That night’s performance outside on the square ran almost four hours, with a devoted audience who defied the blustery cold wind chilling us on the open stage. The only major hitch came after midnight, when a moment of silence was scheduled for 12:27 a.m., the same time when the last wireless messages from the Titanic were heard at Cape Race, Newfoundland. But our moment of silence was delayed by about forty minutes after the performances ran longer than planned due to some technical challenges.
The next morning we stood united under blessedly warm sunshine at the Fairview Lawn Cemetery for another emotionally charged ceremony, heightened by an RCMP bagpiper playing “Nearer, My God, to Thee,” the hymn, legend has it, that Titanic’s band bravely played on the open deck as passengers scrambled into lifeboats.
“The Atlantic is both generous in sharing her bounty, and greedy in claiming her victims,” I told the assembly. “We are gathered here today to commemorate the 1,500 people she indiscriminately stole from us. Tragedy, not chance, brought some of them to these shores to be buried here, far from their families, far from their homelands, far from forgotten.”
In closing I recited lines from “The Sinking of the Titanic” by the American poet Clarence Victor Stahl.
Yet let us weep not for her treasured hulk
That sank leagues deep into the sea,
But for the toll of ill-starred voyagers
Who rode her to eternity.
A night, and a day, to remember.
It’s almost July as I write this, and going over my kitchen calendar for 2012, so many of the white spaces have already filled up. Peter and the Wolf with the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra in St. John’s; a little Prokofiev for the soul. A performance at Massey Hall with Greg and Travis to honour new Glenn Gould Prize–winner Leonard Cohen. Another gig with the boys in June, this time at the Glenn Gould Studio itself, at home, at CBC. (I probably should mention, too, that Life Doesn’t Frighten Me premiered at the TIFF Student Film Showcase in May 2012 – and took the top prize! Oh he’s one to watch, that Stephen Dunn.) Still to come: Narrating The Carnival of the Animals, with Camille Saint-Saëns’s music and Ogden Nash’s poetry, at the Ottawa Chamberfest (my Chamberfest debut). Then, with James Parker at the piano, performing Strauss’s musical treatment of Tennyson’s “Enoch Arden.” I’m told the first guys to do it, the ones who made the LP, were Claude Rains and Glenn Gould. May have to bone up a bit for that one. And more offers to consider. An offer to do a guest spot in a new NBC dramatic series. The character they want me to play needs a lot of work, and I’m not sure they know it; don’t think I’ll do that one. An offer to play a Cardinal in a current miniseries shooting in Europe. Maybe. An offer to join the ensemble cast for a film Don McKellar’s directing. Yes. I’ll start growing a scruffy beard for that one. Another call from Allan Hawco, always a pleasure, to do another episode or two of Republic of Doyle. All in the future, of course. But by the time you read this the future will be the past, and I’ll be looking to see what’s next, looking at new white spaces on my calendar, and hopefully some of them will be filling up too.
Why do I keep saying Yes? Because I love working. And because I’m still restless. Charm used to tell people that I was always restless because I was not easily satisfied. “It’s the lack of satisfaction that drives him on to the next thing,” she would explain. “And he always wants there to be a next thing. Another opening, another show.”
Even now, as I’m reading new scripts, or writing new scripts, or both, people still ask me why I’m still doing what I’m still doing. It’s not all that complicated, really. I want more.
I love people. And I love stories. And I love something new to be happening all the time. And I love being part of it. Rejection, bad reviews, whatever – nothing is going to stop me from my part of this glorious life. And when I start to lose my nerve, I’ll just do what I always do.
I’ll say Yes.
And then I’ll start counting to three.
* From “Down and Out in Upalong,” by Gordon Pinsent.
acknowledgements
UNLESS YOU STARTED READING THIS BOOK FROM THE back, by now you know it contains more than a few “thank you” moments.
This is another one.
On behalf of my collaborator, George Anthony, and myself, I want to thank all the interviewers, past and present, with whom I’ve enjoyed chatting over the years. Some of your words served as excellent memory joggers – and I had a lot of personal history to remember.
George and I must also acknowledge the creators of Google and, especially, YouTube, which not only provided us with magical flashes from the past but also revealed how it is quickly becoming the Original Cast soundtrack album of our lives.
Televised biographies were also a huge help, reflecting not only how I felt at the time but, perhaps even more significantly, who I was becoming at those particular times. Especially useful were the Life & Times biography produced by Laszlo Barna for CBC Television; Barbara Doran’s lively film essay, Gordon Pinsent: Still Rowdy After All These Years, for Bravo! Canada; and R.H. Thomson’s inspiring and engaging oral-history interview for Theatre Museum Canada.
Thanks, too, to my steadfast chums, stout-hearted pals Perry Rosemond and Larry Dane, for sharing their stories and insights and to my agent Penny Noble – ours is one of the longest-running partnerships in show business history.
George Anthony says that he is seriously indebted, once again, to Jack Bond, Kevin Shortt, and Kim and Roberto Chiotti for the use of their glorious straw bale house on the hill, which he describes as “the best writer’s hideaway any steno-to-the-stars could imagine.” He is also deeply grateful to another old friend, June Chalmers, for providing him with ten idyllic days at her idyllic cottage on an idyllic bay off Lake Muskoka. Without the kindness of these friends, he insists, he would still be struggling with the first draft and be many months away from writing notes of gratitude.
And although this book is technically a Michael A. Levine-Douglas Pepper production, almost all the heavy lifting was done by our editor, Jenny Bradshaw, who managed to make sense of what we were trying to accomplish, even when we couldn’t, and George Anthony’s not-so-secret secret weapon, McClelland & Stewart publicity manager Ruta Liormonas, commander-in-chief of Team Gordon, whose enthusiasm for this project from the very first mention was spectacularly and consistently unflagging.
In closing, I confess that I have decided that I will never work with George Anthony again. Unless, of course, he asks me.
Gordon Pinsent, October 2012
photographic credits
SECTION I:
11.1 courtesy of the author
11.2 courtesy of the author
11.3 courtesy of the author
11.4 courtesy of the author; bottom: Manitoba Theatre Centre
11.5 CBC Winnipeg; bottom left and right: Manitoba Theatre Centre
11.6 Crest Theatre; bottom: Straw Hat Players
11.7 CBC Still Photo Collection; bottom: Roy Martin/CBC Still Photo Collection
11.8 courtesy of the author
SECTION II:
18.1 The Rowdyman, courtesy Lawrence Z. Dane
18.2 courtesy of the author
18.3 courtesy of the author
18.4 Klondike Fever (CFI Investments); bottom: John and the Missus (Big Island Motion Pictures)
18.5 Away From Her (Lionsgate Films); bottom: Charm and Gordon by Tom Sandler
18.6 Due South (Alliance Atlantis); bottom: Made in Canada (Salter Street Films & Island Edge) (photo: Alan Chan)
18.7 A Gift to Last (CBC Still Photo Collection); middle: Edwin Alonzo Boyd (CTV); bottom: A Case of Libel (Showtime/PBS)
18.8 Warner Music; bottom: Halifax Film
selected performance history
(bf = stage/theatre)
Years Ago (Winnipeg Little Theatre) (1954)
Just Married (Winnipeg Little Theatre) (1954)
Angel Street/Gaslight (Winnipeg Repertory Theatre) (1955)
Twelfth Night
(Winnipeg Repertory Theatre) (1955)
Coriolanus (reading) (Winnipeg Little Theatre) (1955)
Romeo and Juliet (reading) (Winnipeg Little Theatre) (1955)
Peer Gynt (reading)(Winnipeg Little Theatre) (1955)
The Little Hut (Winnipeg Little Theatre, Shoestring Theatre) (1955)
The Moon Is Blue (Shoestring Theatre) (1955)
An Italian Straw Hat (Theatre 77) (1955)
The Voices of the Dead (CBC) (1955)
Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles (Winnipeg radio) (1955)
Arsenic and Old Lace (Theatre 77) (1956)
Death of a Salesman (Theatre 77) (1956)
Alice in Wonderland (Theatre 77) (1956)
Dear Charles (W.L.T. Shoestring Theatre) (1956)
The Ladies in Love with Learning (Winnipeg Little Theatre) (1956)
Pitfalls of Pauline, or Passion, Pride and Peril (Rainbow Stage) (1957)
Twelfth Night (Winnipeg Little Theatre) (1957)
Man in a Window (CBC) (1957)
A Bird in a Gilded Cage (CBC) (1958)
A Hatful of Rain (Manitoba Theatre Centre) (1958)
Of Mice and Men (Manitoba Theatre Centre) (1958)
The Glass Menagerie (Manitoba Theatre Centre) (1959)
Music for a Quarter (CBC) (1959)
Noah (New Play Society) (1960)
Machinal (New Play Society) (1960)
Legend of Lovers (New Play Society) (1960)
Fifteen Miles of Broken Glass (CBC) (1960)
Rehearsal for Invasion (CBC) (1960)
Substitute Soldier (CBC) (1960)
The 21st Floor (CBC) (1960)
The Madwoman of Chaillot (Crest Theatre) (1961)
Roots (Crest Theatre) (1961)
Two for the Seesaw (PACE, Beacon Theatre) (1961)
Mr. Roberts (Manitoba Theatre Centre) (1961)
(one performance only, as ‘Ernie’)
Wedding Breakfast (Straw Hat Players) (1961)
State of the Union (Straw Hat Players) (1961)
Lullaby (Straw Hat Players) (1961)
Scarlett Hill (CBC) (1962)
A Very Close Family (Manitoba Theatre Centre) (1962)
Stratford Shakespearean Festival (1962 season)
Cyrano de Bergerac (Hallmark Hall of Fame) (NBC) (1962)
Ten Little Indians (Straw Hat Players) (1963)
Subway in the Sky (Straw Hat Players) (1963)
The Long, the Short and the Tall (Straw Hat Players) (1963)
A Very Close Family (CBC) (1963)
Lydia (Libra Films) (1964)
Twelfth Night (CBC) (1964)
The Spirit of the Deed (CBC) (1964)
Angels in Love (Actors Equity Showcase) (1964)
Arms and the Man (Crest Theatre) (1964)
Caesar and Cleopatra (Crest)
Three Approaches to Leadership (National Film Board of Canada) (1965)
The Forest Rangers (CBC) (1966)
Seaway (CBC)(1966)
Don’t Forget to Wipe the Blood Off (CBC/ITC)(1966)
Show of the Week: A Germ of Doubt (CBC) (1966)
Quentin Durgens, M.P. (CBC) (1966)
Telescope (CBC) (1967)
Hatch’s Mill (CBC) (1967)
Dominion Drama Festival Awards (St. John’s) (1967)
The Thomas Crown Affair (United Artists)(1968)
Adventures in Rainbow County (CBC)(1969)
Bits and Pieces: Gordon Pinsent (CBC)(1969)
It Takes a Thief (ABC) (1969)
Traveller Without Luggage (CBC)(1969)
Quarantined/The House on the Hill (ABC) (1970)
Colossus: The Forbin Project (Universal) (1970)
The Young Lawyers (ABC) (1970)
Dan August (ABC) (1970)
Hogan’s Heroes (CBS) (1970)
Sarge (NBC) (1971)
Chandler (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) (1971)
Invitation to a March (Hollywood Television Theater/PBS) (1972)
The Rowdyman (Crawley Films) (1972)
Blacula (American-International)(1972)
Banacek (NBC) (1972)
Guys and Dolls (Manitoba Theatre Centre) (1972)
Marcus Welby, M.D. (ABC) (1973)
Cannon (CBS) (1973)
Incident on a Dark Street (NBC) (1973)
ACTRA Awards (1974)
Only God Knows (CBC) (1974)
Newman’s Law (Universal) (1974)
Ocean Heritage (NFB) (1974)
The Heatwave Lasted Four Days (NFB) (1974)
The Play’s the Thing (CBC) (1974)
The Collaborators (CBC) (1974)
Horse Latitudes (CBS) (1975)
Trumpets and Drums (Stratford Shakespearean Festival) (1975)
The Rowdyman: The Musical (Charlottetown Festival) (1975)
The Great Canadian Culture Hunt (CBC) (1976)
The World Is Round (1976)
A Gift to Last (CBC) (1976)
John and the Missus (Neptune Theatre) (1976)
Who Has Seen the Wind (Janus Films) (1977)
Canadian Film Awards (1977)
Blackwood (NFB) (1976)
A Gift to Last (CBC) (1978)
Drága kisfiam (International Cinemedia Centre) (1978)
The Beachcombers (CBC) (1979)
People Talking Back (CBC) (1979)
The Suicide’s Wife/A New Life (CBS) (1979)
Up at Ours (CBC) (1979)
Famous People Players: Carnival of the Animals (CBC) (1979)
ACTRA Awards (1979)
Klondike Fever (World Entertainment Corp.)(1980)
Once (CBC) (1980)
A Far Cry from Home (CBC) (1981)
The Devil at Your Heels (NFB) (1981)
Silence of the North (Universal) (1981)
Escape from Iran: The Canadian Caper (CBC) (1981)
The Tempest (Vancouver Playhouse) (1981)
John and the Missus (National Arts Centre) (1981)
The Life and Times of Edwin Alonzo Boyd (CTV) (1982)
A Gift to Last (Vancouver Playhouse) (1982)
Ready for Slaughter (CBC) (1983)
High Schools (1983)
A Case of Libel (PBS/Showtime) (1983)
Sam Hughes’s War (CBC) (1984)
And Miles to Go (CBC) (1984)
Seeing Things (CBC) (1984)
Cyrano de Bergerac (Stephenville Theatre Festival) (1984)
Cyrano de Bergerac (Neptune Theatre) (1984)
Uncle T. (Atlantis Films/NFB) (1985)
John and the Missus (Big Island Motion Pictures) (1987)
Easy Down Easy (Gryphon Theatre) (1987)
Two Men (CBC) (1988)
Danger Bay (CBC) (1988)
9th Annual Genie Awards (CBC) (1988)
Friday the 13th: The Series (CBS) (1989)
Babar: The Movie (New Line Cinema)(1989)
Brass Rubbings (Factory Theatre) (1989)
The Half of It (Canadian Stage) (1989)
Blood Clan (Monarch) (1990)
The Red Green Show (Global) (1990)
Gemini Awards (CBC) (1990)
The Hidden Room (Lifetime) (1991)
Babar (CBC/HBO)(1991)
The Red Green Show (CHCH-TV) (1991)
Anne of Green Gables (Elgin Theatre) (1991)
The Sum of Us (Theatre Calgary) (1991)
Ray Bradbury Theater (USA Network) (1992)
A Passage from Burnt Islands (NFB) (1992)
Counterstrike (CTV/USA Network) (1992)
Beyond Reality (USA Network) (1992)
In the Eyes of a Stranger (CBS) (1992)
The Ray Bradbury Theater (1992)
Bonds of Love (CBS) (1993)
E.N.G. (CTV) (1993)
Secret Service (NBC) (1993)
The New Red Green Show (Global) (1993)
The Music Man (Grand Falls Arts and Culture Centre) (1993)
Kung Fu: The Legend Continues (1994)
Road to Avonlea (CBC) (1994)
Lonesome Dove: The Series (CBS) (1994)
&n
bsp; Street Legal (CBC) (1994)
A Vow to Kill (USA Network) (1995)
The Red Green Show (CBC/PBS) (1995)
A Gift to Last (Theatre New Brunswick) (1995)
A Holiday For Love/Christmas in My Hometown (CBC) (1996)
Due South (CTV) (1996)
Les amants de rivière rouge (France) (1996)
The 1996 Gemini Awards (CTV)(1996)
The Red Green Show (1996)
Magic Time (NFB) (1997)
Spoken Art: The Clumsy One (Global) (1997)
Pale Saints (Norstar Entertainment) (1997)
Pippi Longstocking (Legacy Releasing Corp.) (1997)
The Outer Limits (Showtime) (1997)
The Red Green Show (1997)
Corner Green (Newfoundland Amateur Drama Festival, St. John’s) (1997)
Made in Canada (CBC) (1998)
The New Red Green Show (CBC/PBS) (1998)
Relic Hunter (CityTV/Space) (1999)
The Old Man and the Sea (IMAX) (1999)
Due South (CTV) (1999)
Win, Again! (CTV) (1999)
The Red Green Show (CBC/PBS) (1999)
Jewel on the Hill (CBC) (2000)
We Stand on Guard (Family Channel) (2001)
The Shipping News (Miramax) (2001)
Mentors (Family Channel) (2001)
Blind Terror (Hearst Entertainment/TVA) (2001)
Blue Murder (Global) (2001)
Wind at My Back (CBC) (2001)
Power Play (CTV) (2001)
Corner Green (Blyth Festival) (2001)
The New Beachcombers (CBC) (2002)
Life & Times of Moe Norman: The King of Swing (CBC) (2002)
Stranded Yanks: A Diary Between Friends (PBS) (2002)
A Promise (Atticus Films) (2002)
Fallen Angel (Hallmark Hall of Fame/NBC) (2003)
Snow on the Skeleton Key (Dickray Films) (2003)
Nothing (Senator International) (2003)
Just Cause (W Network) (2003)
Hemingway vs. Callaghan (CBC) (2003)
Inventing Grace, Touching Glory (2003)
Shattered City: The Halifax Explosion (CBC) (2003)
Comedic Genius: The Work of Bernard Slade (Bravo!/Canal D) (2003)
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