OBITUARY: Peter Donaldson, Stratford veteran

JOHN COULBOURN - QMI Agency
10JAN/11

Peter Donaldson, a much-loved and respected veteran of Canadian stage and television, has died after a sustained battle with lung cancer. He was 57.

Born in Midland, Ont., Donaldson was bitten by the acting bug on a high school visit to the Stratford Festival. That would ultimately prove fitting, for in a career that saw him tackle both leading and supporting roles in a wide range of work, Donaldson would ultimately spend 24 seasons at the Shakespearean Festival, turning in memorable performances in works like TIMON OF ATHENS, A LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD and WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?.

And he still had more he wanted to give. In casting for the forthcoming Stratford season, in fact, Donaldson had been signed to appear in productions of Richard III and Titus Andronicus.

Donaldson’s acting career also included a fair bit of television, where he played Ian Bowles — opposite Sheila McCarthy, his wife of nearly 25 years — in EMILY OF NEW MOON in the late ’90s, in addition to appearing in numerous other Canadian television series. But the stage always played the prime role in his life. “I like to do it,” he said, back in 2005. “I like performing. I like it when the lights go out. I like finding out what’s going to happen.”

And thanks to his talent, so did a legion of theatre fans, not just at Stratford, but at the Tarragon and Factory Theatres, Canadian Stage and Soulpepper — just a few of the stages Donaldson graced in a memorable career that now seems too short.

“Peter’s work and career reminded me of William Hutt,” Stratford’s director general Antoni Cimolino said in a prepared statement following Donaldson’s death in Toronto Saturday. “Like Bill, in his mid-life, Peter was now coming into the best, deepest and richest part of his talent. We will not know exactly what we have lost from his sad early passing. We are only left to wonder and mourn.”

Donaldson is survived by wife McCarthy and by two daughters, Mackenzie and Drew. A funeral and memorial service are being planned, with details to be announced.