Actor Pinsent honoured with Stratford Legacy Award

TORONTO — Oscar winner Christopher Plummer hailed Gordon Pinsent in a playful and praise-filled tribute as he presented a special honour celebrating the career of the Canadian acting legend.

Pinsent was recognized as this year’s recipient of the Stratford Festival’s Legacy Award at an elegant gala held Monday night at the Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto.

It served as a reversal of roles for the two homegrown actors and longtime friends, after Pinsent presented Plummer with the festival’s inaugural Legacy award in 2011.

The 86-year-old Pinsent first joined the festival company in 1962, appearing in productions of Macbeth, The Taming of the Shrew and The Tempest. He also starred in the Stratford production of Cyrano de Bergerac alongside Plummer, which was filmed and broadcast on U.S. TV network NBC.

“I swear on a stack of Kindles that my friend must surely have invented the word ‘whimsy’ — he exudes whimsy,” Plummer said to the audience as Pinsent looked on. Plummer said all of these

“He is quixotic, querulous, witty yet sensitive, passionate, yet reserved, and above all, deliciously wicked.” attributes helped to shape and enrich Pinsent’s “extraordinary, versatile and endless career” which has included work as a writer, director and playwright.

“As much as I hate to praise others of our profession ... [he is] an actor of immense warmth and brilliance. I just hate that, I really do,” Plummer deadpanned, to the laughter of the crowd.

Following a year at the Stratford company, Pinsent, a native of Grand Falls, N.L., quickly amassed TV roles including a lead in The Forest Rangers, the first series shot in colour in Canada.

Pinsent left the series in 1965 to star in the CBC drama Quentin Durgens, MP, and later wrote and starred in the award-winning 1972 film The Rowdyman which depicted life in his native Newfoundland. He returned to Stratford in 1975 to portray the lead in Brecht’s Trumpets and Drums.

Following Plummer’s tribute, Pinsent spoke at length about his career on stage and screen. In addition to his stints with Stratford, he also recalled time with the Manitoba Theatre Centre.

The acclaimed actor has nearly 150 film and TV credits, and is the subject of the new documentary The River of My Dreams: A Portrait of Gordon Pinsent, which had its world première at the Toronto International Film Festival.