Bill Walker | |
---|---|
Born | William Walker December 20, 1922 Rouleau, Saskatchewan, Canada |
Died | June 25, 1995 |
Nationality | Canadian |
Occupation | radio and television host, actor |
Years active | 1930s-1980s |
Known for | Music '60 , Parade , Party Game |
Spouse(s) | Marilyn Whittet |
Bill Walker (1922 - 1995) was a Canadian broadcaster and actor. [1]
Originally from Rouleau, Saskatchewan, he began his broadcasting career on Regina radio station CJRM before enlisting in the Canadian Forces during World War II. [2] Following the war he returned to the station as morning host and program director; at this time he also began acting in community theatre productions, winning the award for Best Actor at the Saskatchewan Regional Drama Festival five times and at the Dominion Drama Festival twice. [3] During this era he married Marilyn Whittet, an actress and dancer he met in a production of Junior Miss . [3]
The couple moved to Winnipeg in 1950, where Walker became host of the program Walker's Wigwam on CKRC, [2] and to Toronto in 1954, where he first worked as an advertising spokesman in Ford Motor Company commercials. [1] He also appeared as an actor in CBC Television anthology series such as General Motors Theatre , Encounter , Folio, First Performance and On Camera, and a panelist on Live a Borrowed Life . [3] He was later the host of music variety programs such as Music '60 and Parade , and game shows such as Flashback , Communicate and Party Game . [2]
He was twice host of the Canadian Film Awards ceremonies, cohosting with Louise Marleau at the 20th Canadian Film Awards in 1968 and hosting on his own for the 22nd Canadian Film Awards in 1970. [4] He also had selected stage acting roles, most notably playing Henry Higgins in the Rainbow Stage production of My Fair Lady in 1966. [5]
Toward the end of his career he returned to radio, recording news commentaries for Toronto's CFRB. [3]
In 1994, he was in a car accident which gave him a hairline fracture of the neck, and underwent a rapid decline in his health afterward. He died approximately a year later, at age 72. [3] He was posthumously inducted into the Canadian Association of Broadcasters' Hall of Fame. [3]
Radio drama is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine the characters and story: "It is auditory in the physical dimension but equally powerful as a visual force in the psychological dimension." Radio drama includes plays specifically written for radio, docudrama, dramatized works of fiction, as well as plays originally written for the theatre, including musical theatre, and opera.
Graham Greene, CM is a First Nations (Oneida) Canadian actor who has worked on stage, in film, and in TV productions in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Dances with Wolves (1990). Other notable films include Thunderheart (1992), Maverick (1994), Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995), The Green Mile (1999), Skins (2002), Transamerica (2005), Casino Jack (2010), Winter's Tale (2014), The Shack (2017), Wind River (2017) and Shadow Wolves (2019).
Sydney Cecil Newman, OC was a Canadian film and television producer, who played a pioneering role in British television drama from the late 1950s to the late 1960s. After his return to Canada in 1970, Newman was appointed Acting Director of the Broadcast Programs Branch for the Canadian Radio and Television Commission (CRTC) and then head of the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). He also occupied senior positions at the Canadian Film Development Corporation and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and acted as an advisor to the Secretary of State.
Victor Joseph Garber is a Canadian actor and former singer. Known for his work in film, television, and theatre, he has been nominated for three Gemini Awards, four Tony Awards, and six Primetime Emmy Awards. He has also been nominated for three Screen Actors Guild Awards along with the cast of the critically acclaimed films Titanic (1997), Milk (2008), and Argo (2012), winning for the latter.
Arthur Christopher Orme Plummer was a Canadian actor. His career spanned seven decades, gaining recognition for his performances in film, television, and stage. He made his Broadway debut in 1954 and continued to act in leading roles on stage playing Cyrano de Bergerac in Cyrano (1974), Iago in Othello, as well as playing the titular roles in Hamlet at Elsinore (1964), Macbeth, King Lear, and Barrymore. Plummer performed in stage productions, including J.B., No Man's Land and Inherit the Wind.
The cinema of Canada, or Canadian cinema, dates back to the early 20th century along with the rise of filmmaking itself.
Kim F. Coates is a Canadian-American actor who has worked in both Canadian and American films and television series. He has worked on Broadway portraying Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire and in the lead role of Macbeth performed at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. He is best known for his role as Alexander "Tig" Trager in the FX series Sons of Anarchy and as Declan Gardiner in the Citytv series Bad Blood, as well as his recurring roles in Prison Break, Cold Case, CSI and CSI: Miami. He has also had film roles in The Last Boy Scout (1991), Bad Boys (1995), King of Sorrow (2006), Goon (2011).
Eric Neal Peterson is a Canadian stage, television, and film actor, known for his roles in three major Canadian series – Street Legal (1987-1994), Corner Gas (2004-2009), and This is Wonderland (2004-2006), as well as Corner Gas Animated (2018–present).
Bruno Gerussi was a Canadian stage and television actor, best known for the lead role in the CBC Television series The Beachcombers. He also performed on stage at the Stratford Festival, worked in radio, and hosted CBC's daily television cooking-talk show Celebrity Cooks in the late 1970s.
Tatiana Gabriele Maslany is a Canadian actress. She rose to prominence for playing multiple characters in the science fiction thriller television series Orphan Black (2013–2017), which won her a Primetime Emmy Award (2016), a TCA Award (2013), two Critics' Choice Awards, and five Canadian Screen Awards (2014–18). Maslany is the first Canadian to win an Emmy in a major dramatic category for acting in a Canadian series.
Saul Hersh Rubinek is a German-born Canadian actor, director, producer, and playwright.
Paul Sun-Hyung Lee is a Canadian actor and television host. He is best known for his roles as Randy Ko in the soap opera Train 48 (2003–2005) and as family patriarch Appa in the 2011 play Kim's Convenience, and particularly its television adaptation.
Allan Stratton is a Canadian playwright and novelist.
Sugith Varughese is a Canadian writer, director and actor.
Clement Virgo is a Canadian film and television writer, producer and director who runs the production company, Conquering Lion Pictures, with producer Damon D'Oliveira. Virgo is best known for co-writing and directing an adaptation of the novel by Canadian writer Lawrence Hill, The Book of Negroes (2015), a six-part miniseries that aired on CBC Television in Canada and BET in the United States.
Ennis Esmer is a Turkish-Canadian actor, comedian, voice actor, writer, producer and presenter. He is best known for his roles as Osman 'Oz' Bey in The Listener, Kurtis 'Maz' Mazhari in Private Eyes, Nash in Red Oaks, and as Rich Dotcom in Blindspot - a role that was specifically written for him.
Michael Greyeyes is an Indigenous Canadian actor, dancer, choreographer, director and educator. He is Plains Cree from the Muskeg Lake First Nation in Saskatchewan. His father was from the Muskeg Lake First Nation and his mother was from the Sweetgrass First Nation, both located in Saskatchewan.
Jack Blum is a Canadian writer, producer, director, story editor, actor, educator and communications consultant based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. With his longtime partner Sharon Corder, he has written and produced more than fifty hours of television drama for both Canadian and American broadcasters.
Gordon William Boyd was an English actor of film, television and musical theatre as well as a television host, and singer who hosted several television programmes in Australia during the 1960s. He worked in both his native Britain, and then in Australia after emigrating in 1964.
The 2021 Toronto International Film Festival, the 46th event in the Toronto International Film Festival series, was held from September 9 to 18, 2021. Due to the continued COVID-19 pandemic in Canada, the festival was staged as a "hybrid" of physical and digital screenings.