Neil Munro (1947–July 13, 2009) was a Scottish-born

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

director Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''D ...

actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...

and

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

Acting career

Born in

Musselburgh Musselburgh (; sco, Musselburrae; gd, Baile nam Feusgan) is the largest settlement in East Lothian, Scotland, on the coast of the Firth of Forth, east of Edinburgh city centre. It has a population of . History The name Musselburgh is Ol ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

, Munro moved to Toronto at an early age. After graduating from the

National Theatre School of Canada The National Theatre School of Canada (NTS, french: École nationale de théâtre du Canada) is a private institution of professional theatre studies in Montreal, Quebec. Established in 1960, the NTS receives its principal funding from grants ...

in 1967, he quickly established himself as one of the most compelling theatre actors in Canada, performing with Toronto Arts Productions, the

National Arts Centre The National Arts Centre (NAC) (french: Centre national des Arts) is a Arts centre, performing arts organisation in Ottawa, Ontario, along the Rideau Canal. It is based in the eponymous National Arts Centre (building), National Arts Centre build ...

(where he played

Hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

, touring the role nationally), the

Citadel Theatre The Citadel Theatre is the major venue for theatre arts in the city of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, located in the city's downtown core on Churchill Square. It is the third largest regional theatre in Canada. History It began in a former Salvati ...

Theatre Calgary Theatre Calgary, is a theatre company in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, established as a professional company in 1968. It was preceded by Workshop 14, a theatre study group founded in 1944 by Betty Mitchell. Calgary's ''Betty Mitchell'' awards are ...

Tarragon Theatre The Tarragon Theatre is a theatre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and one of the main centers for contemporary playwriting in the country.

and the Toronto Free Theatre, as well as at the

Shaw Festival The Shaw Festival is a not-for-profit theatre festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada. It is the second largest repertory theatre company in North America. The Shaw Festival was founded in 1962. Originally, it only featured production ...

and the

Stratford Festival The Stratford Festival is a theatre festival which runs from April to October in the city of Stratford, Ontario, Canada. Founded by local journalist Tom Patterson in 1952, the festival was formerly known as the Stratford Shakespearean Festival ...

Directing and writing

In 1985, Munro decided to retire permanently from acting for the stage, and to concentrate on directing and playwriting, appearing as an actor only occasionally on film, television and radio. His most notable appearances include ''The Jonah Look'' (which he also wrote), ''

Beethoven Lives Upstairs ''Beethoven Lives Upstairs'' is a 1992 HBO Original Historical fiction Film produced and directed by David Devine. Based on a very popular children's audio recording written and directed by Barbara Nichol, the film stars Illya Woloshyn as Chr ...

'' (as

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...

), ''John and the Missus'' and '' Dancing in the Dark'' (1986). His plays include ''Bob's Kingdom'' (

Factory Theatre Factory Theatre is a theatre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded as Factory Theatre Lab in 1970 by Ken Gass and Frank Trotz, and it was run for almost 20 years by Dian English. Factory was the first theatre to announce that it would ...

), ''Extreme Close Up'' (Toronto Free Theatre, 1980), an acclaimed adaptation of

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

's ''Hamlet'', entitled ''Hamlet's Room'' (Theatre Plus, 1991) and, for

in 2005, an adaptation of

Georges Feydeau Georges-Léon-Jules-Marie Feydeau (; 8 December 1862 – 5 June 1921) was a French playwright of the era known as the Belle Époque. He is remembered for his farces, written between 1886 and 1914. Feydeau was born in Paris to middle-class parent ...

's ''C'est une femme du monde'' called ''Something on the Side.''

Shaw Festival

In the early 1990s, Munro was invited by

Christopher Newton Christopher Newton (11 June 1936 – 20 December 2021) was a Canadian director and actor, who served as artistic director of the Shaw Festival from 1980 to 2002. Early life and education Newton was born in Deal, Kent, England and educated at ...

to become Resident Director at

. For that company he directed many acclaimed and often controversial productions of plays such as ''Misalliance'', ''The Plough and the Stars'', ''Chaplin (The Trial of Charles Spencer Chaplin, Esq.)'', ''

Lord of the Flies ''Lord of the Flies'' is a 1954 novel by the Nobel Prize-winning British author William Golding. The plot concerns a group of British boys who are stranded on an uninhabited island and their disastrous attempts to govern themselves. Themes i ...

'', ''Counsellor-at-Law'', '' Saint Joan'', ''

The Front Page ''The Front Page'' is a Broadway comedy about newspaper reporters on the police beat. Written by former Chicago reporters Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, it was first produced in 1928 and has been adapted for the cinema several times. Plot The ...

'', ''

The Petrified Forest ''The Petrified Forest'' is a 1936 American film directed by Archie Mayo and based on Robert E. Sherwood's 1935 Broadway drama of the same name. The motion picture stars Leslie Howard, Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart. The screenplay was written ...

'', ''

Rashomon is a 1950 Jidaigeki psychological thriller/crime film directed and written by Akira Kurosawa, working in close collaboration with cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa. Starring Toshiro Mifune, Machiko Kyō, Masayuki Mori (actor), Masayuki Mori, and ...

'', ''Marsh Hay'', ''

The Seagull ''The Seagull'' ( rus, Ча́йка, r=Cháyka, links=no) is a play by Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov, written in 1895 and first produced in 1896. ''The Seagull'' is generally considered to be the first of his four major plays. It dramatises t ...

'' and all of The Shaw Festival's productions of

Granville Barker Harley Granville-Barker (25 November 1877 – 31 August 1946) was an English actor, director, playwright, manager, critic, and theorist. After early success as an actor in the plays of George Bernard Shaw, he increasingly turned to directi ...

's plays, including ''

The Voysey Inheritance ''The Voysey Inheritance'' is a play in five acts by the English dramatist Harley Granville-Barker. Written in 1903–1905, it was originally staged at the Royal Court Theatre in 1905 featuring Mabel Hackney, and revived at the same venue in 196 ...

'', ''The Marrying of Ann Leete'', ''Rococo'', ''

Waste Waste (or wastes) are unwanted or unusable materials. Waste is any substance discarded after primary use, or is worthless, defective and of no use. A by-product, by contrast is a joint product of relatively minor economic value. A waste prod ...

'', ''The Secret Life'', ''His Majesty'' and ''The Madras House''. Munro also directed for most of the major English-language theatres in Canada, including Neptune Theatre,

and Canadian Stage Company.

Awards and achievements

Munro received a Best New Play

Dora Award The Dora Mavor Moore Award (also known as the Dora Award) is an award presented annually by the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts which honours theatre, dance and opera productions in Toronto. Named after Dora Mavor Moore, who helped estab ...

for ''Bob's Kingdom'' and a Best Director Dora Award for ''Hamlet's Room''. He was also a Chalmers Award nominee for best new play for ''Extreme Close Up'' and, as an actor, has won two ACTRA awards.

Personal life

Munro was married to the actor and painter Carole Galloway, who died in 2000; the couple had no children. Munro died in

London, Ontario London (pronounced ) is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, along the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor. The city had a population of 422,324 according to the 2021 Canadian census. London is at the confluence of the Thames River, approximate ...

, after a lengthy struggle with cancer, on July 13, 2009.

Filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Munro, Neil 1947 births 2009 deaths 20th-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights 21st-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights Canadian male stage actors Canadian theatre directors Male actors from Toronto People from Musselburgh Scottish emigrants to Canada National Theatre School of Canada alumni Canadian male dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Canadian male writers 21st-century Canadian male writers