William Whitehead (Canadian writer)

William (Bill) Whitehead
Born William Frederick Whitehead
August 16, 1931
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Died February 1, 2018(2018-02-01) (aged 86)
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Occupation radio and television documentary writer, memoirist
Language English
Nationality Canadian
Period 1960s-2010s
Notable works Dieppe 1942, The National Dream: Building the Impossible Railway, Words to Live By
Partner Timothy Findley

William Frederick (Bill) Whitehead (August 16, 1931 – February 1, 2018) was a Canadian writer, actor and filmmaker. Whitehead is best known as a writer of radio and television documentaries[1] and as the former partner of the late Canadian writer Timothy Findley.[2]

Background

Whitehead was born in Hamilton, Ontario, to Marjorie and Berkeley Kyle Whitehead.[3] His parents had moved there from Saskatchewan, and the family moved back to Regina when Whitehead was a child.[3] His parents subsequently divorced due to his father's epilepsy-related inability to maintain stable employment;[3] Whitehead did not see his father again until his late teens.[3]

His initial career goal was to become an entomologist — by age 12 he was already a member of the Saskatchewan Natural History Society — but he also had a passion for theatre.[3] He studied biology and theatre arts at the University of Saskatchewan, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1953 and a Master of Arts degree in 1955, but decided against pursuing work as a biologist because he found it depended too strongly on having to kill animals.[3]

He moved to Ontario in 1957 to become an actor, having several small roles with the Stratford Festival while serving as a propmaster and stage manager.[3] He met Findley, at the time also a Stratford Festival actor, in 1962, with their lifelong relationship beginning when Findley appeared in a CBC Television production of Jules Feiffer's play Crawling Arnold and Whitehead invited him over to watch it because Findley didn't own a television set.[3]

Career

When Findley left the theatre to concentrate on writing fiction, Whitehead simultaneously took a job writing science documentaries for the CBC Radio documentary series The Learning Stage.[3] He remained an award-winning writer of radio and television documentaries, including over 100 episodes of the CBC Television series The Nature of Things and many episodes of the CBC Radio series Ideas.[1]

He also co-wrote several works with Findley, including the television documentaries Dieppe 1942 and The National Dream: Building the Impossible Railway.[3]

Following Findley's death in 2002, Whitehead compiled and edited the posthumous collection Journeyman: Travels of a Writer.[3] In March 2004, approximately two years after Findley's death, Whitehead donated a collection of Findley's theatre memorabilia to the University of Guelph.[4] He subsequently began a new relationship, with Trevor Green.[3]

In September 2012, his memoir Words to Live By was published by Cormorant Books.[5] The book was a shortlisted nominee for the Stephen Leacock Award in 2013.[6]

In 2014 he served on the jury of the Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBT writers, selecting Tamai Kobayashi as that year's winner.[7]

He died at his home in Toronto on February 1, 2018, having earlier been diagnosed with lung cancer.[3]

References

  1. 1 2 The Next Chapter, April 8, 2013.
  2. ↑ "Canadian writer William (Bill) Whitehead has died at age 86". Toronto Star, February 2, 2018.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Stoffman, Judy (February 23, 2018). "William Whitehead, 86, was a great CBC documentary writer who lived a life of devotion". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved February 24, 2018.
  4. ↑ "Timothy Findley's theatre collection donated to U of G". University of Guelph Campus News. 2004-03-03. Archived from the original on 2007-10-30. Retrieved 2007-06-14.
  5. ↑ "The Word on the Street interview series: William Whitehead". Open Book Toronto, September 7, 2012.
  6. ↑ "The authors on the shortlist for the Stephen Leacock Medal are no April Fools". CBC Books, April 2, 2013.
  7. ↑ "Writers’ Trust Presents LGBT Literary Award to Author and Screenwriter, Tamai Kobayashi". Writers' Trust of Canada, June 23, 2014.
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