Al Waxman

Last updated

Al Waxman

CM OOnt
Al Waxman bronze in Kensington.jpg
Statue of Al Waxman in Kensington Market
Born
Albert Samuel Waxman

(1935-03-02)March 2, 1935
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
DiedJanuary 18, 2001(2001-01-18) (aged 65)
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Resting placePardes Shalom Cemetery, Vaughan, Ontario, Canada
Occupations
  • Actor
  • Director
Years active1959–2001

Albert Samuel Waxman, CM OOnt (March 2, 1935 – January 18, 2001) was a Canadian actor and director of over 1,000 productions on radio, television, film, and stage. He is best known for his starring roles in the television series King of Kensington (CBC) and Cagney & Lacey (CBS) and Twice in a Lifetime (CTV).

Contents

Early life

Waxman was born in Toronto, Ontario to Jewish immigrants from Poland. His parents operated and owned Melinda Lunch, a small restaurant. His father, Aaron Waxman, died when Al was nine. [1]

Career

Waxman's career began at the age of twelve on CBC Radio, but it was not until 1975, when he began playing the role of Larry King on CBC's King of Kensington , that he became a Canadian icon.

In the 1980 award-winning film Atlantic City starring Burt Lancaster, Waxman appeared as a rich cocaine buyer with a seemingly endless amount of cash.

During the 1980s, Waxman starred as the gruff but endearing Lt. Bert Samuels in the highly successful CBS television drama Cagney & Lacey .

During the 1990s, Waxman appeared in a variety of films and television shows, but began spending more time acting and directing in the theatre. In 1991, Al hosted Missing Treasures, a TV show which profiled missing children in Canada. [2] He was also a founding member of the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television.

In 1997, he was awarded the best actor Gemini Award for his performance in the television film Net Worth .

Waxman also appeared at the Stratford Festival, beginning with his critically acclaimed performance as Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman in 1997. He also directed The Diary of Anne Frank at the Stratford Festival in 2000. He was to return to Stratford for his highly anticipated portrayal of Shylock in The Merchant of Venice in 2001. In the wake of Waxman's death, one month before rehearsals were to begin, Paul Soles accepted the part of Shylock and the play was performed in honour of Waxman. [3]

His last television role was as celestial Judge Othneil in Twice in a Lifetime . The last episode, on which he worked until the afternoon before his elective heart bypass surgery, was about a man, popular in his community, who needed routine bypass surgery, but died during the operation. Although some sections of the episode were rewritten, at the end of this final episode, Waxman's character is asked rhetorically "why do the good die young" to which he has no answer. He's then told "you were quite a warrior". His response – not merely the end of the episode, but one of Waxman's last lines ever recorded, and spoken with a smile – was: "I had my day".

In 1999, he published a memoir That's What I Am [4] which received a Canadian Jewish Book Award. [5]

Community activism

Waxman was involved in community work and charitable causes from coast to coast. He was a spokesperson for organizations such as United Appeal, United Jewish Appeal, Israel Bonds, Variety Club, the Muscular Dystrophy Telethons, and Big Brothers (also becoming an honorary member). From June 1979 to June 1981, he was the National Campaign Chairman for the Canadian Cancer Society, and from 1988 to 1989, he was an official spokesperson for the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Ontario. Together with his wife, Sara Waxman, he also created the Sara and Al Waxman Neo-Natal Unit at the Shaare Zedek Medical Centre in Jerusalem.

Al Waxman was accorded many tributes for his volunteer and philanthropic work. In 1978, he was honoured with the Queen's Silver Jubilee Medal. In 1989, he was the recipient of the B'nai B'rith of Canada Humanitarian Award. In 1996, Waxman was inducted into the Order of Ontario and, in 1997, into the Order of Canada. In 1998, he was given the Earle Grey Award for lifetime achievement in Canadian television.

Death

Waxman died in Toronto during heart surgery on January 18, 2001, at the age of 65. [6] He was buried at Pardes Shalom Cemetery in Maple, Ontario.

Legacy

Memorials

In 2016, Al Waxman was posthumously inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame as a Cineplex Legends Inductee for his enormous contribution to Canadian arts and culture as an actor, director, producer, and consummate and integral supporter of the Canadian film industry and young aspiring artists emerging within it.

Statue

Following his death, a statue of him, created by Ruth Abernethy, was erected in Kensington Market, the Toronto neighbourhood where King of Kensington takes place. The inscription in front of the statue reads "There's lots to do down the road, there's always more. Trust your gut instincts. In small matters trust your mind, but in the important decisions of life – trust your heart."

Fan club

Musician Jaymz Bee started the Al Waxman Fan Club while in high school, [7] and started a punk band with his pals Bazl Salazar, Clay Tyson and Graham Leethat performed only songs about Waxman and his life: "'We ended up with an hour-long show, just about Al Waxman.'" [8] What began as a publicity stunt became a long association between Bee and Waxman. Waxman attended some of the fan club events as organised by Bee, most of which raised money for charities such as the Canadian Cancer Foundation[ citation needed ] and Big Brother. [7] Bee attended Waxman's funeral and, with his fan club, held a wake in Toronto on January 25, 2001. [7]

Filmography

Movies

Television series

Television appearances

Related Research Articles

Paul Robert Soles was a Canadian actor and television personality. He led the voice cast in such series as The Marvel Super Heroes (1966), voiced the title character in Spider-Man (1967), and portrayed Hermey in the 1964 television special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer; Soles was one of the last surviving participants of the special's voice cast.

<i>Cagney & Lacey</i> US police procedural drama television series

Cagney & Lacey is an American police procedural drama television series that aired on the CBS television network for seven seasons from March 25, 1982, to May 16, 1988. The show is about two New York City police detectives who lead very different lives: Christine Cagney is a career-minded single woman, while Mary Beth Lacey is a married working mother. The series is set in a fictionalized version of Manhattan's 14th Precinct. The pilot movie had Loretta Swit in the role of Cagney, while the first six episodes had Meg Foster in the role. When the show was revived for a full-season run, Gless portrayed the role for six consecutive years. Each year during that time, one of the two lead actresses won the Emmy for Best Lead Actress in a Drama, a winning streak matched only once since in any major category by a show.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tyne Daly</span> American actress (born 1946)

Ellen Tyne Daly is an American actress. She has won six Emmy Awards for her television work, a Tony Award and is a 2011 American Theatre Hall of Fame inductee.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colm Feore</span> Canadian actor (born 1958)

Colm Joseph Feore is a Canadian actor. A 15-year veteran of the Stratford Festival, he is known for his Gemini-winning turn as Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in the CBC miniseries Trudeau (2002), his portrayal of Glenn Gould in Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould (1993), and for playing Detective Martin Ward in Bon Cop, Bad Cop (2006) and its 2017 sequel.

King of Kensington is a Canadian television sitcom which aired on CBC Television from 1975 to 1980.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Naughton</span> American actor and director (born 1945)

James Naughton is an American actor and director. He is best known as Michael Bower on Who's the Boss? (1984-1992) and was also notable for his earlier role as the astronaut Pete Burke in the 1974 single-season television adaptation of Planet of the Apes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gordon Pinsent</span> Canadian actor/director/writer/singer

Gordon Edward Pinsent is a Canadian actor, writer, director, and singer. He is known for his roles in numerous productions, including Away from Her, The Rowdyman, John and the Missus, A Gift to Last, Due South, The Red Green Show and Quentin Durgens, M.P. He was the voice of Babar the Elephant in television and film from 1989 to 2015.

Sir Antony Sher was a British actor, writer and theatre director of South African origin. A two-time Laurence Olivier Award winner and a four-time nominee, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1982 and toured in many roles, as well as appearing on film and television. In 2001, he starred in his cousin Ronald Harwood's play Mahler's Conversion, and said that the story of a composer sacrificing his faith for his career echoed his own identity struggles.

Louis Del Grande is a Canadian-American television writer and actor. He is best known for starring in the Canadian mystery/comedy series Seeing Things.

Jaymz Bee is a Canadian musician, writer, emcee and radio personality based in Toronto, Ontario.

Barry Primus is an American television and film actor, director, and writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen Macht</span> American television and film actor (born 1942)

Stephen Robert Macht is an American television and film actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harvey Atkin</span> Canadian actor (1942–2017)

Elliot Harvey Atkin was a Canadian actor best known for his roles as Morty Melnick in Meatballs, Sergeant Ronald Coleman in Cagney & Lacey, and for voicing King Koopa in The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! and Sam in The Adventures of Sam & Max: Freelance Police.

Brent Carver was a Canadian actor best known internationally for performances in both London's West End and on Broadway in Kiss of the Spider Woman as Molina, for which he won the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical in 1993 and was nominated for an Olivier Award. A subsequent Broadway appearance in 1999 in Parade as Leo Frank, led to a second nomination for the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical.

<i>Twice in a Lifetime</i> (TV series) Canadian TV series or program

Twice in a Lifetime is a Canadian mystery/drama series that originally aired from 1999 to 2001. Created by Steve Sohmer, the series aired on CTV in Canada and PAX in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gerard Parkes</span> Irish-Canadian actor

Gerard Parkes was an Irish-Canadian actor. He was born in Dublin, and moved to Toronto in 1956. He is known for playing "Doc" on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation television series Fraggle Rock and the bartender in the film The Boondock Saints and its sequel The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day.

Perry Rosemond, CM is a Canadian television writer, producer and director.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frederick Valk</span> Anglo-German actor (1895–1956)

Frederick Valk was a German-born Jewish stage and screen actor of Czech Jewish descent who fled to the United Kingdom in the late 1930s to escape Nazi persecution, and subsequently became a naturalised British citizen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jono Grant</span> Musical artist

Jonothan Jonas Grant is a Canadian composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist who was nominated for a Genie award for "Achievement in Music/Original Score" on his first film score Jacob Two Two Meets the Hooded Fang in 1999.

Ronald "Ron" Ramin is an American composer for TV, film and, more recently, for the concert hall.

References

  1. ↑ "AL WAXMAN". Northern Stars. 2006. Archived from the original on December 11, 2006. Retrieved January 12, 2007.
  2. ↑ 'Missing Treasures (TV Series 1991–1992)'
  3. ↑ 'The importance of being Shylock', Canadian Jewish News, 2 August 2001 Archived April 29, 2005, at the Wayback Machine
  4. ↑ Davidson, Hillary (February 5, 2004). "That's What I Am". Quill & Quire.
  5. ↑ "Past Award Winners" (PDF). Helen and Stan Vine Canadian Jewish Book Awards. Koffler Centre of the Arts.
  6. ↑ Jones, Kenneth (January 18, 2001). "Al Waxman, U.S. and Canadian Actor, Dead at 65". Playbill .
  7. 1 2 3 Bee, Jaymz (January 25, 2001). "Al Waxman, 1935-2001". Now Magazine.
  8. ↑ Barclay, Michael; Schneider, Jason; Jack, Ian A.D. (2011). Have Not Been the Same: The CanRock Renaissance, 1985-1995. ECW Press. p. 218.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.