David Fox as Ephraim Cabot and Wanda Cannon as Abbie Putnam in Eugene O'Neill's Desire Under the Elms.Nir Bareket
Stage and screen actor David Fox, revered for his commitment to bringing Canadian stories to life in the theatre, has died.
Gavin Fox says his father died peacefully in palliative care at a Toronto hospital from age-related natural causes. He was 80.
Michael Hougan, left, as Gary Kennelly and Fox as Moon in Invention of Poetry.Handout
Mr. Fox, a former high-school teacher, emerged as a foundational figure in Canada’s alternative theatre scene in the early 1970s.
He rose to prominence for his naturalistic performances in the early days of Toronto’s Theatre Passe Muraille, originating roles in such seminal productions as The Farm Show and 1837: The Farmer’s Revolt.
He went on to perform at major venues across the country, including the Stratford Festival and Mirvish’s Royal Alexandra Theatre.
He also landed numerous roles on film and television, playing a recurring character on the CBC series Road to Avonlea.
Fox, left, plays Angus and Tom Barnett is Miles in The Drawer Boy.Nir Bareket
In his later years, Mr. Fox won acclaim for his star turn in Watershed Shakespeare Festival Collective’s 2015 production of King Lear. In 2017, he produced a one-man recitation of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner at Toronto’s Red Sandcastle Theatre
His honours included a 1999 Dora Mavor Award for his performance in Theatre Passe Muraille’s The Drawer Boy and a Sterling Award for his role in 1989′s The Invention of Poetry at Edmonton’s Citadel Theatre.
Mr. Fox was made a member of the Order of Canada in 2018 for his contributions as a champion of Canadian theatre.
News of Mr. Fox’s death sparked an outpouring of tributes on social media, with Blyth artistic director Gil Garratt remembering him as a “titan” of the Canadian stage.
“With his imposing stature, his incisive mind, and blown glass heart, Fox was possessed of the kind of power onstage that pulled all of us deeper into the dream,” Mr. Garratt wrote on Facebook.
“Fox had an inexhaustible ability to go deeper and richer than any actor I’d met, and the gift of struggling to keep up with him is one I will forever cherish.”
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this obituary stated that Mr. Fox died after a long battle with cancer. In fact, his son says Mr. Fox successfully beat cancer more than five years ago and died peacefully of natural causes. The reference to his cancer has been removed from this version.