Gordon Pinsent began acting on stage in the 1940s at the age of 17, soon taking on roles in radio dramas on the CBC, and later expanding to television and film. In the early 1950s, he took a break from acting and joined the Canadian Army, serving for approximately four years as a Private in The Royal Canadian Regiment.
A forty-year veteran of theatre, film, television and radio as an actor, playwright, author and director, Gordon Pinsent is well-known to audiences across Canada and the United States. He has starred in a wide variety of television programs and feature films, including Quentin Durgens MP, The Rowdyman, John and the Missus, A Gift to Last, written by Pinsent, Klondike Fever, Due South, and his Gemini Award-winning performance in Power Play.
In the U.S., Pinsent starred as the President of the United States in the cult movie Colossus: The Forbin Project, and appeared in such TV series and movies as It Takes A Thief, Silence of the North, Young Prosecutors, Banacek, and the feature film The Thomas Crown Affair, among many others.
Pinsent has received two ACTRA Awards for his television work; three Genie Awards for achievements in Canadian film; five Gemini Awards, a DORA Award for the stage, as well as honourary doctorates at Queens, P.E.I. University and Memorial University, Newfoundland. He was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1979 and promoted to Companion within the Order in 1998.
Pinsent is also a gifted writer. His novels, The Rowdyman and John and the Missus were both turned into feature films, with Pinsent directing the latter. Pinsent wrote and starred in CBC Movie of the Week Win Again, winning a Gemini for his writing. His memoirs, By the Way, were published in 1994.
