Canadians in Film

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

..A..

Arcand, Denis Birth Place: Deschambault, PQ

Birth Date: June 25, 1941

Accomplishments: Director and screenwriter. Educated at University of Montreal (history). Montreal-based Denys Arcand is one of Canada's most successful screenwriter-directors. Arcand was raised in a strict Catholic home (his mother had wanted to be a Carmelite nun) and spent nine years in Jesuit school. He produced his first film, the short Seul ou avec d'Autres (1962), while at university.
After graduation, Arcand went to work for the National Film Board of Canada where, between 1964 and 1965, he made a trilogy of short historical documentaries about the early explorers and settlers of North America. In 1970 he directed On est au coton, a feature-length documentary about abuses in the textile industry that was officially banned, allegedly because of its "biased" point of view. Another politically-oriented documentary followed, Quebec: Duplessis et Apres... (1972).
In 1972 Arcand directed his first fiction feature, Une Maudite Galette, an ironic thriller involving theft and murder. Rejeanne Padovani (1973), set against the construction of Montreal's Ville-Marie superhighway, also dealt with murder and greed. For Gina (1975), the director drew upon his experiences filming On est au coton to fashion a tale of violence and revenge about a stripper and a film crew working on a documentary about the textile industry.
Following some work for TV and the production of a controversial documentary for the National Film Board about Quebec's 1980 referendum for secession from Canada, Arcand returned to features with Le Crime d'ovide plouffe (1984) and his breakthrough film, The Decline of the American Empire (1986).
Marked by Arcand's typically cynical humor, The Decline of the American Empire focuses on a group of Québecois artists and intellectuals—four men and four women—coming to grips with the problems of sexuality, success, fidelity, intimacy and aging in contemporary society. Mirroring the baby-boomer angst of John Sayles's Return of the Secaucus 7 (1980) and Lawrence Kasdan's The Big Chill, The Decline of the American Empire became Canada's biggest worldwide screen success. A hit on the festival circuit and with critics and filmgoers in the States, the film won nine Génies (the Canadian Oscar), the "Fipresci" prize at Cannes and an Oscar nomination for best foreign language film. (Paramount even announced the development of a US remake.)
Jesus of Montreal (1989) is a tragicomic account of a group of struggling Montreal actors who support themselves by giving revisionist nighttime performances of a passion play. The film was allegedly inspired by an actor who auditioned for The Decline of the American Empire; he told Arcand that he was portraying Jesus in an old French play being performed for tourists visiting the city's famed Mont Royal peak. The director became fascinated with the lives of these Montreal artists who made a living as biblical figures by night and in beer commercials and porno films by day.
A dazzling mix of passion play drama, Catholic ideology and contemporary satire, Jesus of Montreal takes an unblinking look at the plight of the struggling actor. It is a highly personal work, influenced by Arcand's rigorous Catholic education and disillusionment with the church, and reflecting his view that "the Catholic hierarchy is completely opposed to Christ's purest teachings."

Aykroyd, Dan Birth Place: Ottawa, Ontario

Real Name: Daniel Edward Aykroyd Birth Date: July 1, 1952

Accomplishments: Screenwriter, producer, actor and comedian. Educated at Carleton College, Ottawa in criminology. Popular comic star who began his career with the Toronto company of the Second City comedy troupe. Aykroyd first came to prominence on the Saturday Night Live TV show, and after a decade of humerous romps, earned an Oscar nomination for his first dramatic role, as the dutiful son in Driving Miss Daisy (1989). Married to actress Donna Dixon.

..B..

Brittain, Donald Birth Place: Ottawa, Ontario

Birth Date: 1928
Died: July 21, 1989

Accomplishments: Director, producer and screenwriter. Educated at Queen's University, Kingston. One of the world's foremost documentary filmmakers.

Bujold, Genevieve Birth Place:

Real Name: Birth Date:

Accomplishments: ...

..C..

Cary, Jim Birth Place:

Real Name: Birth Date:

Accomplishments: ...

Cronenberg, David Birth Place: Toronto, Ontario

Birth Date: March 15, 1943

Accomplishments: Director and screenwriter. Educated at University of Toronto (English, science). One of the best of the new generation of horror film directors, Cronenberg's explorations of biological terror and sexual dread have provided a strikingly original approach to the genre. Because he has worked so often in the horror genre, Cronenberg was until recently labeled an exploitation director; his recent films, however, have moved away from graphic and revolting special effects to concentrate instead on theme and character.
While at university, Cronenberg made two experimental science fiction shorts, Stereo (1969) and Crimes of the Future (1970), before beginning his work in features. Both films demonstrated Cronenberg's penchant for stylistic experimentation and his ability to use architectural space for expressive purposes. His first feature was the effective shocker, They Came From Within/Shivers/ The Parasite Murders (1975), which was co-produced by fellow Canadian Ivan Reitman. In its depiction of an artificially created parasite that releases uncontrollable sexual desire, Cronenberg fashioned a wry commentary on the sexual liberation of the time. Playing on the same theme, Rabid (1977) cleverly cast Marilyn Chambers, former Ivory Snow Girl and porn star, as the unfortunate victim of an operation that leaves her with a vampiric appetite for blood. A murderous phallic spike that protrudes from her armpit makes her embrace literally deadly.
The Brood (1979), another exercise in biological horror, showed Cronenberg reaching for some measure of respectability. For the first time he used established actors, Oliver Reed and Samantha Eggar. Even though he placed them within a gruesome tale in which biological mutation is identified as a metaphor for emotional rage, he handled his performers with surprising skill. But it was with The Dead Zone (1983) that Cronenberg truly rose above the level of horror exploitation. The film is adapted from a Stephen King novel about a man able to predict future events in people's lives simply by touching them (and thus marks Cronenberg's first non-original screenplay). Here, atmosphere and acting—especially a fine central performance by Christopher Walken—take precedence over special effects.
Videodrome (1983) is a self-reflexive, McLuhanesque horror tale about the effects of TV on its viewers. The film tells the story of an opportunistic TV producer, played by James Woods, who grows obsessed with a sadistic-erotic program emanating from a mysterious pirate station. His fantasies, stimulated by the show, grow increasingly out of control and seem to represent the consciousness of the typical male TV viewer shaped by that medium's emphasis on violence, sex and spectacle. Videodrome is a formal tour de force in which fantasy merges with reality to the point where the viewer of the film, like the protagonist himself, cannot separate the two. It drives home the degree to which we are all "programmed" by the media—a theme strikingly visualized by the image of a newly evolved orifice in the producer's stomach for receiving video software.
Cronenberg has had to struggle for the critical recognition his work deserves, largely because of the nature of his material. Early response in his native Canada ranged from MPs in Parliament railing about government funding for a "disgusting" movie like Shivers, to critic Robert Fulford's review entitled You Should Know How Bad This Film Is. After All, You Paid For It. Robin Wood's influential 1979 essay An Introduction to the American Horror Film, which set the terms for discussion of the genre in the 80s, identified Cronenberg as a prime example of the horror film's "Reactionary Wing." Many have followed Wood in viewing Cronenberg's work as motivated by sexual disgust.
Cronenberg's 1986 remake of The Fly would seem to endorse such a view. The hero, a scientist whose atomic structure has been confused with that of a housefly, undergoes a gradual physical disintegration that has been read as a metaphor for AIDS. Yet his most recent film, Dead Ringers (1988), a resounding critical and commercial success, would seem to refute this interpretation. In this impressively accomplished work, Cronenberg's biological horror is almost entirely submerged within the psychological exploration of character and the director's precise command of color, decor and camera movement. A bravura performance by Jeremy Irons makes this grisly story of twin gynecologists who descend into drugs, madness and, finally, suicide, a chilling examination of masculine sexual dread and a powerful critique of the patriarchal control of the medical profession.
In retrospect, much of Cronenberg's earlier work can be seen as an ironic critique of the fears and repression that inform our apparently liberated society, rather than a visualization of the director's personal obsessions.

..D..

Dunning, George Birth Place: Toronto, Ontario

Birth Date: 1920
Died: 1979

Accomplishments: Animator, director. He joined the National Film Board of Canada in 1943, set up his own company in 1949, and left for England in 1956. He established a reputation for originality, deriving his themes from an irrational, surrealist world. Several of his films have won international awards, and his feature-length The Yellow Submarine (1968) was a great commercial success. Did TV commercials, TV cartoon series ("The Beatles," etc.), industrial films, and theatrical cartoons.

..E..

Egoyan, Atom Birth Place:

Birth Date:

Accomplishments: Director, screenwriter, producer and editor. Educated at University of Toronto. Stylish and highly assured young filmmaker whose work combines self-reflexive meditations on the nature of film and video with a darkly ironic sense of humor. Director Wim Wenders was so impressed with Egoyan's Family Viewing (1987) that, when awarded the Prix Alcan for Wings of Desire at the 1987 Montreal New Cinema Festival, he publicly turned the prize over to the younger filmmaker.

..F..

Ford, Glenn Birth Place: Quebec

Real Name: Gwyllyn Samuel Newton Birth Date: May 1, 1916

Accomplishments: Actor. Dependable, solidly built leading man who took his stage name from Glenford, a town in Canada. Ford entered films in 1939 after some experience on Broadway and first made his name in Gilda (1946), opposite Rita Hayworth. He excelled at playing well-meaning, ordinary men confronted by unusual or threatening situations, as in Young Man With Ideas (1952), The Big Heat (1953) and Blackboard Jungle (1955). Married to actress-dancer Eleanor Powell from 1943 to 1959.

Fox, Michael J. Birth Place:

Real Name: Birth Date:

Accomplishments: ...

Furie, Sidney J. Birth Place: Toronto, Ontario

Birth Date: February 28, 1933

Accomplishments: Director, producer and screenwriter. Educated at Carnegie Institute of Technology, Pittsburgh, PA (theater). Successful young director of the late 1950s and early 60s whose later work has never quite lived up to his early promise. Furie began his career in Canada and moved in 1960 to Great Britain, where he put his flashy camera style to good use in The Young Ones (1961) and The Ipcress File (1965), starring Michael Caine. Furie moved to the US in 1966.

..G..

Green, Lorne Birth Place:

Real Name: Birth Date:

Accomplishments: ...

..H..

Haim, Corey Birth Place: Toronto, Ontario

Birth Date: 1972

Accomplishments: Actor. Precocious juvenile performer, effective as a lovelorn 14-year-old in the title role of Lucas (1986).

Hiller, Arthur Birth Place: Edmonton, Alberta

Birth Date: November 22, 1923

Accomplishments: Director. Educated at University of Alberta, Edmonton; University of Toronto (psychology); University of British Columbia (law). Although he has worked in a variety of genres, from the dramatic (The Man in the Glass Booth, 1975) to the romantic (Love Story, 1970), Hiller is on surest ground with light comedy, perhaps a reflection of his background in TV. Silver Streak (1976) and The In-Laws (1979) are two of his more inspired comic efforts.

..J..

Jewison, Norman Birth Place: Toronto, Ontario

Real Name: Norman P. Jewison Birth Date: July 21, 1926

Accomplishments: Director and producer. Educated at Malvern Collegiate Institute, Toronto; Victoria College, University of Toronto. Highly skilled technician with a knack for eliciting fine performances from his casts. After working in TV as an actor, writer and director, Jewison turned to features in the 1960s and made his name with The Cincinnati Kid (1965) and In the Heat of the Night (1967), which won five Academy awards. He scored a sizeable box-office success with Moonstruck (1987), a deftly handled romantic comedy which won Oscars for best actress (Cher), best supporting actress (Olympia Dukakis) and best screenplay (John Patrick Shanley).

..K..

Kidder, Margot Birth Place:

Real Name: Birth Date:

Accomplishments: ...

Kotcheff, Ted Birth Place: Toronto, Ontario

Real Name: William Theodore Kotcheff Birth Date: April 7, 1931

Accomplishments: Director of mostly routine features, with the notable exception of The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1974), an inspired adaptation of Mordecai Richler's novel.

..M..

Martin, Andrea Birth Place:

Real Name: Birth Date:

Accomplishments: ...

Maxwell, Lois Birth Place: ?, Canada

Real Name: Lois Hooker Birth Date: 1927

Accomplishments: Actress. She appeared briefly in Hollywood films of the late 40s, then starred in several Italian films, and finally settled in England, where she acted the lead role in minor films. She appeared regularly as Miss Moneypenny in the James Bond film series.

Mercure, Melina Birth Place:

Real Name: Birth Date:

Accomplishments: ...

Moranis, Rick Birth Place: Toronto, Ontario

Birth Date: April 18, 1954

Accomplishments: Actor. Comic actor who specializes in playing gawky maladroit characters. Moranis demonstrated his versatility and talent for mimicry on the frenetic Canadian comedy show SCTV before gaining wider recognition for his role in Ghostbusters (1984). He enjoyed considerable box-office success with Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989).

Myers, Michael Birth Place:

Real Name: Birth Date:

Accomplishments: ...

..N..

Narizzano, Silvio Birth Place: Montreal, PQ

Birth Date: 1927

Accomplishments: Director. Educated at Bishop's University, Quebec. Former TV director who successfully caught the mood of mid-1960s London with Georgy Girl (1966) but has turned out little else of interest.

Nelligan, Kate Birth Place: London, Ontario

Real Name: Patricia Colleen Nelligan Birth Date: March 16, 1951

Accomplishments: Actress. Educated at York University, Canada; Central School of Speech and Drama, London. Three-time Tony nominee who has appeared intermittently in films since the mid-1970s. Memorable in the title role of Eleni (1985), based on the life of American writer Nicholas Gage and his attempts to unravel the truth about his mother's execution by Greek communists after WWII.

..P..

Parker, Cecilia Birth Place: Fort William, Ontario

Birth Date: April 26, 1905

Accomplishments: Actress. Educated at Toronto Acad. of Music (opera singing). Daughter of a British army officer born in Canada. Leading lady of Hollywood films of the 30s, she appeared mostly in Westerns and action pictures before sharing the popularity of the Andy Hardy series, in which she became a fixture as Mickey Rooney's older sister, Marion.

..R..

Reitman, Ivan Birth Place: ?, Czechoslovakia

Birth Date: October 26, 1946

Accomplishments: Producer, director and composer. Educated at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. In Canada from the age of four, Reitman began his career as a stage and TV producer and turned out his first feature film in 1971. Among his early, low-budget ventures were two films, They Came from Within (1975) and Rabid (1977), directed by David Cronenberg. He has played a significant role in the careers of Dan Aykroyd, who featured in the Reitman-produced TV show, Greed, and Bill Murray, who starred in Meatballs (1979) and Stripes (1981). Both actors appeared in Ghostbusters (1984), Reitman's biggest commercial success to date.
The Ghostbusters quickly became part of 80s popular culture. Although less well known than contemporaries George Lucas (Star Wars) and Steven Spielberg (E.T.), Reitman has had nearly as profound an effect on contemporary myth.

Rozema, Patricia Birth Place: ?, Canada

Birth Date: c. 1959

Accomplishments: Director and screenwriter. Stirred considerable critical interest at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival with her refreshing debut feature I've Heard the Mermaids Singing, an engaging chronicle of a secretary's disillusioning brush with the art world. Due to a strict Calvinist upbringing, Rozema had seen no films before the age of 16; before embarking on her breakthrough project she had made only one short, Passion: A Letter in 16mm (1986), and worked as an assistant on two features.

..S..

Shatner, William Birth Place:

Real Name: Birth Date:

Accomplishments: ...

Much of the biographical information on this page is taken from The Encyclopedia of Film
by BASELINE II, Inc. ©1991-1993 BASELINE II, Inc. All rights reserved.

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This information is brought to you courtesy of:

Glen C. Bodie
Toronto, Ontario
Glen_Bodie@compuserve.com
Last Update: April 10, 1996


..A..
	Arcand, Denis	Birth Place: Deschambault, PQ
		Birth Date: June 25, 1941
	Accomplishments: Director and screenwriter. Educated at University of Montreal (history). Montreal-based Denys Arcand is one of Canada's most successful screenwriter-directors. Arcand was raised in a strict Catholic home (his mother had wanted to be a Carmelite nun) and spent nine years in Jesuit school. He produced his first film, the short Seul ou avec d'Autres (1962), while at university. After graduation, Arcand went to work for the National Film Board of Canada where, between 1964 and 1965, he made a trilogy of short historical documentaries about the early explorers and settlers of North America. In 1970 he directed On est au coton, a feature-length documentary about abuses in the textile industry that was officially banned, allegedly because of its "biased" point of view. Another politically-oriented documentary followed, Quebec: Duplessis et Apres... (1972). In 1972 Arcand directed his first fiction feature, Une Maudite Galette, an ironic thriller involving theft and murder. Rejeanne Padovani (1973), set against the construction of Montreal's Ville-Marie superhighway, also dealt with murder and greed. For Gina (1975), the director drew upon his experiences filming On est au coton to fashion a tale of violence and revenge about a stripper and a film crew working on a documentary about the textile industry. Following some work for TV and the production of a controversial documentary for the National Film Board about Quebec's 1980 referendum for secession from Canada, Arcand returned to features with Le Crime d'ovide plouffe (1984) and his breakthrough film, The Decline of the American Empire (1986). Marked by Arcand's typically cynical humor, The Decline of the American Empire focuses on a group of Québecois artists and intellectuals—four men and four women—coming to grips with the problems of sexuality, success, fidelity, intimacy and aging in contemporary society. Mirroring the baby-boomer angst of John Sayles's Return of the Secaucus 7 (1980) and Lawrence Kasdan's The Big Chill, The Decline of the American Empire became Canada's biggest worldwide screen success. A hit on the festival circuit and with critics and filmgoers in the States, the film won nine Génies (the Canadian Oscar), the "Fipresci" prize at Cannes and an Oscar nomination for best foreign language film. (Paramount even announced the development of a US remake.) Jesus of Montreal (1989) is a tragicomic account of a group of struggling Montreal actors who support themselves by giving revisionist nighttime performances of a passion play. The film was allegedly inspired by an actor who auditioned for The Decline of the American Empire; he told Arcand that he was portraying Jesus in an old French play being performed for tourists visiting the city's famed Mont Royal peak. The director became fascinated with the lives of these Montreal artists who made a living as biblical figures by night and in beer commercials and porno films by day. A dazzling mix of passion play drama, Catholic ideology and contemporary satire, Jesus of Montreal takes an unblinking look at the plight of the struggling actor. It is a highly personal work, influenced by Arcand's rigorous Catholic education and disillusionment with the church, and reflecting his view that "the Catholic hierarchy is completely opposed to Christ's purest teachings."


	Aykroyd, Dan	Birth Place: Ottawa, Ontario
	Real Name: Daniel Edward Aykroyd	Birth Date: July 1, 1952
	Accomplishments: Screenwriter, producer, actor and comedian. Educated at Carleton College, Ottawa in criminology. Popular comic star who began his career with the Toronto company of the Second City comedy troupe. Aykroyd first came to prominence on the Saturday Night Live TV show, and after a decade of humerous romps, earned an Oscar nomination for his first dramatic role, as the dutiful son in Driving Miss Daisy (1989). Married to actress Donna Dixon.

..B..
	Brittain, Donald	Birth Place: Ottawa, Ontario
		Birth Date: 1928 Died: July 21, 1989
	Accomplishments: Director, producer and screenwriter. Educated at Queen's University, Kingston. One of the world's foremost documentary filmmakers.


	Bujold, Genevieve	Birth Place:
	Real Name:	Birth Date:
	Accomplishments: ...

..C..
	Cary, Jim	Birth Place:
	Real Name:	Birth Date:
	Accomplishments: ...


	Cronenberg, David	Birth Place: Toronto, Ontario
		Birth Date: March 15, 1943
	Accomplishments: Director and screenwriter. Educated at University of Toronto (English, science). One of the best of the new generation of horror film directors, Cronenberg's explorations of biological terror and sexual dread have provided a strikingly original approach to the genre. Because he has worked so often in the horror genre, Cronenberg was until recently labeled an exploitation director; his recent films, however, have moved away from graphic and revolting special effects to concentrate instead on theme and character. While at university, Cronenberg made two experimental science fiction shorts, Stereo (1969) and Crimes of the Future (1970), before beginning his work in features. Both films demonstrated Cronenberg's penchant for stylistic experimentation and his ability to use architectural space for expressive purposes. His first feature was the effective shocker, They Came From Within/Shivers/ The Parasite Murders (1975), which was co-produced by fellow Canadian Ivan Reitman. In its depiction of an artificially created parasite that releases uncontrollable sexual desire, Cronenberg fashioned a wry commentary on the sexual liberation of the time. Playing on the same theme, Rabid (1977) cleverly cast Marilyn Chambers, former Ivory Snow Girl and porn star, as the unfortunate victim of an operation that leaves her with a vampiric appetite for blood. A murderous phallic spike that protrudes from her armpit makes her embrace literally deadly. The Brood (1979), another exercise in biological horror, showed Cronenberg reaching for some measure of respectability. For the first time he used established actors, Oliver Reed and Samantha Eggar. Even though he placed them within a gruesome tale in which biological mutation is identified as a metaphor for emotional rage, he handled his performers with surprising skill. But it was with The Dead Zone (1983) that Cronenberg truly rose above the level of horror exploitation. The film is adapted from a Stephen King novel about a man able to predict future events in people's lives simply by touching them (and thus marks Cronenberg's first non-original screenplay). Here, atmosphere and acting—especially a fine central performance by Christopher Walken—take precedence over special effects. Videodrome (1983) is a self-reflexive, McLuhanesque horror tale about the effects of TV on its viewers. The film tells the story of an opportunistic TV producer, played by James Woods, who grows obsessed with a sadistic-erotic program emanating from a mysterious pirate station. His fantasies, stimulated by the show, grow increasingly out of control and seem to represent the consciousness of the typical male TV viewer shaped by that medium's emphasis on violence, sex and spectacle. Videodrome is a formal tour de force in which fantasy merges with reality to the point where the viewer of the film, like the protagonist himself, cannot separate the two. It drives home the degree to which we are all "programmed" by the media—a theme strikingly visualized by the image of a newly evolved orifice in the producer's stomach for receiving video software. Cronenberg has had to struggle for the critical recognition his work deserves, largely because of the nature of his material. Early response in his native Canada ranged from MPs in Parliament railing about government funding for a "disgusting" movie like Shivers, to critic Robert Fulford's review entitled You Should Know How Bad This Film Is. After All, You Paid For It. Robin Wood's influential 1979 essay An Introduction to the American Horror Film, which set the terms for discussion of the genre in the 80s, identified Cronenberg as a prime example of the horror film's "Reactionary Wing." Many have followed Wood in viewing Cronenberg's work as motivated by sexual disgust. Cronenberg's 1986 remake of The Fly would seem to endorse such a view. The hero, a scientist whose atomic structure has been confused with that of a housefly, undergoes a gradual physical disintegration that has been read as a metaphor for AIDS. Yet his most recent film, Dead Ringers (1988), a resounding critical and commercial success, would seem to refute this interpretation. In this impressively accomplished work, Cronenberg's biological horror is almost entirely submerged within the psychological exploration of character and the director's precise command of color, decor and camera movement. A bravura performance by Jeremy Irons makes this grisly story of twin gynecologists who descend into drugs, madness and, finally, suicide, a chilling examination of masculine sexual dread and a powerful critique of the patriarchal control of the medical profession. In retrospect, much of Cronenberg's earlier work can be seen as an ironic critique of the fears and repression that inform our apparently liberated society, rather than a visualization of the director's personal obsessions.

..D..
	Dunning, George	Birth Place: Toronto, Ontario
		Birth Date: 1920 Died: 1979
	Accomplishments: Animator, director. He joined the National Film Board of Canada in 1943, set up his own company in 1949, and left for England in 1956. He established a reputation for originality, deriving his themes from an irrational, surrealist world. Several of his films have won international awards, and his feature-length The Yellow Submarine (1968) was a great commercial success. Did TV commercials, TV cartoon series ("The Beatles," etc.), industrial films, and theatrical cartoons.

..E..
	Egoyan, Atom	Birth Place:
		Birth Date:
	Accomplishments: Director, screenwriter, producer and editor. Educated at University of Toronto. Stylish and highly assured young filmmaker whose work combines self-reflexive meditations on the nature of film and video with a darkly ironic sense of humor. Director Wim Wenders was so impressed with Egoyan's Family Viewing (1987) that, when awarded the Prix Alcan for Wings of Desire at the 1987 Montreal New Cinema Festival, he publicly turned the prize over to the younger filmmaker.

..F..
	Ford, Glenn	Birth Place: Quebec
	Real Name: Gwyllyn Samuel Newton	Birth Date: May 1, 1916
	Accomplishments: Actor. Dependable, solidly built leading man who took his stage name from Glenford, a town in Canada. Ford entered films in 1939 after some experience on Broadway and first made his name in Gilda (1946), opposite Rita Hayworth. He excelled at playing well-meaning, ordinary men confronted by unusual or threatening situations, as in Young Man With Ideas (1952), The Big Heat (1953) and Blackboard Jungle (1955). Married to actress-dancer Eleanor Powell from 1943 to 1959.


	Fox, Michael J.	Birth Place:
	Real Name:	Birth Date:
	Accomplishments: ...


	Furie, Sidney J.	Birth Place: Toronto, Ontario
		Birth Date: February 28, 1933
	Accomplishments: Director, producer and screenwriter. Educated at Carnegie Institute of Technology, Pittsburgh, PA (theater). Successful young director of the late 1950s and early 60s whose later work has never quite lived up to his early promise. Furie began his career in Canada and moved in 1960 to Great Britain, where he put his flashy camera style to good use in The Young Ones (1961) and The Ipcress File (1965), starring Michael Caine. Furie moved to the US in 1966.

..G..
	Green, Lorne	Birth Place:
	Real Name:	Birth Date:
	Accomplishments: ...

..H..
	Haim, Corey	Birth Place: Toronto, Ontario
		Birth Date: 1972
	Accomplishments: Actor. Precocious juvenile performer, effective as a lovelorn 14-year-old in the title role of Lucas (1986).


	Hiller, Arthur	Birth Place: Edmonton, Alberta
		Birth Date: November 22, 1923
	Accomplishments: Director. Educated at University of Alberta, Edmonton; University of Toronto (psychology); University of British Columbia (law). Although he has worked in a variety of genres, from the dramatic (The Man in the Glass Booth, 1975) to the romantic (Love Story, 1970), Hiller is on surest ground with light comedy, perhaps a reflection of his background in TV. Silver Streak (1976) and The In-Laws (1979) are two of his more inspired comic efforts.

..J..
	Jewison, Norman	Birth Place: Toronto, Ontario
	Real Name: Norman P. Jewison	Birth Date: July 21, 1926
	Accomplishments: Director and producer. Educated at Malvern Collegiate Institute, Toronto; Victoria College, University of Toronto. Highly skilled technician with a knack for eliciting fine performances from his casts. After working in TV as an actor, writer and director, Jewison turned to features in the 1960s and made his name with The Cincinnati Kid (1965) and In the Heat of the Night (1967), which won five Academy awards. He scored a sizeable box-office success with Moonstruck (1987), a deftly handled romantic comedy which won Oscars for best actress (Cher), best supporting actress (Olympia Dukakis) and best screenplay (John Patrick Shanley).

..K..
	Kidder, Margot	Birth Place:
	Real Name:	Birth Date:
	Accomplishments: ...


	Kotcheff, Ted	Birth Place: Toronto, Ontario
	Real Name: William Theodore Kotcheff	Birth Date: April 7, 1931
	Accomplishments: Director of mostly routine features, with the notable exception of The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1974), an inspired adaptation of Mordecai Richler's novel.

..M..
	Martin, Andrea	Birth Place:
	Real Name:	Birth Date:
	Accomplishments: ...


	Maxwell, Lois	Birth Place: ?, Canada
	Real Name: Lois Hooker	Birth Date: 1927
	Accomplishments: Actress. She appeared briefly in Hollywood films of the late 40s, then starred in several Italian films, and finally settled in England, where she acted the lead role in minor films. She appeared regularly as Miss Moneypenny in the James Bond film series.


	Mercure, Melina	Birth Place:
	Real Name:	Birth Date:
	Accomplishments: ...


	Moranis, Rick	Birth Place: Toronto, Ontario
		Birth Date: April 18, 1954
	Accomplishments: Actor. Comic actor who specializes in playing gawky maladroit characters. Moranis demonstrated his versatility and talent for mimicry on the frenetic Canadian comedy show SCTV before gaining wider recognition for his role in Ghostbusters (1984). He enjoyed considerable box-office success with Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989).


	Myers, Michael	Birth Place:
	Real Name:	Birth Date:
	Accomplishments: ...

..N..
	Narizzano, Silvio	Birth Place: Montreal, PQ
		Birth Date: 1927
	Accomplishments: Director. Educated at Bishop's University, Quebec. Former TV director who successfully caught the mood of mid-1960s London with Georgy Girl (1966) but has turned out little else of interest.


	Nelligan, Kate	Birth Place: London, Ontario
	Real Name: Patricia Colleen Nelligan	Birth Date: March 16, 1951
	Accomplishments: Actress. Educated at York University, Canada; Central School of Speech and Drama, London. Three-time Tony nominee who has appeared intermittently in films since the mid-1970s. Memorable in the title role of Eleni (1985), based on the life of American writer Nicholas Gage and his attempts to unravel the truth about his mother's execution by Greek communists after WWII.

..P..
	Parker, Cecilia	Birth Place: Fort William, Ontario
		Birth Date: April 26, 1905
	Accomplishments: Actress. Educated at Toronto Acad. of Music (opera singing). Daughter of a British army officer born in Canada. Leading lady of Hollywood films of the 30s, she appeared mostly in Westerns and action pictures before sharing the popularity of the Andy Hardy series, in which she became a fixture as Mickey Rooney's older sister, Marion.

..R..
	Reitman, Ivan	Birth Place: ?, Czechoslovakia
		Birth Date: October 26, 1946
	Accomplishments: Producer, director and composer. Educated at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. In Canada from the age of four, Reitman began his career as a stage and TV producer and turned out his first feature film in 1971. Among his early, low-budget ventures were two films, They Came from Within (1975) and Rabid (1977), directed by David Cronenberg. He has played a significant role in the careers of Dan Aykroyd, who featured in the Reitman-produced TV show, Greed, and Bill Murray, who starred in Meatballs (1979) and Stripes (1981). Both actors appeared in Ghostbusters (1984), Reitman's biggest commercial success to date. The Ghostbusters quickly became part of 80s popular culture. Although less well known than contemporaries George Lucas (Star Wars) and Steven Spielberg (E.T.), Reitman has had nearly as profound an effect on contemporary myth.


	Rozema, Patricia	Birth Place: ?, Canada
		Birth Date: c. 1959
	Accomplishments: Director and screenwriter. Stirred considerable critical interest at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival with her refreshing debut feature I've Heard the Mermaids Singing, an engaging chronicle of a secretary's disillusioning brush with the art world. Due to a strict Calvinist upbringing, Rozema had seen no films before the age of 16; before embarking on her breakthrough project she had made only one short, Passion: A Letter in 16mm (1986), and worked as an assistant on two features.

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	Shatner, William	Birth Place:
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