Artists throughout Newfoundland and Labrador are remembering Gordon Pinsent as a pioneering actor who paved the way for those who followed.
Pinsent died Saturday, surrounded by family. He was 92.
He was born in Grand Falls and began acting in the 1940s at the age of 17. Pinsent’s prolific career would go on to include more than 150 different film and television roles, earning him every major acting award in Canada.
Actor and comedian Mark Critch says Pinsent remained young at heart despite his age.
“I got the call yesterday that he was quite ill and that this would happen, and I was shocked, you know, I’m like, ‘Gordon, what happened?’
“He was that youthful, always a twinkle in the eye…. To me, he was eternally 12 years old. He always had that twinkle and he always had that excitement for what’s next.”
Mark Critch says Gordon Pinsent always had ‘a twinkle in the eye.’ (Mark Critch/Twitter)
The two actors met in 2010 through a sketch Critch was working on for This Hour has 22 Minutes.
“A young man by the name of Justin Bieber brought us together, really,” he said.
The pop singer had just put out a memoir, and Critch says he thought it’d be funny to have Pinsent do a dramatic reading for the show.
“And [since] then, we’ve just been very, very close friends. I’m a bit of an old soul and he’s a bit of a young one, so we met perfectly in the middle,” he said.
The pair also starred in the 2013 film The Grand Seduction together, which was shot around Newfoundland.
“Being with Gordon Pinsent in rural Newfoundland is a bit, what I would expect, like what being with Jesus in Bethlehem is like,” Critch said.
“People were just coming out of the woodwork.”
Gordon Pinsent was the beacon of N.L. arts, says friend and actor Mark Critch
11 hours ago
Duration 9:57
Canadian acting legend Gordan Pinsent, whose award-winning career spanned six decades, has died at 92. His friend, fellow actor and comedian Mark Critch said Pinsent was thoughtful, young-spirited and deeply loved by his fans and peers.
Pinsent was a loving and giving actor, Critch said, who was a trailblazer for all Newfoundland and Labrador artists who would follow.
“He was the man on the moon, right? He was the first of us to get anywhere like that, the first of us to make a big impact as an artist in Canada,” he said.
“He went there as an immigrant, he cut the path that we all followed through the woods and he was always looking over his shoulder to see if you were OK, if you need another hand, and I think I learned to tell Newfoundland stories and always reach back and pull somebody else up with you.”
‘It was like a dream come true’
Fellow actor Allan Hawco says Pinsent was an inspiration who left an important legacy with his work and dearly loved his province and his country.
“He set the tone for what was possible as a young artist in me, as a young writer, as a person who wanted to bring production and work back home and to celebrate the place in film and television,” said Hawco.
“He was the first person to show me that was possible.”
When Hawco was a young actor, he was cast in a play with Pinsent’s wife Charmion King, who introduced the two men.
“He just was so wonderful and so supportive and he made it clear that he was going to keep an interest in me and what I was doing.… It’s like they became my family overnight, and they behaved like they were my family, and that was the beginning of a very long friendship and a lot of professional interaction too,” Hawco said.
“It was like a dream come true. The old thing where they say ‘don’t meet your heroes,’ well, you know, in that case, Gordon nullified that rule. He was just the most gracious, he was the perfect example of what one should be when in that circumstance.”
Allan Hawco and Gordon Pinsent at a red carpet event in 2010. (WireImage/Getty Images)
He said Pinsent was generous, positive, respectful and an ambassador for his home, all things that Hawco took to heart.
“He never left Newfoundland behind even though he lived somewhere else, and that’s hard to do because when we don’t get to live at home and we’re somewhere else and we love the place, it carries a lot of weight,” he said.
“The way he described it to me was that going home and being associated with Newfoundland was the way to charge his own creative battery.”
And Pinsent was more than just a good actor, said Hawco, he was a great person.
“It’s not just for people in the industry to think about, you know, it’s just like, watching him be so decent to every person that he came across should be inspiring to everybody and I think we can all learn from a guy like that.”
‘He took you with him’
Playwright and performer Bernardine Stapleton said Pinsent was someone who made a special connection with everyone he met and he remembered those interactions.
“We all feel as if we lost somebody we were really close with … whether you spent a moment with him or an hour, you were the centre of the universe for that moment,” Stapleton said.
“I think the beautiful thing about Gordon Pinsent was he took you with him and kept you there. It’s a very special gift, very generous.”
She said he made time to perform for small, rural Newfoundland audiences long after he was a revered actor.
“A lot of his work was for love of it, I know he came to Grand Bank with me some years ago when I was running the tiniest theatre festival there,” said Stapleton.
“It was always for the sake of the process and the love and his love of theatre and creativity.”
Pinsent’s love and passion also extended to his home province, Stapleton said.
“Gordon was about people, stories, creating stories, very much a sense of this place and he never lost it,” she said.
“He was Newfoundland and Labrador to the marrow and I think that that is probably one of many, many stories of where he just came in and flew under the radar for no other reason than to be supportive.”
‘Candour, poignant, full of advice’
In Pinsent’s hometown, the Arts and Culture Centre was renamed in his honour in 2005.
Dave Anthony has been involved in theatre in the town for years and has memories of Pinsent being an adjudicator at the provincial drama festival.
“For someone of his stature, he could have come in and just put the head up and blown everyone away, but no,” he said.
“It was the local boy coming home, wanting to do right by everybody and just handled everyone so wonderfully with his adjudications. Candour, poignant, full of advice.”
Anthony worked as a teacher in Bishop’s Falls. He said he convinced Pinsent to come to the school and speak to the students, most of whom knew him best as the voice of King Babar.
“All you had to do was mention a little trip and a little bit of food and Gordon was there, that was our experience,” said Anthony.
“He came, and, of course, a lot of the kids, they weren’t fully familiar with a lot of the stage stuff — but Babar, the first thing that came out of one of their mouths, ‘Sir, aren’t you the guy that did that?’ And of course, he was charmed by the whole thing.”
EDMONTON – RCMP say a second suspect has been arrested in the killing of an Alberta county worker.
Mounties say 28-year-old Elijah Strawberry was taken into custody Friday at a house on O’Chiese First Nation.
Colin Hough, a worker with Rocky View County, was shot and killed while on the job on a rural road east of Calgary on Aug. 6.
Another man who worked for Fortis Alberta was shot and wounded, and RCMP said the suspects fled in a Rocky View County work truck.
Police later arrested Arthur Wayne Penner, 35, and charged him with first-degree murder and attempted murder, and a warrant was issued for Strawberry’s arrest.
RCMP also said there was a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Strawberry, describing him as armed and dangerous.
Chief Supt. Roberta McKale, told a news conference in Edmonton that officers had received tips and information over the last few weeks.
“I don’t know of many members that when were stopped, fuelling up our vehicles, we weren’t keeping an eye out, looking for him,” she said.
But officers had been investigating other cases when they found Strawberry.
“Our investigators were in O’Chiese First Nation at a residence on another matter and the major crimes unit was there working another file and ended up locating him hiding in the residence,” McKale said.
While an investigation is still underway, RCMP say they’re confident both suspects in the case are in police custody.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
RICHMOND, B.C. – The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team says the 26-year-old son of a man found dead on British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast has been charged with his murder.
Police say 58-year-old Henry Doyle was found badly injured on a forest service road in Egmont last September and died of his injuries.
The homicide team took over when the BC Coroners Service said the man’s death was suspicious.
It says in a statement that the BC Prosecution Service has approved one count of first-degree murder against the man’s son, Jackson Doyle.
Police say the accused will remain in custody until at least his next court appearance.
The homicide team says investigators remained committed to solving the case with the help of the community of Egmont, the RCMP on the Sunshine Coast and in Richmond, and the Vancouver Police Department.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Mediated talks between the union representing HandyDART workers in Metro Vancouver and its employer, Transdev, have broken off without an agreement following 15 hours of talks.
Joe McCann, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1724, says they stayed at the bargaining table with help from a mediator until 2 a.m. Friday and made “some progress.”
However, he says the union negotiators didn’t get an offer that they could recommend to the membership.
McCann says that in some ways they are close to an agreement, but in other areas they are “miles apart.”
About 600 employees of the door-to-door transit service for people who can’t navigate the conventional transit system have been on strike since last week, pausing service for all but essential medical trips.
McCann asks HandyDART users to be “patient,” since they are trying to get not only a fair contract for workers but also a better service for customers.
He says it’s unclear when the talks will resume, but he hopes next week at the latest.
The employer, Transdev, didn’t reply to an interview request before publication.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
