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Tom McCamus (born July 25, 1955[1]) is a Canadian film and theatre actor. A sought-after stage performer, he is most widely known for his works on the television show Mutant X and drama film Room.[2]
McCamus was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada,[1] the eldest son of a Labatt executive and a library science professor.[3] He was brought up in London, Ontario from the age of ten. Originally destining himself to be a writer or a teacher, he found an interest in theatre when he took a drama class at Oakridge Secondary School. He subsequently landed a small role in a version of Antigone staged by the local Theatre London's Young Company, and went on to attend the University of Windsor's school of dramatic art.[1][4]
Theatre
McCamus moved to Toronto in 1980 and settled into a steady theatre career, spending his winters there while transplanting to Niagara-on-the-Lake in the summer, as a member of the famed Shaw Festival troupe. He became one of the country's more in-demand stage players, earning particular notice for his leading role in a complex staging of Peter Pan, which debuted in 1987 and returned by popular demand for the 1988 season.[3][4] He is also known for his performance in Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night, one of the Stratford Festival's historic plays.[5] He received further praise when he performed triple duty during the 1998 edition of the festival, acting as Marcus Brutus in Julius Caesar, Don John in Much Ado About Nothing, and one of the tramps in Waiting for Godot.[6] He has performed multiple role in several other seasons,[7] such as 2010, when he returned to Peter Pan—this time as Captain Hook—and played Valmont in Dangerous Liaisons.[8]
In 1994, McCamus won what was then Canada's top theatre accolade, the Dora Award for Best Leading Actor, for his performance in Abundance,[9] earning additional nominations on prior and later occasions, including 1992 when he was nominated alongside his wife Chick Reid.[7][10]
Film and television
Following a few TV appearances beginning in 1985, McCamus made his film debut in director Paul Donovan's time-travel comedy A Switch in Time (1989).[4] He garnered positive reviews for his role as a mental patient in the historical drama Beautiful Dreamers, before earning wide acclaim as struggling actor Henry Adler in David Wellington's 1993 film I Love a Man in Uniform. For his performance, he won the Genie Award for Best Actor,[11] and earned more positive reviews from the international press when the film was shown at Cannes' Directors' Fortnight.[10] McCamus has been nominated for the Genie Award on two occasions since, for Wellington's Long Day's Journey into Night (1996), in which he reprised his stage role,[6] and for the Oscar-nominated The Sweet Hereafter (1997), directed by Atom Egoyan.[12]
McCamus came to the attention of a wider audience playing the villainous Mason Eckhart in the Marvel TV series Mutant X. Although McCamus proved sufficiently popular that he appeared in every episode of the first season, something that was not originally planned, he quit the show to star as Richard III and Mack the Knife at the Stratford Festival. He only returned to Mutant X to make occasional appearances in the second and third seasons.[13]
In 2005, McCamus starred in the CBC film Waking Up Walter: The Walter Gretzky Story as famous hockey dad Walter Gretzky, for which he won Best Actor honors at both the ACTRA Awards and the Gemini Awards.[7] Other notable screen appearances include Shake Hands with the Devil (2007), and the Ken Finkleman miniseries At the Hotel (2006). He appeared in the 2019 season of CBC's Street Legal in a supporting role.[14]
McCamus is married to theatre and occasional TV actress Chick Reid,[15] a fellow alumn of the Shaw Festival troupe.[3] They live in Warkworth, Ontario.[8]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1987 | And Then You Die | Jimmy | |
| 1988 | A Switch in Time | Norman | Also known as Norman's Awesome Experience |
| 1988-1989 | Friday the 13th: The Series | Atticus Rook / Frank Edwards | 2 episodes |
| 1990 | Beautiful Dreamers | Leonard Thomas | |
| 1993 | I Love a Man in Uniform | Henry Adler | |
| 1993 | Guilty as Sin | Ray Schiff | |
| 1994 | The Circle Game | Frank | |
| 1996 | Great Performances | Edmund Tyrone | Episode: "Long Day's Journey into Night" |
| 1997 | The Sweet Hereafter | Sam | |
| 1997 | Bach Cello Suite #6: Six Gestures | J.S. Bach | |
| 1998 | Last Night | Radio D.J. | Voice |
| 1999 | The Passion of Ayn Rand | Richard | TV movie |
| 2000 | The Spreading Ground | Johnny Gault | |
| 2000 | Possible Worlds | George Barber | |
| 2000 | The Claim | Burn | |
| 2000 | Foreign Objects | TV series | |
| 2001 | Century Hotel | Nicholas | |
| 2001-2004 | Mutant X | Mason Eckhart | 26 episodes |
| 2002 | Steal | Jerry | |
| 2002 | The Nature of Nicholas | Father | |
| 2002 | Perfect Pie | Don Rayford | |
| 2003 | Trinity | Dr. Clerval | |
| 2003 | The Newsroom | Bob Daniels | Episode: "Death 1, George 0" |
| 2004 | Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen | Calum | |
| 2004 | Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning | Wallace Rowlands | |
| 2004 | Siblings | Mr. Phillips | |
| 2005 | Black Widow | Detective Pressman | |
| 2007 | Shake Hands with the Devil | Phil Lancaster | |
| 2008 | Killshot | Paul Scallen / FBI Chief | |
| 2009 | Cairo Time | Mark | |
| 2012 | The Samaritan | Deacon | |
| 2014-2015 | Orphan Black | Dr. Nealon | 7 episodes |
| 2015 | King John | King John | |
| 2015 | Antony and Cleopatra | Enobarbus | |
| 2015 | Room | Leo | |
| 2019 | The Tempest | Stephano | |
| 2019 | Coriolanus | Menenius Agrippa |
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