Gordon Pinsent, Canadian acting icon, dead at 92

Canadian acting icon Gordon Pinsent has died, his family said in a statement. 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 Gordon’s family by his son-in-law, the actor Peter Keleghan.

“Gordon passionately loved this country and its people, purpose, and culture to his last breath.”

The Grand Falls, N.L., native 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, and The Grand Seduction. 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.

Pinsent began acting in the 1940s at the age of 17 before expanding into TV and film.

He joined the Stratford Festival in 1962 with roles in Macbeth, The Taming of the Shrew, The Tempest and Cyrano de Bergerac, and returned to Stratford in the mid-’70s as a leading player.

Pinsent 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.

“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.”

He won the best actor Genie and ACTRA awards in 2006 for his work in Sarah Polley’s Away From Her and the Genie for best actor in The Shipping News, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Annie Proulx.

Gordon Pinsent speaks on Away From Her 16 years ago:

Gordon Pinsent on ‘Away From Her’Venerable Canadian actor Gordon Pinsent talks about the critically acclaimed film Away From Her.

Pinsent, who was born in Grand Falls, N.L., and started out in radio drama, is a companion of the Order of Canada and a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He received the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award, the Earle Grey Award for lifetime achievement in television, and a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame.

More to come