wonderful just a few seasons ago as Rufio, right-hand man to
Christopher Plummer's Julius Caesar in Caesar and Cleopatra at
Stratford. The byplay between those two veteran actors was a delight
to behold.
"And he was equally at home in contemporary work. I loved him last
season as Ned, the downwardly mobile suburbanite in George F. Walker's
And So It Goes."
Donaldson's wife is fellow actor Sheila McCarthy, who appears as Sarah
Hamoudi on the CBC's Little Mosque on the Prairie and also had a
starring role on Emily of New Moon.
The couple, who split their time between Toronto and Stratford, Ont.,
have two daughters.
Canadian comedienne Andrea Martin posted a tweet Sunday "impossible to
believe that my friend Peter Donaldson has passed away. So deeply sad
for his daughters & wife Sheila who he was devoted to."
Donaldson's various stage roles, many at the Stratford Festival, have
included major parts in Glengarry Glen Ross, To Kill a Mockingbird,
King Lear, Much Ado About Nothing, Hello Dolly!, Guys and Dolls,
Antony and Cleopatra, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Twelfth Night,
The Taming of the Shrew, Hamlet and King Lear.
--
Well, fuck. I loved this guy in everything.
wd46