Search for "Canadian actors"

Nicholas Eduardo Alberto Cordero, actor, dancer, musician (born 17 September 1978 in Hamilton, Ontario; died 5 July 2020 in Los Angeles, California). Nick Cordero came to prominence with the 2014 Broadway production of Bullets Over Broadway, which earned him a Tony Award nomination. The imposing, six-foot-five actor also played many gangsters in film and television productions. His life was cut short in 2020 due to complications from COVID-19.

Barbara Chilcott, actor (born Barbara Chilcott Davis in Newmarket, Ont 1923). As a child and young woman in Toronto, Chilcott studied acting with Josephine Barrington and dancing with Bettina Byers at Academy Ballet, and attended Tamara Dakarhanova's School of the Theatre in Mount Kisco, NY.

Barbara Hamilton, actress (born at Kingston, Ont 11 Dec 1926; died at Toronto 7 Feb 1996).

The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists, better known as ACTRA, is the union that represents performers in Canada’s English-language radio, television and film industries. Through its Performers’ Rights Society, it secures and disburses use fees, royalties, residuals and all other forms of performers’ compensation. Some of ACTRA's other activities include administering health insurance and retirement plans for its 22,000 members, negotiating and administering collective agreements, minimum rates and working conditions, lobbying for Canadian content and a strong Canadian production industry, and promoting and celebrating Canadian talent.

Robert Holmes Thomson, CM, actor, director, playwright (born 24 September 1947 in Richmond Hill, ON). R.H. Thomson is one of Canada’s foremost stage actors. He is also known for his extensive work in television and film, including as Matthew Cuthbert in Anne with an E (2017–19), the CBC/Netflix adaptation of Anne of Green Gables. He has won a Genie Award, two Gemini Awards, a Dora Awardand a Canadian Screen Award, as well as the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awardfor Lifetime Artistic Achievement. Thomson is a passionate advocate for arts and culture in Canada. He was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2010.

Brent Christopher Carver, actor (born 17 November 1951 in Cranbrook, BC; died 4 August 2020 in Cranbrook). Brent Carver was one of Canada’s most versatile and soulful actors. He tackled the classics at the Stratford Festival (1980–87) and gave critically acclaimed performances in musical theatre, cabaret and film. The New York Times described him as “sensitive, soft-spoken yet nakedly emotional.” His performance in the 1993 Broadway production of Kiss of the Spider Woman earned him a Tony Award. Associated with Robin Phillips, who directed him both at Stratford and at Theatre London (1983–84), Carver also worked closely with John Neville at Edmonton's Citadel Theatre. Carver received the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement in 2014.

Catherine Anne O'Hara, actor, writer, singer (born 4 March 1954 in Toronto, ON). Catherine O’Hara is one of Canada’s most prominent comedic actors. She is perhaps best known for her work in television on SCTV(1976–79, 1981–83) and Schitt’s Creek (2015–20), as well as for her roles in Home Alone (1990) and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), and her many collaborations with director Christopher Guest. The winner of Emmy, Gemini, Genie and Canadian Screen Awards, she is an Officer of the Order of Canadaand a member of Canada’s Walk of Fame.

Ryan Thomas Gosling, actor, musician, producer, director (born 12 November 1980 in London, ON). Ryan Gosling started out as a child actor before giving a breakthrough performance in the Sundance-winning indie drama The Believer in 2001. He has since created, in the words of the New York Times’ Dennis Lim, “a whole gallery of sensitive, intelligent, anguished young men, often with hipster tendencies or dark sides.” An A-list Hollywood star, he has proven equally adept at comedy ( Lars and the Real Girl, Crazy, Stupid, Love., The Nice Guys, The Big Short), drama ­(The Notebook, Half Nelson, Blue Valentine, The Ides of March, First Man) and science fiction (Blade Runner 2049). He has received two Oscar nominations and won a Golden Globe in 2017 for his lead role in the musical La La Land.

Rachel Anne McAdams, actor (born 17 November 1978 in London, ON). Rachel McAdams is perhaps best known as a leading lady in such Hollywood romances as The Notebook (2004), The Time Traveler’s Wife (2009) and The Vow (2012). After graduating with a BFA from York University in 2001, she made a meteoric rise to stardom, going from a Gemini Award-winning role in the Canadian TV series Slings & Arrows (2003) to her breakthrough Hollywood performance in the hit high school comedy Mean Girls (2004). She was inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame in 2014 and received Screen Actors Guild and Oscar nominations for her supporting performance in the Oscar-winning Spotlight (2015).

Seth Aaron Rogen, actor, comedian, writer, producer, director (born 15 April 1982 in Vancouver, BC). Seth Rogen is one of Hollywood’s leading comedic stars. He is famous for playing characters that are at once sweetly naïve, slyly intelligent and utterly profane. Initially known for his collaborations with writer-producer Judd Apatow on such films as The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005), Knocked Up (2007) and Superbad (2007), he eventually began producing and co-directing his own comedies, such as This Is the End (2013) and The Interview (2014). Known as “the stoner king of comedy,” Rogen was named Comedy Star of the Year in 2008 by the US National Association of Theater Owners. He has twice been named Canadian Comedy Person of the Year at the Canadian Comedy Awards.

Ellen Philpotts-Page, actor, activist, producer (born 21 February 1987 in Halifax, NS). Ellen Page is a serious, soulful and intelligent actor, and one of Canada’s biggest movie stars. A seasoned child performer, she started out in Canadian feature films and TV series, winning two Gemini Awards by the time she was 18. Her intense performance in the American indie Hard Candy (2005) led to high-profile roles in X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) and the indie smash Juno (2007). Juno earned her an Independent Spirit Award and an Oscar nomination and made her a household name virtually overnight. Adept at quirky comedy (Whip It, Super), intimate drama (Marion Bridge, Mouth to Mouth) and big-budget blockbusters (Inception, the X-Men franchise), she is equally well-known for her environmental activism, her advocacy for LGBTQ rights and her grounded, socially-conscious persona.

David Gardner, actor, director, educator (born 4 May 1928 in Toronto, ON; died 8 February 2020 in Toronto). David Gardner was a theatre professional who brought a passion for Canadian drama to performance, education and political forums. He had a long and distinguished career as an actor, director, teacher and historian, and was a major player in the development of Canadian theatre. He played some 800 roles on stage, radio, film and television and directed for both stage and television. He taught at the University of Toronto and at York University. His work has been published widely in Canadian encyclopedias and journals.

Salome Bey, singer, actress, songwriter (born 1939 in Newark, New Jersey; died 8 August 2020 in Toronto, ON). Salome Bey was an award-winning jazz, blues and R&B singer. Known as “Canada’s First Lady of the Blues,” she often appeared with her daughters Jacintha Tuku and Saidah Baba Talibah, who accompanied her as the Relatives. Bey wrote and starred in Indigo, a Dora Award-winning history of the blues, and was part of the all-star lineup of Canadian singers who produced the charity single “Tears Are not Enough,” Bey received a Toronto Arts Award and the Martin Luther King Jr. Award for lifetime achievement from the Black Theatre Workshop of Montreal. She was inducted as an honorary member of the Order of Canada.

Daniel Edward Aykroyd, CM, OOnt, comedian, actor, screenwriter, musician, entrepreneur (born 1 July 1952 in Ottawa, ON). Dan Aykroyd is a comedian, writer and actor best known for his four seasons on Saturday Night Live (SNL) and for such hit comedies as The Blues Brothers (1980) and Ghostbusters (1984), both of which he cowrote. He won an Emmy Award for his writing on SNL and received an Oscar nomination for his supporting performance in Driving Miss Daisy (1989). He has also enjoyed considerable success as an entrepreneur, particularly in wine and spirits. He is a Member of the Order of Canada and Order of Ontario and has a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame.

Nonnie Griffin (née Lorna Margaret Jean Griffin), also known as Margaret Griffin, actor, playwright and director (born 20 October 1933 in Toronto, ON; died 7 June 2019 in Toronto). A gifted mimic blessed with striking beauty, Nonnie Griffin was known for her virtuosity with accents and her ability to play different ages and styles. Her work was distinguished by sensitivity and intelligence, and she excelled as a radio performer. She worked extensively in CBC TV and CBC Radio productions in the 1950s and 1960s and co-starred in the highly successful musical production of Anne of Green Gables. She appeared in numerous Canadian plays, films and TV series, and wrote and starred in her own one-woman shows, right up to her death at the age of 85.

Zoe Ada Caldwell, OBE, actor, director (born 14 September 1933 in Hawthorn, Australia; died 16 February 2020 in Pound Ridge, New York). Zoe Caldwell was an Australian actor who began her career in England before moving to Canada in 1961. She became a prominent leading lady in Canadian theatre, starring in productions at the Stratford Festival, the Shaw Festival and the Manitoba Theatre Centre, as well as on CBC TV. She began performing in the United States in the 1960s and went on to win four Tony Awards, including three for plays produced by her husband, Montreal-born theatre producer Robert Whitehead. Caldwell was also an accomplished director. Her renown as an actor in both classical and modern productions garnered her the Theatre World Award (1966), the Order of the British Empire (1970) and the Bernard B. Jacobs Excellence in Theatre Award (1999).

Barbara Franklin (m Perkins). Soprano, actress, b Regina 14 Jun 1929, d Toronto 15 Feb 2009; LRCT 1954, Artist diploma (Toronto) 1954.

Sarah Lynn Gadon, actor (born 4 April 1987 in Toronto, ON). Sarah Gadon is a film and television actor. She is perhaps best known for her collaborations with David Cronenberg and her lead performance in the miniseries adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace (2017). She won Canadian Screen Awards for her performances in Alias Grace and Denis Villeneuve’s Enemy (2013)