Famous University Of Toronto Alumni
Voting Rules
People on this list must have gone to University of Toronto and be of some renown.
List of famous alumni from University of Toronto, with photos when available. Prominent graduates from University of Toronto include celebrities, politicians, business people, athletes and more. This list of distinguished University of Toronto alumni is loosely ordered by relevance, so the most recognizable celebrities who attended University of Toronto are at the top of the list. This directory is not just composed of graduates of this school, as some of the famous people on this list didn't necessarily earn a degree from University of Toronto.
Alumni range from Stana Katic to Bruce Lee.
This list answers the questions “Which famous people went to University of Toronto?” and “Which celebrities are University of Toronto alumni?”Aamer Haleem
ActorAamer Haleem (born 16 September 1975) is a Canadian radio and television personality, who was a co-host of the Vancouver edition of CTV Morning Live. He has hosted the weekday afternoon current affairs program The Point on CBC Radio One, until it was cancelled on 26 June 2009.He was a host of programming on VH1 in the United States, including Bands Reunited and VSpot Top 20 Countdown. During his time as host of Bands Reunited, he garnered international press for following Morrissey in an unsuccessful attempt to convince him to reunite The Smiths. Originally from London, Haleem was raised in Canada, where he attended the University of Toronto and the School of Journalism at Humber College. His first job was as an associate producer at TSN. He also hosted a music video program at Hong Kong's Channel V in 1996, but returned to Canada the following year after the transfer of the sovereignty of Hong Kong to host VTV Breakfast on Vancouver television station CIVT-TV (then known as "VTV").- Age: 49
- Birthplace: England, London
- Lorne Michaels, born on November 17, 1944, in Toronto, Canada, is a renowned figure in the television industry, with an illustrious career spanning over five decades. His name is synonymous with Saturday Night Live, the iconic American late-night TV show that he created and produced. Michaels's journey began with his graduation from University College, Toronto, where he majored in English. Following this, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue his dreams in the entertainment sector. In the mid-1960s, he wrote for various shows like Laugh-In and The Beautiful Phyllis Diller Show before making his mark with Saturday Night Live in 1975. Michaels's role in shaping Saturday Night Live was instrumental. Under his pioneering leadership, the program became a platform for many rising comedians who later turned into industry stalwarts. Comedians like Eddie Murphy, Adam Sandler, and Tina Fey owe their big break to Michaels. He was not just a producer but also wrote for the show, which amplified its success across audiences. His remarkable work garnered him multiple Emmy Awards, securing his position in the Television Academy Hall of Fame. Beyond SNL, Michaels expanded his repertoire into film and theater. His production company, Broadway Video, has produced numerous successful films and TV series, including 30 Rock and Portlandia. His influence extended to Broadway, where he produced the musical Gilda Radner - Live from New York. Lorne Michaels's significant contributions to the entertainment industry have earned him various accolades, including the prestigious Mark Twain Prize for American Humor and an induction into the Order of Canada.
- Age: 80
- Birthplace: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Abdulaziz Sachedina
ProfessorAbdulaziz Sachedina is Professor and IIIT Chair in Islamic Studies at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. He has been a professor for 33 years, beginning in 1975. He annually teaches courses on Classical Islam, Islam in the Modern Age, Islam, Democracy and Human Rights, Islamic Bioethics and Muslim Theology. He was born in Tanzania, his heritage originally is from India. He has an MA/PhD from the University of Toronto and has BA degrees from Aligarh Muslim University in India and Ferdowsi University of Mashad in Iran. He was one of the students of Dr. Ali Shariati in Iran. In 1998, Grand Ayatollah Sistani issued a statement against Sachedina that advised Muslims not to listen to his talks or to ask him questions about religious matters. In 1997, Grand Ayatollah Lotfollah Safi Golpaygani thanked him for his translation of a book on Imam Mahdi into English, originally written by Ayatollah Ebrahim Amini. The acknowledgement letter was published by the Iranian Hawza magazine.- Age: 83
- Birthplace: Tanzania
- Alexander Graham Bell ('Graham' pronounced ) (March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922) was a Scottish-born American inventor, scientist, and engineer who is credited with inventing and patenting the first practical telephone. He also founded the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) in 1885.Bell's father, grandfather, and brother had all been associated with work on elocution and speech and both his mother and wife were deaf, profoundly influencing Bell's life's work. His research on hearing and speech further led him to experiment with hearing devices which eventually culminated in Bell being awarded the first U.S. patent for the telephone in 1876. Bell considered his invention an intrusion on his real work as a scientist and refused to have a telephone in his study.Many other inventions marked Bell's later life, including groundbreaking work in optical telecommunications, hydrofoils, and aeronautics. Although Bell was not one of the 33 founders of the National Geographic Society, he had a strong influence on the magazine while serving as the second president from January 7, 1898, until 1903.
- Age: Dec. at 75 (1847-1922)
- Birthplace: Edinburgh, United Kingdom
- Donald Sutherland, born on July 17, 1935, in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, is a legendary actor known for his distinctive voice and towering presence. In his early life, he battled health problems, including rheumatic fever, hepatitis, and poliomyelitis. His passion for drama was ignited during his time at Bridgewater High School, where he performed in school plays. He then attended the University of Toronto and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art to further nurture his acting skills. Sutherland's acting career began with small roles in British films and TV shows. However, his breakthrough came in 1967 when he starred in The Dirty Dozen, which earned him international recognition. Throughout his career, Sutherland has demonstrated his versatility as an actor, portraying a wide range of characters in various genres. Some of his most notable films include MASH, Klute, and Ordinary People. His portrayal of the tormented father in Ordinary People earned him a BAFTA nomination for Best Actor. Beyond his film career, Sutherland has had a significant impact on television. He won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for his performance in the HBO film Citizen X, and another Golden Globe for his role in Path to War. Despite his success, Sutherland remained humble, attributing his achievements to luck and opportunity rather than his talent. He has also been recognized for his contributions to the entertainment industry, receiving an Honorary Oscar in 2017 for his lifetime of work.
- Age: Dec. at 88 (1935-2024)
- Birthplace: Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada
- Sir Charles Edward Saunders, (February 2, 1867 – July 25, 1937) was a Canadian agronomist. He was the inventor of the 'Marquis' wheat cultivar. Saunders Secondary School in London, Ontario is named for him and other members of his prominent family, including his father, agriculturist William Saunders and naturalist brother William Edwin Saunders.
- Age: Dec. at 70 (1867-1937)
- Birthplace: London, Canada
- A prodigious musical talent, Owen Pallett started studying classical violin at just three years of age. He composed his first piece at 13, and wrote music for videogames, short films and operas before graduating from the University of Toronto with a degree in Music Composition. His first recorded output was a collaboration with Jim Guthrie on Morning Noon Night (2002) and as part of Toronto trio Les Mouches who released three albums from 2002 to 2004. He first provided string arrangements for Montreal's Arcade Fire on their breakthrough album Funeral (2004). Inspired by his love of computer games, Pallett took on the moniker Final Fantasy in tribute to a popular role-playing game; his debut release Has a Good Home (2005) featured melodies inspired by videogames. This multilayered solo project mixed his classical training with lo-fi indie, folk, electronica and pop elements. "Adventure.exe" was used in a UK commercial but Pallett donated all his earnings from inadvertently licensing the track to Doctors Without Borders. His second album, He Poos Clouds (2006), continued the videogame theme. When it won Canada's prestigious Polaris Award, the ever modest Pallett donated the prize money to a selection of his favorite bands who needed financial help. He continued to collaborate with Arcade Fire, featuring on their second album Neon Bible (2007), as well as working with Beirut, The Last Shadow Puppets, Pet Shop Boys, Mika, and many more. For his firstr soundtrack work, he teamed up with Arcade Fire's Win Butler and Régine Chassagne to compose the music for Richard Kelly's offbeat horror "The Box" (2010). With the release of 2010's Heartland, Pallett reverted to his own name for his solo releases. By now Pallett was working regularly with some of the biggest names in the industry including Duran Duran, The National, R.E.M., Snow Patrol, Linkin Park, and Taylor Swift. Returning to soundtracks, Pallett was nominated for an Academy Award for his work with Will Butler (Win's brother and also a member of Arcade Fire) on Spike Jonze's "Her" (2013).
- Age: 45
- Birthplace: Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
- Jeffrey Stuart Skoll, OC (born January 16, 1965) is a Canadian engineer, internet entrepreneur and film producer. He was the first employee and subsequently first president of eBay, eventually using the wealth this gave him to become a philanthropist, particularly through the Skoll Foundation, and his media company Participant Media. He founded an investment firm, Capricorn Investment Group, soon after and currently serves as its chairman. Born in Montreal, Quebec, he graduated from University of Toronto in 1987 and left Canada to attend Stanford University's business school in 1993. Shortly after graduating from business school, he began his career at eBay where he wrote the business plan that the company followed from its emergence as a start-up to a larger company. While at the company he began the eBay Foundation which was allocated pre-IPO stock now worth $32 million. Once eBay's second largest stockholder, behind Omidyar, he subsequently cashed out a portion of his company holdings, yielding him around $2 billion. With an estimated net worth of $US 4 billion (as of December 2016), Skoll was ranked by Forbes as the 7th wealthiest Canadian and 134th in the United States.Through his film production company, Participant Media–of which he is founder, owner, and chairman–he has produced numerous critically acclaimed films. His first films Syriana (2005), Good Night, and Good Luck (2005), and North Country (2005), along with the documentary Murderball (2005), accounted for 11 Oscar nominations in 2006. His subsequent films have included An Inconvenient Truth (2006), Fast Food Nation (2006), The World According to Sesame Street (2006), Waiting for "Superman" (2010), Lincoln (2012), and his latest, Spotlight (2015) won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2016.
- Age: 60
- Birthplace: Montreal, Canada
Adel Sedra
Adel S. Sedra is an Egyptian Canadian electrical engineer and professor.- Age: 81
- Birthplace: Egypt
- John Kenneth Galbraith (October 15, 1908 – April 29, 2006), also known as Ken Galbraith, was a Canadian-born economist, public official, and diplomat, and a leading proponent of 20th-century American liberalism. His books on economic topics were bestsellers from the 1950s through the 2000s, during which time Galbraith fulfilled the role of public intellectual. As an economist, he leaned toward post-Keynesian economics from an institutionalist perspective.Galbraith was a long-time Harvard faculty member and stayed with Harvard University for half a century as a professor of economics. He was a prolific author and wrote four dozen books, including several novels, and published more than a thousand articles and essays on various subjects. Among his works was a trilogy on economics, American Capitalism (1952), The Affluent Society (1958), and The New Industrial State (1967). Some of his work has been criticized by economists such as Milton Friedman, Paul Krugman, and Robert Solow. Galbraith was active in Democratic Party politics, serving in the administrations of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson. He served as United States Ambassador to India under the Kennedy administration. His political activism, literary output and outspokenness brought him wide fame during his lifetime. Galbraith was one of the few to receive both the World War II Medal of Freedom (1946) and the Presidential Medal of Freedom (2000) for his public service and contributions to science. The government of France made him a Commandeur de la Légion d'honneur.
- Age: Dec. at 97 (1908-2006)
- Birthplace: Dunwich Township, Ontario, Canada
- James Hillier, (August 22, 1915 – January 15, 2007) was a Canadian-American scientist and inventor who designed and built, with Albert Prebus, the first successful high-resolution electron microscope in North America in 1938.
- Age: Dec. at 91 (1915-2007)
- Birthplace: Brantford, Canada
Mario Silva
PoliticianMário Silva may refer to: Mário Silva (footballer) (born 1977), Portuguese footballer Mário Silva (athlete) (born 1961), Portuguese middle distance runner Mário Silva (cyclist) (born 1940), Portuguese Olympic cyclist Mario Silva (politician) (born 1966), Canadian politician Mario De Silva (born 1935), Italian Olympic wrestler Mario Silva, host of La Hojilla, an opinion program that airs on Venezolana de Televisión- Age: 58
- Birthplace: Archipelago of the Azores, Portugal
- Bert Archer (born April 16, 1968) is a Canadian author, journalist, travel writer, essayist and critic. Archer was born in Montreal and lived in Calgary and Vancouver. He attended St. Michael's University School in Victoria, British Columbia, and then went to the University of St. Michael's College at the University of Toronto, and Trinity College, Dublin. He wrote for the University of Toronto student newspaper The Varsity, and was editor-in-chief of The Mike, the college newspaper.
- Age: 56
- Birthplace: Montreal, Canada
Ahmad Kutty
Shaikh Ahmad Kutty (born 1946 in Valanchery, Kerala, India), is a prominent North American Islamic scholar. He is currently senior resident Islamic scholar at the Islamic Institute of Toronto and has taught at Emanuel College of the University of Toronto as an adjunct instructor. He is the father of Faisal Kutty.- Age: 79
- Birthplace: Kerala, India
- Ember Swift (born in Ontario, Canada) is a Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist who has been writing songs since she was nine years old and performing since she was ten. In 1996, she released her first self-titled album. After graduating from the University of Toronto with a degree in East Asian Studies in 1998, Swift and regular band member Lyndell Montgomery (electric violin) began touring North America, Australia and later, New Caledonia. These live shows featured the additional talents of Toronto-based percussionist and drummer Cheryl Reid as of 1998. Later, the duo began working with Michelle Josef (also of Toronto) and finally, Adam Bowman (of Elmira, Ontario) on drums and percussion. Cheryl Reid continued to work with Swift and Montgomery until 2008 as a part-time player. She has continued to work directly with Swift from 2008 until the present. In 2008, Ember Swift and Lyndell Montgomery, who were also life partners, went their separate ways and ceased their working relationship. Swift had always dreamed of going to China. She had visited in 2007 and had fallen in love with the country and culture there. In 2008, she moved to Beijing and continues to live and work part-time in Beijing, China and Toronto. In Beijing, she assembled a new band consisting of Zac Courtney of Australia on drums, Paplus Ntahombaye of Burundi (Africa) on bass, and China's Wang Ya Qi 王雅琪 on the traditional Chinese instrument, the erhu. All of the members are long-time residents of Beijing. Tours now include many stops throughout in Asia.
- Birthplace: Ontario, Canada
Alan Boraas
ProfessorAlan S. Boraas (born April 15, 1947) is a professor of anthropology at Kenai Peninsula College in Alaska. He is known for his research into the culture, history, and archaeology of the peoples of the Cook Inlet area of Alaska, and in particular has worked closely with the Dena'ina people of the Kenai Peninsula. He is an adopted member of the Kenaitze Indian Tribe, and is helping the tribe develop a program to teach the Dena'ina language. With James Kari of the Alaska Native Language Center, Boraas coedited the book Dena'ina Legacy — K'tl'egh'i Sukdu: The Collected Writings of Peter Kalifornsky by Peter Kalifornsky. Boraas also wrote the biography of Kalifornsky included in the volume.- Age: 77
- Gail Kim (born February 20, 1977) is a retired Canadian-American professional wrestler, currently signed to Impact Wrestling, where she serves as a producer. In Impact Wrestling, she is also a record setting seven-time Knockouts Champion. She is also known for her two stints in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), where she won the WWE Women's Championship in her first match. Kim began her career wrestling on the Canadian-American independent circuit, before joining WWE in 2002. She became the first WWE Diva in history to win a championship in her debut match. After being released by WWE in 2004, Kim joined TNA in September 2005. There, she joined the tag team America's Most Wanted as their valet. After the dissolution of the group, Kim performed as a singles wrestler, eventually becoming the inaugural TNA Knockouts Champion in October 2007. She later left TNA in August 2008, to return to WWE three months later, where she remained until 2011. The following October she returned to TNA. In 2012, Pro Wrestling Illustrated named Kim the number one female wrestler in the world and in 2016 she was announced as the first female inductee into the TNA Wrestling Hall of Fame.
- Age: 48
- Birthplace: Toronto, Canada
- Roberta Bondar (; born December 4, 1945) is Canada's first female astronaut and the first neurologist in space. After more than a decade as head of an international space medicine research team collaborating with NASA, Bondar became a consultant and speaker in the business, scientific, and medical communities. Bondar has received many honours including Companion of the Order of Canada, the Order of Ontario, the NASA Space Medal, over 28 honorary degrees, induction into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame, the International Women's Forum Hall of Fame and has her own star on Canada's Walk of Fame.
- Age: 79
- Birthplace: Sault Ste. Marie, Canada
- Hailed as one of the most original and sophisticated horror filmmakers that came to prominence during the 1970s, David Cronenberg transcended the limitations of his somewhat disreputable genre to become one of the most respected directors of his generation. Cronenberg first gained notice for audacious sci-fi horror thrillers like "Shivers" (1975), "The Brood" (1979) and "Scanners" (1981), before scoring critical and commercial hits with "The Dead Zone" (1983) and his remake of "The Fly" (1986), starring Jeff Goldblum. Following the critically lauded "Dead Ringers" (1988), Cronenberg began branching out beyond horror to direct the adaptation of William S. Burrough's "Naked Lunch" (1991) and courted a great deal of controversy for "Crash" (1996), which focused on a group of people who derived sexual pleasure from car crashes. After years of earning a reputation - perhaps unfairly - as an exploitation director, Cronenberg gained wider respect for his Academy Award-winning thriller "A History of Violence" (2005) and his excellent crime drama, "Eastern Promises" (2007), both of which starred favored actor Viggo Mortensen. Having gone through many permutations throughout his career, Cronenberg attained the status of being one of the most intelligent and interesting contemporary auteurs working in English language films.
- Age: 81
- Birthplace: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- 1The Fly87 Votes
- 2Videodrome83 Votes
- 3Dead Ringers63 Votes
- Dafydd Rhys "Dave" Williams OC OOnt CCFP FCFP FRCPC FRCP (born May 16, 1954) is a Canadian physician, public speaker, CEO, author and a retired CSA astronaut. Williams was a mission specialist on two space shuttle missions. His first spaceflight, STS-90 in 1998, was a 16-day mission aboard Space Shuttle Columbia dedicated to neuroscience research. His second flight, STS-118 in August 2007, was flown by Space Shuttle Endeavour to the International Space Station. During that mission he performed three spacewalks, becoming the third Canadian to perform a spacewalk and setting a Canadian record for total number of spacewalks. These spacewalks combined for a total duration of 17 hours and 47 minutes.In 1998, Williams became the first non-American to hold a senior management position within NASA, when he held the position of Director of the Space and Life Sciences Directorate at the Johnson Space Center and Deputy Associate Administrator of the Office of Spaceflight at NASA Headquarters.
- Age: 70
- Birthplace: Saskatoon, Canada
Alan Henry Tallmeister
Physician- Julie Payette (born October 20, 1963) is the Governor General of Canada, the 29th officeholder since Canadian Confederation. On July 13, 2017, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Queen Elizabeth II had approved the appointment of Payette as the next Governor General of Canada. She was sworn in on October 2, 2017. She is the fourth woman and the sixth francophone to hold the post. Payette is an engineer, businessperson, and a former member of the Canadian Astronaut Corps. Payette has completed two spaceflights, STS-96 and STS-127, and has logged more than 25 days in space. She served as chief astronaut for the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), and has served as capsule communicator at NASA Mission Control Center in Houston. In July 2013, Payette was named chief operating officer for the Montreal Science Centre, and in April 2014, she was appointed to the board of directors of the National Bank of Canada.
- Age: 61
- Birthplace: Montreal, Canada
- Blessed with boyish good looks and an appealing screen presence, actor Scott Speedman rose to fame as a featured player opposite Keri Russell on the popular romantic-drama series "Felicity" (The WB, 1998-2002), on which he played the titular character's object of desire, Ben Covington. The overnight success of "Felicity" opened the door to feature film opportunities for Speedman, who made his feature debut opposite Maria Bello in the karaoke-themed comedy-drama "Duets" (2000), followed by a turn alongside Kurt Russell in the gritty cop-drama "Dark Blue" (2002). That same year, Speedman was featured prominently opposite Kate Beckinsale in the hit action-horror movie "Underworld" (2002), the first entry in a successful franchise. Other notable roles came in the action-adventure "xXx: State of the Union" (2005) and a reprisal of his character Michael, the werewolf-vampire hybrid, in the sequel "Underworld: Evolution" (2006). He scored another modest hit two years later with the grim thriller "The Strangers" (2008). Although he had established himself as a TV heartthrob, Speedman consistently sought out more nuanced roles, frequently in independent features, while he nurtured a career aimed more at longevity than marquee recognition.
- Age: 49
- Birthplace: London, England, UK
- Michael or Mike Wilson may refer to:
- Age: 87
- Birthplace: Toronto, Canada
Michael Adams
Researcher, WriterMichael John Adams is a Canadian writer and public opinion researcher. He is co-founder of the Environics Research Group and is now President of the Environics Group.- Age: 78
- Birthplace: Walkerton, Ontario, Canada
- His dramatic, commanding baritone made Robert Goulet a Broadway star, best-selling recording artist, and a television variety show staple during the 1960s, but his offbeat sense of humor and ability to poke fun of his own image kept him in the pop culture crosshairs for the rest of his life. He was forever associated with his star-making role in "Camelot" and for touring with legendary musicals like "South Pacific" and "Man of La Mancha," eventually spending the bulk of his time performing solo concerts as a Las Vegas mainstay. Younger audiences came to appreciate his helmet-like hair and cartoonishly slick delivery in a series of award-winning ESPN ads in the 1990s, and again in 2007 with an Emerald nuts ad aired during the Superbowl. In fact, the legend's appeal knew no boundaries even into his later years - when he continued to enjoy adulation from both old and young fans who saw the aging singer as an arbiter of cool.
- Age: Dec. at 73 (1933-2007)
- Birthplace: Lawrence, Massachusetts, USA
Paul Bernardo
Paul Kenneth Bernardo (born August 27, 1964), also known as Paul Jason Teale, is a Canadian serial killer and serial rapist. He is known for committing several rapes in the eastern Metropolitan Toronto city of Scarborough, as well as a series of highly publicized sexual assaults, tortures, and murders with his then-wife Karla Homolka.- Age: 60
- Birthplace: Scarborough, Toronto, Canada
Dashan
Mark Henry Rowswell, CM (born May 23, 1965), better known by his Chinese stage name Dashan (Chinese: 大山; pinyin: Dàshān; literally: 'Big Mountain'), is a Canadian comedian and television personality based in China. Relatively unknown in the West, Dashan is one of the most famous Western personalities in China's media industry, where he occupies a unique position as a foreign national who has become a domestic celebrity, largely through his repeated appearances on China Central Television since 1988.- Age: 59
- Birthplace: Ottawa, Canada
- Gerald Vincent Bull (March 9, 1928 – March 22, 1990) was a Canadian engineer who developed long-range artillery. He moved from project to project in his quest to economically launch a satellite using a huge artillery piece, to which end he designed the Project Babylon "supergun" for the Iraqi government. Bull was assassinated outside his apartment in Brussels, Belgium in March 1990. His assassination is believed to be the work of the Mossad over his work for the Iraqi government.
- Age: Dec. at 62 (1928-1990)
- Birthplace: North Bay, Canada
Laurier LaPierre
Politician, Journalist, HistorianLaurier L. LaPierre, (November 21, 1929 – December 16, 2012) was a Canadian Senator, professor, broadcaster, journalist and author. He was a member of the Liberal Party of Canada. Fluently bilingual, LaPierre was best known for having been co-host with Patrick Watson of the CBC's influential public affairs show This Hour Has Seven Days in the 1960s. After the show's much publicized cancellation, LaPierre moved to politics as a "star candidate" for the New Democratic Party in the 1968 federal election. The party was hoping that he would help achieve an electoral breakthrough in Quebec, but he came second in the riding of Lachine with 19.5% of the vote. He returned to teaching, broadcasting and writing until his appointment to the Senate in June 2001. As a member of the Liberal caucus, LaPierre was an outspoken supporter of Jean Chrétien against supporters of rival Paul Martin.- Age: Dec. at 83 (1929-2012)
- Birthplace: Lac-Mégantic, Canada
- Sergio Marchionne (Italian: [ˈsɛrdʒo marˈkjɔnne]; June 17, 1952 – July 25, 2018) was an Italian-Canadian businessman, widely known for his turnarounds of the automakers Fiat and Chrysler, his business acumen and his outspoken and often frank approach, especially when dealing with unpalatable issues related to his companies and the automotive industry. Marchionne was the chairman of CNH Industrial, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, the chairman and CEO of FCA US LLC, the chairman and CEO of Ferrari, and the chairman of Maserati. He was the chairman of Swiss-based SGS and vice chairman of UBS from 2008 to 2010, as well as the chairman of the European Automobile Manufacturers Association for 2012 (first elected in January 2006). He was a member of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, and the chairman of the Italian branch of the Council for the United States and Italy. Noted for his keen observations of the automotive industry, Marchionne's insights ranged from frank criticism of his company's own products to a highly-regarded 2015 presentation titled Confessions of a Capital Junkie, extolling the benefits of industry consolidation.Marchionne was widely recognized for turning around Fiat Group to become one of the fastest growing companies in the auto industry, in less than two years. In 2009, he was instrumental in Fiat Group forming a strategic alliance with the ailing US automaker Chrysler, with the support of the U.S. and Canadian governments and trade unions. Less than two years later, following its emergence from Chapter 11, Chrysler returned to profitability, repaying all government loans. In 2014, Fiat and Chrysler merged into a new holding company, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, now the seventh-largest automobile manufacturer in the world.Following complications from surgery, Marchionne resigned from all of his positions in July 2018 and died a few days later. The American business channel CNBC described Marchionne as a "legend of automotive industry", while the British newspaper Financial Times considered him as having been "one of the boldest business leaders of his generation".
- Age: 72
- Birthplace: Chieti, Italy
- Ian Gilmour Scott, (July 13, 1934 – October 10, 2006) was a Canadian politician and lawyer in Ontario, Canada. He was a Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1985 to 1992 who represented the downtown Toronto ridings of St. David and St. George—St. David. He was a cabinet minister in the government of David Peterson serving as Attorney General of Ontario and Solicitor General. Along with Robert Nixon and Sean Conway he was considered to be "the intellectual heart and soul" of the Peterson cabinet.
- Age: Dec. at 72 (1934-2006)
- Birthplace: Ottawa, Canada
- Lloyd Bochner began his career in show biz at age 11 on the radio. After landing roles on stage and screen in his homeland, Canada, he moved to New York City where he was cast on the Emmy-winning drama "Studio One in Hollywood." In 1960, he became a cast member on "Hong Kong," an adventure show that launched the career of Australian actor Rod Taylor. The exciting series ran for two years and heightened Bochner's profile - as did a starring role in one of the most famous episodes of "The Twilight Zone," "To Serve Man." In that episode, aliens from outer space visit earth and serve man by wiping out such major problems as hunger, disease, and warfare. The twist comes when a code-breaker uncovers the aliens true intentions - to make man healthy so he's all the better to be served - for dinner! Bochner went on to perform on a variety of television programs, from the drama anthology "The Richard Boone Show," to the POW camp comedy "Hogan's Heroes," to the animated adventure series "Batman." In a long list of credits that includes over 190 productions of TV and film, Bochner is best-known for his portrayal of Cecil Colby on the popular 1980s primetime soap opera "Dynasty." Bochner died of cancer in 2005 at the age of 81; he left behind three children, one of whom is actor Hart Bochner.
- Age: Dec. at 81 (1924-2005)
- Birthplace: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Dionne Brand (born 7 January 1953) is a Canadian poet, novelist, essayist and documentarian. She was Toronto's third Poet Laureate from September 2009 to November 2012. She was admitted to the Order of Canada in 2017 and has won the Governor General's Award for Poetry, the Trillium Prize for Literature, the Pat Lowther Award for Poetry, the Harbourfront Writers' Prize, and the Toronto Book Award.
- Age: 72
- Birthplace: Trinidad, Trinidad and Tobago
- Walter Douglas Stewart (April 19, 1931 – September 15, 2004) was an outspoken Canadian writer, editor and journalism educator, a veteran of newspapers and magazines and author of more than twenty books, several of them bestsellers. The Globe and Mail reported news of his death with the headline: "He was Canada's conscience."
- Age: Dec. at 73 (1931-2004)
- David Secter is a Canadian film director. He is best known for the 1965 film Winter Kept Us Warm, the first English Canadian film ever screened at the Cannes Film Festival. Widely considered a key milestone in the development of Canadian film, Winter Kept Us Warm was a gay themed independent film written, directed and funded entirely by Secter, who is gay, while he was a student at the University of Toronto. Secter subsequently released a second film in Canada, The Offering in 1966, and entered discussions with CBC Television to produce a drama series for the network. However, before that series was launched, he moved to New York City to pursue opportunities in the much larger American film and theatre industry. He was initially slated to direct Cher's 1969 film Chastity, but dropped out of the project. In New York, he lived with several other experimental filmmakers in a clothing-optional, drug and sex-friendly commune, and worked as a theatre director. He released the low-budget sex comedy Getting Together (also titled Feelin' Up in some releases) in 1976, and subsequently moved to Los Angeles. He did not work on another film until Cyberdorm in 1997. In the early 1990s, Secter's nephew Joel rented Getting Together from his local video store in Winnipeg, not knowing that his uncle had directed films. After discovering his uncle's name in the credits, Joel contacted David to discuss his career in film. These discussions culminated in Joel Secter's own debut as a filmmaker, the 2005 documentary The Best of Secter & the Rest of Secter. In the film, David also revealed that he is HIV-positive.Also in 2005, David Secter directed and released a documentary film on the Gay Games, Take the Flame! Gay Games: Grace, Grit, and Glory.He is interviewed in Matthew Hays' Lambda Literary Award-winning 2007 book The View from Here: Conversations with Gay and Lesbian Filmmakers.
- Age: 82
- Birthplace: Canada
William Hutt
ActorWilliam Ian DeWitt Hutt, (May 2, 1920 – June 27, 2007) was a Canadian actor of stage, television and film. Hutt's distinguished career spanned over fifty years and won him many accolades and awards. While his base throughout his career remained at the Stratford Festival in Stratford, Ontario, he appeared on the stage in London, New York and across Canada.- Age: Dec. at 87 (1920-2007)
- Birthplace: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
William Hare
William Hare (born February 7, 1944, Leicester, UK) is a philosopher whose writings deal primarily with problems in philosophy of education. He attended Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys, 1955–62. After receiving his B.A. from the University of London (1965), he gained an M.A. in philosophy from the University of Leicester (1968), and a Ph.D. in educational theory from the University of Toronto (1971). He was Professor of Education and Philosophy at Dalhousie University from 1970–95, and subsequently Professor of Education at Mount Saint Vincent University until his retirement in June 2008. He is now Professor Emeritus. He is known mainly for his work on open-mindedness, and has published several papers dealing with philosophical ideas about education in the work of Bertrand Russell.- Age: 81
- Birthplace: Leicester, United Kingdom
Scott Symons
Novelist, WriterHugh Brennan Scott Symons (July 13, 1933 – February 23, 2009), known professionally as Scott Symons, was a Canadian writer. He was most noted for his novels Place d'Armes and Civic Square, among the first works of LGBT literature ever published in Canada, as well as a personal life that was often plagued by scandal and interpersonal conflict.He was openly gay at a time when this was very difficult, publishing his first novel, Place d'Armes, which dealt directly with homosexuality, two years before gay sex was decriminalized in Canada. He was an avid diarist, and many of his observations and episodes from his life found their way into his novels. His writing style was marked by experimental forms and structures, with one of his novels being published as handwritten pages packaged in a box, and by a blurring of the lines between fiction and non-fiction.- Age: Dec. at 75 (1933-2009)
- Birthplace: Toronto, Canada
- Ryan M. North (born October 20, 1980) is a Canadian writer and computer programmer who is the creator and author of Dinosaur Comics, and co-creator of Whispered Apologies and Happy Dog the Happy Dog. He has been the writer of The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl for Marvel Comics since the series debuted in January 2015.
- Age: 44
- Birthplace: Ottawa, Canada
Allan Levine
Author, WriterAllan Levine (born February 10, 1956) is a Canadian author from Winnipeg, Manitoba, known mainly for his award-winning non-fiction and historical mystery writing.- Age: 69
- Birthplace: Canada
- Nima Arkani-Hamed (Persian: نیما ارکانی حامد; born April 5, 1972) is an American-Canadian theoretical physicist of Iranian descent, with interests in high-energy physics, quantum field theory, string theory, cosmology and collider physics. Arkani-Hamed is a member of the permanent faculty at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. He is also director of The Center for Future High Energy Physics (CFHEP) in Beijing, China.
- Age: 52
- Birthplace: Houston, Texas
- William Lyon Mackenzie King (December 17, 1874 – July 22, 1950), also commonly known as Mackenzie King, was the dominant Canadian political leader from the 1920s through the 1940s. He served as the tenth prime minister of Canada in 1921–1926, 1926–1930 and 1935–1948. He is best known for his leadership of Canada throughout the Second World War (1939–1945) when he mobilized Canadian money, supplies and volunteers to support Britain while boosting the economy and maintaining morale on the home front. A Liberal with 21 years and 154 days in office, he was the longest-serving prime minister in Canadian history. Trained in law and social work, he was keenly interested in the human condition (as a boy, his motto was "Help those that cannot help themselves"), and played a major role in laying the foundations of the Canadian welfare state.King acceded to the leadership of the Liberal Party in 1919. Taking the helm of a party bitterly torn apart during the First World War, he reconciled factions, unifying the Liberal Party and leading it to victory in the 1921 election. His party was out of office during the harshest days of the Great Depression in Canada, 1930–35; he returned when the economy was on an upswing. He personally handled complex relations with the Prairie Provinces, while his top aides Ernest Lapointe and Louis St. Laurent skillfully met the demands of French Canadians. During the Second World War, he carefully avoided the battles over conscription, patriotism and ethnicity that had divided Canada so deeply in the First World War. Though few major policy innovations took place during his premiership, he was able to synthesize and pass a number of measures that had reached a level of broad national support. Scholars attribute King's long tenure as party leader to his wide range of skills that were appropriate to Canada's needs. He understood the workings of capital and labour. Keenly sensitive to the nuances of public policy, he was a workaholic with a shrewd and penetrating intelligence and a profound understanding of the complexities of Canadian society. A modernizing technocrat who regarded managerial mediation as essential to an industrial society, he wanted his Liberal Party to represent liberal corporatism to create social harmony. King worked to bring compromise and harmony to many competing and feuding elements, using politics and government action as his instrument. He led his party for 29 years, and established Canada's international reputation as a middle power fully committed to world order.King's biographers agree on the personal characteristics that made him distinctive. He lacked the charisma of such contemporaries as Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, or Charles de Gaulle. He lacked a commanding presence or oratorical skill; his best writing was academic, and did not resonate with the electorate. Cold and tactless in human relations, he had many political allies but very few close personal friends. He never married and lacked a hostess whose charm could substitute for his chill. He kept secret his beliefs in spiritualism and use of mediums to stay in contact with departed associates and particularly with his mother, and allowed his intense spirituality to distort his understanding of Adolf Hitler throughout the late 1930s.A survey of scholars in 1997 by Maclean's magazine ranked King first among all Canada's prime ministers, ahead of Sir John A. Macdonald and Sir Wilfrid Laurier. As historian Jack Granatstein notes, "the scholars expressed little admiration for King the man but offered unbounded admiration for his political skills and attention to Canadian unity." On the other hand, political scientist Ian Stewart in 2007 found that even Liberal activists have but a dim memory of him.
- Age: Dec. at 75 (1874-1950)
- Birthplace: Guelph, Kitchener, Canada
- Margaret Eleanor Atwood (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, inventor, teacher, and environmental activist. Since 1961, she has published seventeen books of poetry, sixteen novels, ten books of non-fiction, eight collections of short fiction, eight children's books, and one graphic novel, as well as a number of small press editions in poetry and fiction. Atwood and her writing have won numerous awards and honors including the Man Booker Prize, Arthur C. Clarke Award, Governor General's Award, Franz Kafka Prize, and the National Book Critics and PEN Center USA Lifetime Achievement Awards. Atwood is also the inventor and developer of the LongPen and associated technologies that facilitate the remote robotic writing of documents. A number of her works have been adapted to film and television, which has only served to increase her exposure and audience. As a novelist and poet, Atwood's works encompass a variety of themes including gender and identity, religion and myth, the power of language, climate change, and "power politics". Many of her poems are inspired by myths and fairy tales which interested her from a very early age. Among her contributions to Canadian literature, Atwood is a founder of the Griffin Poetry Prize and Writers' Trust of Canada.
- Age: 85
- Birthplace: Ottawa, Canada
- The least likely hipster since Sammy Davis, Jr. was drafted into the Rat Pack, Paul Shaffer made not only a lifetime but an industry of spinning his shortcomings into bold career moves. The only son of a Thunder Bay attorney with a passion for jazz, Shaffer was trucked by his parents on vacations to Las Vegas, where he developed an early taste for dazzle and ring-a-ding-ding. A rock-n-roll worshipping teenager, Shaffer joined a boy band called the Fugitives, playing keyboards at sock hops and hockey games. Long distance radio broadcasts from the United States and chance encounters with kindred souls led Shaffer to try his hand as a freelance musician. Despite never being able to read music well, Shaffer lucked into a job as a musical director for the Toronto production of "Godspell," whose success and connections brought him to New York City in 1974. Hired for the "Saturday Night Live" (NBC, 1975- ) band its first season, Shaffer forged a solid reputation for himself as an innovative musician with an incomparable personal style - traits that he parlayed into a long-term gig as the band leader for talk show host David Letterman on both of the late night comedian's programs. The recipient of multiple awards and international honors, and a celebrated composer and comic actor, Paul Shaffer carved a niche for himself in American pop culture by realizing the impossible dream of getting paid to love music.
- Age: 75
- Birthplace: Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada
- Alvin Rakoff (born February 18, 1927) is a Canadian television, stage, and film director who has spent the bulk of his career in England and directed more than 100 television plays, as well as a dozen feature films and numerous stage productions. Among other awards, he is twice winner of the International Emmy Award, for A Voyage Round My Father, starring Laurence Olivier, and Call Me Daddy, starring Donald Pleasence.
- Age: 98
- Birthplace: Toronto, Canada
- Howard George Hampton (born May 17, 1952) is a politician who was a Member of Provincial Parliament for the province of Ontario. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, Canada, from 1987 to 1999 in the electoral district of Rainy River, and from 1999 to 2011 in the redistributed electoral district of Kenora—Rainy River. A member of the Ontario New Democratic Party, he was also the party's leader from 1996 to 2009. Hampton retired from the legislature at the 2011 Ontario provincial election and subsequently joined Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP as a member of the law firm's corporate social responsibility and aboriginal affairs groups.His wife, Shelley Martel, was also an MPP until 2007, representing Nickel Belt.
- Age: 72
- Birthplace: Fort Frances, Canada
- Johann Olav Koss, (born 29 October 1968) is a former speed skater from Norway. He won four Olympic gold medals, including three at the 1994 Winter Olympics in his home country. He resides in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
- Age: 56
- Birthplace: Drammen, Norway
- Walter Kohn (German pronunciation: [ˈvaltɐ ˈkoːn]; March 9, 1923 – April 19, 2016) was an American theoretical physicist and theoretical chemist. He was awarded, with John Pople, the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1998. The award recognized their contributions to the understandings of the electronic properties of materials. In particular, Kohn played the leading role in the development of density functional theory, which made it possible to calculate quantum mechanical electronic structure by equations involving the electronic density (rather than the many-body wavefunction). This computational simplification led to more accurate calculations on complex systems as well as many new insights, and it has become an essential tool for materials science, condensed-phase physics, and the chemical physics of atoms and molecules.
- Age: 101
- Birthplace: Vienna, Austria
- Exceptionally tall, with distinctive, unconventional features and a commanding presence, actor Raymond Massey built an impressive career out of playing reassuring authority figures and scheming villains equally well. The Canadian-born actor first honed his craft on the stages of the U.K. for nearly 10 years before venturing across the Atlantic to appear on Broadway as "Hamlet" and in early sound pictures like "The Speckled Band" (1931), in the role of Sherlock Holmes. Massey demonstrated his versatility with venomous characters in films like "The Prisoner of Zenda" (1937) juxtaposed against his career-defining portrayal of the 16th U.S. president in "Abe Lincoln in Illinois" (1940), based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play written with him in mind. Massey became the stuff of Hollywood legend when the aftermath of his divorce from actress Adrianne Allen inspired the beloved Tracy-Hepburn comedy "Adam's Rib" (1949). As an actor, Massey continually impressed with is ability to make difficult characters sympathetic in such films as "The Fountainhead" (1949), opposite Gary Cooper, and as James Dean's emotionally unavailable father in "East of Eden" (1955). A younger generation of fans came to appreciate his later work as Richard Chamberlain's authoritative mentor Dr. Gillespie on "Dr. Kildare" (NBC, 1961-66). Even as his half-century career neared its end, Massey continued to make memorable contributions to such big-budget Hollywood offerings as the Western "Mackenna's Gold" (1969). One of the first and best examples of a "working actor" in film, Massey never failed to elevate the integrity of any project.
- Age: Dec. at 86 (1896-1983)
- Birthplace: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Naomi Klein (born May 8, 1970) is a Canadian author, social activist, and filmmaker known for her political analyses and criticism of corporate globalization and of capitalism. On a three-year appointment from September 2018, she is the Gloria Steinem Chair in Media, Culture, and Feminist Studies at Rutgers University.Klein first became known internationally for her book No Logo (1999); The Take (2004), a documentary film about Argentina's occupied factories, written by her, and directed by her husband Avi Lewis; and significantly for The Shock Doctrine (2007), a critical analysis of the history of neoliberal economics that was adapted into a six-minute companion film by Alfonso and Jonás Cuarón, as well as a feature-length documentary by Michael Winterbottom.Klein's This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate (2014) was a New York Times Bestseller List non-fiction bestseller and the winner of the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction in its year. In 2016, Klein was awarded the Sydney Peace Prize for her activism on climate justice. Klein frequently appears on global and national lists of top influential thinkers, including the 2014 Thought Leaders ranking compiled by the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute, Prospect magazine's world thinkers 2014 poll, and Maclean's 2014 Power List. She is a member of the board of directors of the climate activist group 350.org.
- Age: 54
- Birthplace: Montreal, Canada
- Chia-Chiao Lin (Chinese: 林家翹; 7 July 1916 – 13 January 2013) was a Chinese-born American applied mathematician and Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.Lin made major contributions to the theory of hydrodynamic stability, turbulent flow, mathematics, and astrophysics.
- Age: Dec. at 96 (1916-2013)
- Birthplace: Beijing, China
John Kenneth Macalister
Soldier, LawyerJohn Kenneth Macalister (July 19, 1914 – September 14, 1944) was a Canadian hero of World War II. Born in Guelph, Ontario, Canada, Ken Macalister graduated from the Guelph Collegiate Vocational Institute (GCVI) and from the University of Toronto, then as a Rhodes Scholar studied at Oxford University. He was expanding his education further at the Institute of Corporate Law in Paris, France when World War II began in 1939. When he took the bar exam, Macalister placed first among over 150 candidates in the British Empire. Macalister tried to join the infantry but his eyesight was such that he needed thick glasses and as such could not be placed on active duty. However, fluent in the French language, Macalister volunteered for the Special Operations Executive (SOE) F Section where as an agent in France, his thick glasses would actually add to his disguise. Together with fellow Canadian, Frank Pickersgill, Ken Macalister was parachuted into occupied France on June 20, 1943 to work as wireless operator for the "Archdeacon" network in the Ardennes area. Both men were picked up by the SOE agent Yvonne Rudellat (codename 'Jacqueline') and the French officer Pierre Culioli. Their vehicle stopped at a German checkpoint in Dhuizon, and after Rudellat and Culioli were cleared they decided to wait for the two Canadians to come through. Minutes later, however, the Canadians' cover was blown and Culioli tried to speed away but he and Rudellat were captured when they ran into another checkpoint about 10 kilometres away. Rudellat subsequently died in Bergen-Belsen; Culioli survived the war.The Canadians were taken to Fresnes prison where they were interrogated and tortured repeatedly. Macalister steadfastly refused to reveal his security checks to the Germans who had his codes and were anxious to send misleading messages back to the SOE's London headquarters. Macalister gave his interrogators nothing and when his captors tried to send messages, SOE recognized them as fake. Unable to get anything of value from him, the security forces shipped Macalister, along with Frank Pickersgill and Roméo Sabourin to Buchenwald concentration camp on August 27, 1944. They were known as the Robert Benoist group, executed at Buchenwald on September 14, 1944.Captain Ken Macalister is honoured on the Brookwood Memorial, Surrey in Brookwood, Surrey, England and as one of the SOE agents who died for the liberation of France, he is listed on the "Roll of Honour" on the Valençay SOE Memorial in the town of Valençay, in the Indre département of France. He is commemorated by an obelisk at Romorantin-Lanthenay, where he is one of 4 members of SOE to be listed. In Guelph, there’s a park named after him with a maple tree representing his time in Canada, an oak his British sojourn, and a linden his time in France. The University of Toronto has designated a Pickersgill-Macalister garden on the west side of the "Soldiers' Tower" monument.- Age: Dec. at 30 (1914-1944)
- Birthplace: Guelph, Canada
Sheela Basrur
PhysicianSheela Basrur, (October 17, 1956 – June 2, 2008) was a Canadian physician and Ontario Chief Medical Officer of Health and Assistant Deputy Minister of Public Health. She resigned from these positions late in 2006 to undergo treatment for cancer.- Age: Dec. at 51 (1956-2008)
- Birthplace: Toronto, Canada
- Elizabeth Winifred Brewster, (26 August 1922 – 26 December 2012) was a Canadian poet and academic.Born in Chipman, New Brunswick, she received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of New Brunswick, a Master of Arts degree from Radcliffe College, a Bachelor of Library Science from the University of Toronto, and a Ph.D. from Indiana University Bloomington. She was a Professor at the University of Saskatchewan. In 2001, she was made a Member of the Order of Canada, Canada's highest civilian honor.
- Age: Dec. at 90 (1922-2012)
- Birthplace: Chipman, Canada
- A talented Canadian actor, Enrico Colantoni cut his professional teeth on the stage, notching many acclaimed theatrical performances and graduating from the Yale School of Drama. After a memorable pair of guest spots on "NYPD Blue" (ABC, 1993-2005), the actor landed series regular roles on the short-lived "Hope & Gloria" (NBC, 1995-96) and the long-running "Just Shoot Me!" (NBC, 1997-2003). As the ladies' man photog Elliot DiMauro, Colantoni charmed audiences, and he subsequently earned small roles in high-profile films like "Stigmata" (1999), "Galaxy Quest" (1999) and "Contagion" (2011). He hit another career high with a beloved turn as the detective father of Kristen Bell's "Veronica Mars" (UPN, 2004-06; The CW, 2006-07) before earning a Best Actor Gemini nomination for his star turn heading the Canadian cop drama "Flashpoint" (CTV, 2008-12). Always highly in-demand as a character actor, Colantoni saw his American profile boosted yet again with a strong recurring role as an ambitious Mafioso on "Person of Interest" (CBS, 2011-16). A familiar face to viewers in both America and Canada, Enrico Colantoni built a quiet but enormously impressive career that saw him more in demand with each passing year.
- Age: 62
- Birthplace: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Andrew Wright
Andrew Wright (born 1971) is a Canadian multimedia artist based in Ottawa, Ontario.- Age: 53
- Through the run of one of the biggest cult hits in television history, William B. Davis put a new face on villainy, an institutional, eerily real incarnation of evil identified ominously by wafting smoke and the glow of a cigarette. A native Ontarian, Davis trained as an actor in esteemed company in the U.K. during the 1960s before returning to Canada to work as a theatrical director and drama teacher, eventually relocating to Hollywood North, Vancouver, BC. The 1980s saw him garnering small parts in inauspicious Canadian-shot television and movie projects, but he would establish a regular imprint in 1993 with a new science fiction series, "The X-Files" (Fox, 1993-2002). Davis played the shadowy, stoic intelligence operative predominantly known only by his credited billing, Cigarette Smoking Man. The show became a cultural phenomenon, with CSM ending up one of the most speculated-over villains in the buzz-happy realm of sci-fi fandom. It also made him a frequent guest star on a flurry of sci-fi and horror TV shows and movies through the 1990s and early 2000s. He would remain one of Canada's best-renowned thespian talents, both under the lights and behind them, yet be irrevocably identified as one of the creepiest personas in TV history, a gray-suited archetype of cold-blooded Machiavellianism.
- Age: 87
- Birthplace: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Victoria Pratt was an actress who had a successful Hollywood career. Pratt kickstarted her acting career appearing on various dramas, including "Xena: Warrior Princess" (1995-2001) and "NCIS" (CBS, 2003-). In the early stages of her Hollywood career, Pratt held acting roles in films like the Josie Maran comedic drama "The Mallory Effect" (2002). She also starred in the TV movies "John Woo's Once a Thief: Family Business" (The Movie Channel, 1997-98) and "John Woo's Once a Thief: Brother Against Brother" (The Movie Channel, 1997-98). Following that project, she appeared in the Sean Astin romantic comedy "What Love Is" (2007) and "Ham & Cheese" (2007) with Scott Baio. She also starred in the TV movies "Murder at the Presidio" (USA, 2005) and "Mayday" (CBS, 2005-06). In the early 2000s and the 2010s, she then appeared in "Brotherhood of Blood" (2008), "June" (2015) with Kennedy Brice and the thriller "Death Valley" (2015) with Lochlyn Munro. She also worked in television during these years, including a part on "Hawaii Five-O" (CBS, 2010). Pratt most recently acted in the action flick "The Last Heist" (2016) with Henry Rollins.
- Age: 54
- Birthplace: Chesley, Ontario, Canada
- Emil Ludwig Fackenheim (22 June 1916 – 18 September 2003) was a noted Jewish philosopher and Reform rabbi.Born in Halle, Germany, he was arrested by Nazis on the night of 9 November 1938, known as Kristallnacht. Briefly interned at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp (1938–1939), he escaped with his younger brother Wolfgang to Great Britain, where his parents later joined him. Emil's older brother Ernst-Alexander, who refused to leave Germany, was killed in the Holocaust. Held by the British as an enemy alien after the outbreak of World War II, Fackenheim was sent to Canada in 1940, where he was interned at a remote internment camp near Sherbrooke, Quebec. He was freed afterward and served as the Interim Rabbi at Temple Anshe Shalom in Hamilton, Ontario, from 1943 to 1948. After this he enrolled in the graduate philosophy department of the University of Toronto and received a PhD from the University of Toronto with a dissertation on medieval Arabic philosophy (1945) and became Professor of Philosophy (1948–1984). He was among the original Editorial Advisors of the scholarly journal Dionysius. In 1971, he received an honorary doctorate from Sir George Williams University, which later became Concordia University.Fackenheim researched the relationship of the Jews with God, believing that the Holocaust must be understood as an imperative requiring Jews to carry on Jewish existence and the survival of the State of Israel. He emigrated to Israel in 1984. "He was always saying that continuing Jewish life and denying Hitler a posthumous victory was the 614th law," referring to the 613 mitzvot given to the Jews in the Torah.
- Age: Dec. at 87 (1916-2003)
- Birthplace: Halle, Germany
Angus Daniel Campbell
Angus Campbell may refer to: Angus Campbell (psychologist) (1910 – 1980), American social psychologist Angus Campbell (ice hockey) (1884 – 1976), founder of the Northern Ontario Hockey Association (NOHA) Angus Campbell MacInnes (1885 – 1977), Anglican bishop Frank Hoy (died 2005), who wrestled under various names including Angus Campbell Angus Peter Campbell, Scottish novelist and poet Angus Campbell (general), Australian general Angus Campbell, member of UK garage group B-15 Project Angus Campbell, Senior Partner and Deputy Head of Studio at Foster and Partners- Age: Dec. at 91 (1884-1976)
- Birthplace: Canada
- Michael Neumann (born 1946) is a professor of philosophy at Trent University in Ontario, Canada. He is the author of What's Left? Radical Politics and the Radical Psyche (1988), The Rule of Law: Politicizing Ethics (2002) and The Case Against Israel (2005), and has published papers on utilitarianism and rationality.
- Age: 79
- Anne Bayefsky is a human rights scholar and activist. She currently directs the Touro College Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust and is a barrister and solicitor of the Ontario Bar. Her areas of expertise include international human rights law, equality rights, and constitutional human rights law.
- Birthplace: Toronto, Canada
- Actor Bruce Gray has worked extensively in television, feature films, and on the stage. A natural ability to thrive among dramatic ensembles prompted Gray to make his first foray into television as a dependable player on such sudsy daytime melodramas as "All My Children," "The Edge of Night," and "The Young and the Restless" throughout the 1980s. The following decade, the stately yet versatile performer went from soap operas to space operas (and otherwise hard sci-fi) as all manner of otherworldly citizens and high-ranking officials, appearing on such mythology-driven cult hits as "Babylon 5," "Star Trek: The Next Generation," "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," and "Stargate SG-1." Gray may be a familiar face thanks to his many guest appearances on both daytime and prime-time TV, but Canadian audiences probably know him best from his long-running stint on the popular serial drama "Traders," a show about the ups and downs that go on within the fast-paced environment of an investment bank. He made a splash in American pop cinema with a rare big-screen role as the father of the groom in the 2002 comedic sleeper blockbuster "My Big Fat Greek Wedding." Gray has continued to widely alternate between lofty types and sensible patriarchs with recurring roles on series such as the Showtime's "Queer as Folk" and the psychic/mystery drama "Medium."
- Age: Dec. at 81 (1936-2017)
- Birthplace: San Juan, Puerto Rico
- William Kenneth Hastings was New Zealand's tenth Chief Censor, from October 1999 to July 2010. He was Chairperson of the Immigration and Protection Tribunal from July 2010 until February 2013, and is currently a District Court Judge.
- Birthplace: Canada
Leonard Asper
LawyerLeonard Asper (born May 31, 1964 in Winnipeg, Manitoba) is a Canadian businessperson, entrepreneur and lawyer. He is a graduate of Brandeis University and the University of Toronto Law School, and is a member of the Ontario Bar Association and The Law Society of Upper Canada.- Age: 60
- Birthplace: Winnipeg, Canada
Anne-Marie Green
NewsreaderAnne-Marie Green (born September 21, 1971) is a news anchor for CBS on American television, based in New York City. A Toronto native, Green earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Toronto and has a graduate degree in journalism from Humber College. Green began her career as a reporter for CKVR-TV in Barrie and at Rogers Cable News in Mississauga, both located in Ontario. She was a news anchor in Toronto beginning in June 2001 with CITY-TV and also anchored at CablePulse 24, a 24-hour cable news channel servicing the greater Toronto area.Green joined KYW-TV (CBS 3) in October 2004 as a general assignment reporter and also a co-anchor for Sunday morning newscasts alongside Ben Simoneau. In October 2012, she became a substitute anchor for CBS News Up to the Minute. She was subsequently named the anchor for the CBS News early morning news broadcast CBS Morning News in New York City, effective January 21, 2013.She is married to Christian Hip-Hop Recording Artist Art Mikveh.- Age: 53
- Frank Shuster, (5 September 1916 – 13 January 2002) was a jewish-Canadian comedian best known as a member of the comedy duo Wayne and Shuster, alongside Johnny Wayne.
- Age: Dec. at 85 (1916-2002)
- Birthplace: Toronto, Canada
Frank Pickersgill
Frank Herbert Dedrick Pickersgill (May 28, 1915 – September 14, 1944) was a Canadian hero of World War II. Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Pickersgill graduated from Kelvin High School in that city. Holding an English degree from the University of Manitoba and a Master's degree in classics from the University of Toronto, Pickersgill set out to cycle across Europe in 1934, then returned to Europe in 1938 to work as a freelance journalist for several Canadian newspapers. During his travels he met Jean-Paul Sartre, whose work he hoped to translate into English, though the oncoming war distracted him from the project. Pickersgill served the first two years of the war in Saint-Denis Internment Camp (Stalag 220) as an enemy alien. He escaped by sawing out a window with a hacksaw blade smuggled into the camp in a loaf of bread. Once he was safely back in Britain, he rejected the offer of a desk job in Ottawa and instead received a commission in the newly created Canadian Intelligence Corps. Because he was fluent in German, Latin, Greek and especially French, he worked in close contact with the British Special Operations Executive (SOE). Along with a fellow Canadian, John Kenneth Macalister, he was parachuted into the Loire Valley in occupied France on June 20, 1943, to work with the French Resistance. Both men were picked up by the SOE agent Yvonne Rudellat (codename 'Jacqueline') and the French officer Pierre Culioli. Their vehicle stopped at a German checkpoint in Dhuizon, and after Rudellat and Culioli were cleared they decided to wait for the two Canadians to come through. Minutes later, however, the Canadians' cover was blown and Culioli tried to speed away but he and Rudellat were captured when they ran into another checkpoint about 10 kilometres away. Rudellat subsequently died in Bergen-Belsen; Culioli survived the war.In March 1944, Pickersgill tried to escape from SD headquarters at 84 Avenue Foch. He attacked a guard with a bottle and threw himself out of a second-storey window. He was shot several times and recaptured. He was then interned with other agents in a camp at Ravitsch, 25 miles North of Breslau. On August 27, 1944, he was shipped with members of the Robert Benoist group to Buchenwald concentration camp, where he was executed on September 14, along with 35 other SOE agents, including two other Canadians, Roméo Sabourin and John Kenneth Macalister. Though there are conflicting reports about their deaths, the men are thought to have been hung on meat hooks and strangled with piano wire. Their bodies were incinerated. Posthumously, the government of France awarded Pickersgill the Legion of Honour, and he is listed as one of the SOE agents who died for the liberation of France on the "Roll of Honour" on the Valençay SOE Memorial in Valençay in the département of the Indre. He is commemorated by an obelisk at Romorantin-Lanthenay, where he is one of 4 members of SOE to be listed. He is also honoured on the Groesbeek Memorial in the Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery in the Netherlands. The University of Toronto designated a Pickersgill-Macalister Garden on the west side of the "Soldiers' Tower" monument, but later the plot was rededicated "in memory of those tho gave their lives for peace and freedom", though there is still a plaque saying that it was originally dedicated to Macalister and Pickersgill. Frank Pickersgill was the younger brother of Jack Pickersgill, a member of the House of Commons of Canada and a Cabinet minister.- Age: Dec. at 29 (1915-1944)
- Birthplace: Canada
Elizabeth Ruth
Novelist, WriterElizabeth Ruth (born 1968) is a Canadian novelist.- Age: 57
- Birthplace: Windsor, Canada
- Johnny Wayne (born Louis Weingarten; 28 May 1918 – 18 July 1990) was a Canadian comedian and comedy writer best known for his work as part of the comedy duo Wayne and Shuster alongside Frank Shuster. The son of a successful clothing manufacturer who spoke several languages and the eldest of seven children, Johnny Wayne was born in downtown Toronto and attended Harbord Collegiate Institute, where he met his future comedy partner, and later attended the University of Toronto. Wayne and Shuster began working together in the 1930s and continued their successful collaboration on stage, radio, and television until Wayne's death from brain cancer in 1990. He is buried at Holy Blossom Cemetery, in his home town of Toronto. Wayne was a curling enthusiast and was a commentator alongside Alex Trebek and Doug Maxwell during the 1968 CBC Curling Championship.He also had musical talents and was a successful songwriter in the 1950s, including co-writing Bobby Gimby's 1958 hit "Jimbo". In 1964 he recorded the song "Charlottetown", which he wrote and sang for the Canadian Confederation Centennial.He married his Beatrice Lokash, in 1946. They were married until her death from cancer in 1980. Their children are historian Michael Wayne, columnist and songwriter Jamie Wayne, and television sports producer Brian Wayne.
- Age: Dec. at 72 (1918-1990)
- Birthplace: Toronto, Canada
- George Hislop (June 3, 1927 – October 8, 2005) was one of Canada's most influential gay activists. He was one of the earliest openly gay candidates for political office in Canada, and was a key figure in the early development of Toronto's gay community.
- Age: Dec. at 78 (1927-2005)
- Birthplace: Toronto, Canada
- Norman Frederick Jewison CC OOnt (July 21, 1926 – January 20, 2024) was a Canadian film and television director, and producer. Jewison addressed social and political issues throughout his filmmaking career, often making controversial or complicated subjects accessible to mainstream audiences. He received the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences's Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 1999. He received a BAFTA Award and was nominated for 7 Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and a Primetime Emmy Award. Jewison directed numerous feature films and has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director three times in three separate decades for In the Heat of the Night (1967), Fiddler on the Roof (1971) and Moonstruck (1987). In 1988 he founded the Canadian Film Centre. In 2003, Jewison received the Governor General's Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement for his multiple contributions to the film industry in Canada.
- Age: Dec. at 97 (1926-2024)
- Birthplace: Toronto, Canada
- Lester Bowles "Mike" Pearson (23 April 1897 – 27 December 1972) was a Canadian scholar, statesman, soldier, prime minister, and diplomat, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957 for organizing the United Nations Emergency Force to resolve the Suez Canal Crisis. He was the 14th prime minister of Canada from 1963 to 1968, as the head of two back-to-back Liberal minority governments following elections in 1963 and 1965. During Pearson's time as prime minister, his Liberal minority governments introduced universal health care, student loans, the Canada Pension Plan, the Order of Canada, and the Maple Leaf flag. His Liberal government also unified Canada's armed forces. Pearson convened the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism, and he kept Canada out of the Vietnam War. In 1967, his government passed Bill C-168, which de facto abolished capital punishment in Canada by restricting it to a few capital offences for which it was never used, and which themselves were abolished in 1976. With these accomplishments, together with his groundbreaking work at the United Nations and in international diplomacy, Pearson is generally considered among the most influential Canadians of the 20th century and is ranked among the greatest Canadian Prime Ministers.
- Age: Dec. at 75 (1897-1972)
- Birthplace: Toronto, York, Canada
- John Howard Tory, (listen; born May 28, 1954) is a Canadian politician serving as the 65th and current Mayor of Toronto since 2014. After a career as a lawyer, political strategist and businessman, Tory ran as a mayoral candidate in the 2003 Toronto municipal election and lost to David Miller. Subsequently, from 2004 to 2009, he served as the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, and was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario representing the riding of Dufferin—Peel—Wellington—Grey from 2005 to 2007. After his resignation as PC leader in 2009, Tory became a radio talkshow host on CFRB. Despite widespread speculation that he would run for mayor again in 2010, he announced in January that he would not be a candidate. He was the volunteer chair of the non-profit group CivicAction from 2010 to 2014. On February 24, 2014, he registered as a candidate for the 2014 mayoral election. On October 27, 2014, John Tory was elected mayor of Toronto, defeating incumbent mayor Rob Ford's brother councillor Doug Ford and former councillor and MP Olivia Chow. Tory was described by some commentators as a Red Tory. On October 22, 2018, he was re-elected mayor of Toronto in the 2018 mayoral election, defeating former Chief City Planner Jennifer Keesmaat.
- Age: 70
- Birthplace: Toronto, Canada
- Christopher J. Chetsanga (born 1935 in Murehwa, Rhodesia) is a prominent Zimbabwean scientist who is a member of the African Academy of Sciences.
- Age: 89
- Birthplace: Murewa, Zimbabwe
- Israel Halperin, (January 5, 1911 – March 8, 2007) was a Canadian mathematician and social activist.
- Age: Dec. at 96 (1911-2007)
- Birthplace: Toronto, Canada
- William Alexander "Bill" Blaikie (born June 19, 1951) is a Canadian retired politician. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1979 to 2008, representing Elmwood—Transcona and its antecedent ridings in the House of Commons of Canada for the federal New Democratic Party. Following his retirement from federal politics, he was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 2009 until 2011, representing the Winnipeg division of Elmwood as a member of the New Democratic Party of Manitoba, and served as Minister of Conservation and Government House Leader. Blaikie had the longest continuous parliamentary record in the 38th and 39th Canadian parliaments, and in this capacity served as the Dean of the House. He also holds the record as having the longest continuous parliamentary service of any CCF/NDP MP in Canadian History. He is a member of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada and has the right to be styled the Honourable for life. Blaikie was the Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada from 2006 to 2008. Prior to the October 2011 provincial election he announced that he was retiring from political life.
- Age: 73
- Birthplace: Winnipeg, Canada
- Cathleen Synge Morawetz (May 5, 1923 – August 8, 2017) was a Canadian mathematician who spent much of her career in the United States. Morawetz's research was mainly in the study of the partial differential equations governing fluid flow, particularly those of mixed type occurring in transonic flow. She was professor emerita at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at the New York University, where she had also served as director from 1984 to 1988. She was awarded the National Medal of Science in 1998.
- Age: 101
- Birthplace: Toronto, Canada
- Douglas Tyndall Wright, (born October 4, 1927) is a Canadian civil engineer, civil servant, and former university administrator. Born in Toronto, Ontario, he received a B.A.Sc. from the University of Toronto in 1949, a Master of Science degree in 1952 from the University of Illinois, and a Ph.D. from Trinity College, Cambridge in 1954. In 1954, he joined the Department of Civil Engineering at Queen's University becoming Associate Professor by 1958. In 1958, he became a Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Waterloo. He was Chairman of the Department of Civil Engineering from 1958 to 1963 and was Dean of the Faculty of Engineering from 1959 to 1966. From 1967 to 1972, he was the Chairman of the Committee on University Affairs for the Province of Ontario. From 1969 to 1972, he was the Chairman of the Commission on Post Secondary Education in Ontario. From 1972 to 1979, he was Deputy Provincial Secretary for Social Development and from 1979 to 1980, he was Deputy Minister of Culture and Recreation. From 1981 to 1993, he was the President, and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Waterloo. From 1995 to July 2007, he was a member of the Board of Directors of Research in Motion. In 1991, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. In 1993, he was made a Knight (chevalier) in France's Ordre National du Mérite. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering and of the Engineering Institute of Canada. He has received honorary degrees from Carleton University, Brock University, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Concordia University, Northeastern University, Strathclyde University, Université de Technologie de Compiègne, Université de Sherbrooke, Queen's University, McMaster University, University of Toronto, and the University of Waterloo.
- Age: 97
- Birthplace: Toronto, Canada
- John Edward "Ed" Broadbent (born March 21, 1936) is a Canadian social-democratic politician, political scientist, and chair of the Broadbent Institute, a policy thinktank. He was leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada (NDP) from 1975 to 1989. In the 2004 federal election, he returned to Parliament for one additional term as the Member of Parliament for Ottawa Centre.
- Age: 88
- Birthplace: Oshawa, Canada
- Donald Bruce Gillies (October 15, 1928 – July 17, 1975) was a Canadian computer scientist and mathematician who worked in the fields of computer design, game theory, and minicomputer programming environments.
- Age: Dec. at 45 (1929-1975)
- Birthplace: Toronto, Canada
- Crawford Stanley (Buzz) Holling, (born December 6, 1930) is a Canadian ecologist, and Emeritus Eminent Scholar and Professor in Ecological Sciences at the University of Florida. Holling is one of the conceptual founders of ecological economics.
- Age: 94
- Birthplace: Theresa, New York
- Raymond O. Heimbecker, (November 29, 1922 – February 13, 2014) was a Canadian cardiovascular surgeon who performed the world’s first complete heart valve transplant in 1962, and Canada’s first modern heart transplant in 1981 with anti-rejection drugs to prolong the patient's survival.Born in Calgary, Alberta, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Saskatchewan in 1944. He received his Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Toronto in 1947. He also received a Master of Arts in physiology and a Master of Science in surgery. He worked with Wilfred Bigelow and Alfred Blalock. In 1955, he joined the Department of Surgery at the University of Toronto and was a research associate at the Ontario Heart Foundation. In 1962, he became a cardiovascular consultant to the Wellesley Hospital. He was a Professor at the University of Western Ontario. In 1997, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada for being "at the forefront of his specialty, developing advanced techniques for heart surgery and assisting in the first human heart valve transplant". In 2002, he was awarded the Order of Ontario. He has received an honorary degree from the University of Saskatchewan.
- Age: Dec. at 91 (1922-2014)
- Birthplace: Calgary, Canada
- Herbert Alexander Bruce FRCS (September 28, 1868 – June 23, 1963), served as the 15th Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, Canada, from 1932 to 1937. Born in Blackstock, Ontario near Port Perry, Bruce was educated as a surgeon at the University of Toronto and in Paris and Vienna. He was a member of the Royal College of Surgeons. He owned Wellesley Hospital in Toronto which he founded in 1911, and was a professor of surgery at the University of Toronto. In 1916, during World War I, he was appointed inspector-general of the Canadian Army Medical Corps by Sir Sam Hughes, and attained the rank of colonel in the Canadian Army (Permanent Active Militia). Bruce investigated medical practices in the army and issued a Report on the Canadian Army Medical Service which urged a complete reorganization of the medical corps. Few of his recommendations for general reorganization were immediately feasible from the military and economic points-of-view, and the manner of his appointment was protested by Sir William Osler as an affront to the medical profession. Bruce's report was disowned by the government at the time and he was dismissed from his duties, while his conservative patron, Hughes, was obliged to resign. In 1919, Bruce published Politics and the Canadian Army Medical Corps, criticizing the government for its actions but avoiding any specific denunciation of Hughes. Later in the war, as surgical consultant to the British forces, Bruce was able to advance some useful reforms in surgical management, including greater reliance on nurse-anesthetists and operating room technicians. In 1920, Bruce purchased a farm on Bayview Avenue overlooking the Don Valley and built a Tudor-style mansion which he named Annandale. In 1932, he was appointed Lieutenant Governor of Ontario by R.B. Bennett for a term that lasted until 1937. He often verbally clashed with new Ontario Premier Mitch Hepburn who attempted to curtail the extravagance of the vice-regal office in the face of the Great Depression. The lieutenant-governor's official residence, Chorley Park, was closed by the Hepburn government at the end of Bruce's term on the pretext of cutting costs. While most lieutenant-governors are former politicians, Bruce took the unusual step of entering politics following his term as the King's representative. Following the sudden death of Conservative MP David Spence in the middle of the 1940 federal election campaign, Bruce contested and won Spence's seat in the House of Commons of Canada in the 1940 federal election. Sitting as the Conservative Member of Parliament for Parkdale, Bruce was an outspoken advocate of conscription. He was re-elected to a second term in the 1945 federal election, but retired from office in 1946. His autobiography, Varied Operations, was published in 1958. He died in Toronto on June 23, 1963. He is buried in section Q-143 in Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto.
- Age: Dec. at 94 (1868-1963)
- Birthplace: Scugog, Canada
- Canadian-American writer, producer, and occasional director and actor Graham Yost has a broad range of high-profile credits across film and television. For most of his career he was most well known as a writer, with major Hollywood hits like "Speed" (1994), "Broken Arrow" (1996), and "Hard Rain" (1998) on his resume. He then gravitated towards television work, as a writer and executive producer on big-budget, critically-acclaimed shows including World War II drama "The Pacific" (HBO 2010), Elmore Leonard revenge drama "Justified" (FX 2010-15), alien-invasion drama "Falling Skies" (TNT 2011- ) and Cold War spy drama "The Americans" (FX 2013- ). Born in Etobicoke, Ontario, Yost was the son of popular Canadian broadcaster Elwy Yost. He started out as a writer on shows like children's cowboy caper "Hey Dude" (Nickelodeon, 1989-1991) and high-concept sitcom "Herman's Head" (Fox 1991-94) before his script for an action thriller called "Speed" turned into an enormous hit. Along with his big-screen work, Yost returned to TV as the supervising producer and writer (and also director, for one episode) of the Ron Howard-produced miniseries "From the Earth to the Moon" (HBO 1998). Yost then wound down his film career following the hit "Mission To Mars" (2000), creating the ambitious procedural crime drama "Boomtown" (NBC 2002-03) and the quirky detective comedy-drama "Raines" (NBC 2007). Those shows did not last, but the critical success of Yost's "Justified" established him as a successful cable writer-producer.
- Age: 65
- Birthplace: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Daniel Grafton Hill III, (November 23, 1923 – June 26, 2003) was a Canadian sociologist, civil servant, human rights specialist, and Black Canadian historian. Born in Independence, Missouri, he grew up in the western United States. In 1948, he graduated with a BA from Howard University. In 1950, he moved to Canada to study sociology at the University of Toronto. He received an M.A. in 1951 and a Ph.D in 1960. From 1955 to 1958, he was a researcher for the Social Planning Council of Metropolitan Toronto. From 1958 to 1960, he was Executive Secretary of the North York Social Planning Council. In 1960, he was the assistant director of the Alcoholism and Drug Addiction Research Foundation. From 1961 to 1962, he taught in the department of sociology at the University of Toronto. In 1962, he was the first full-time director of the Ontario Human Rights Commission. In 1972, he became Ontario Human Rights Commissioner. In 1973, he resigned to found his own human rights consulting firm. From 1984 to 1989, he was the Ontario Ombudsman. He founded the Ontario Black History Society. In 1981, he wrote the book, The Freedom Seekers: Blacks in Early Canada.In 1993, he was awarded the Order of Ontario. In 1999, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. In 1953, he married Donna Bender, a civil rights activist (1928-2018). They had three children: singer-songwriter Dan Hill, author Lawrence Hill, and poet and novelist Karen Hill. He was the nephew of Violet Hill Whyte.
- Age: Dec. at 79 (1923-2003)
- Birthplace: Independence, Missouri
- Robert George Ackman, (September 27, 1927 – July 16, 2013) was a Canadian chemist and professor. He was best known for his pioneering work on marine oils and Omega-3 fatty acid. Born in Dorchester, New Brunswick, his education included a B.A. degree in organic chemistry from the University of Toronto received in 1950, an M.Sc. in organic chemistry from Dalhousie University received in 1952, a Ph.D. degree in organic chemistry from the University of London received in 1956, and a D.I.C. in organic chemistry from Imperial College London. From 1950 to 1953, he was a research assistant with the Atlantic Fisheries Experimental Station of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada. From 1956 to 1979, he was with the Halifax Laboratory, Fisheries Research Board of Canada as a research chemist, program head for marine oils, assistant director, technological consultant to chairman, group leader of marine lipids, and division chief of marine lipids. From 1979 to 1995, he was a Professor with the Technical University of Nova Scotia, Canadian Institute of Fisheries Technology, Department of Food Science and Technology. In 1995, he was appointed Professor Emeritus. He authored over 550 scientific papers. In 2001, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. In 1972, he was made a Fellow of the Chemical Institute of Canada. He died at age 85 on July 16, 2013, in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
- Age: Dec. at 85 (1927-2013)
- Birthplace: Dorchester, Canada
- Anne C. Zeller is a physical anthropologist who specializes in the study of primates. She received her M.A.(1971) and Ph.D (1978) from the University of Toronto. During her graduate studies she worked on chromosome analysis, comparing chimpanzee and human chromosomes. Anne has undertaken primate field research in Morocco, Gibraltar, Texas, Borneo and Africa. These two types of research combine interests in the physical development of humans from their primate ancestors, and the behavioral patterns of primates which are similar to those found among humans. However, her approach to physical anthropology is very wide-ranging and she has presented papers on witchcraft, dietary influences on behaviour, the role of children in evolution, and child abuse in primates, as well as on her major focus of primate communication. She is also interested in the use of film in research and teaching, has prepared video tapes for use in her classes and is analyzing film taken during her field research. Her current research concerns the interactions of adults and infants in the socializing process of Macaca fascicularis, the crab eating macaque of Indonesia. Anne began teaching full-time at the University of Waterloo in the Department of Anthropology in 1982, and spent several years as the Chair or Head of Anthropology after 1993. Anne also held a series of positions at the University of Alberta, the University of Victoria and the University of Toronto. She retired from teaching in 2009.
- Age: 78
- Teresa Cheung Siu-wai (Chinese: 章小蕙) (born June 10, 1963) is a Los Angeles-based actress and producer.
- Age: 61
- Birthplace: Hong Kong, China
- Age: 49
- Birthplace: Winnipeg, Canada
- Robert Joseph Birgeneau (born March 25, 1942) is a Canadian-American physicist and university administrator. He was the ninth chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley from 2004-13, and the fourteenth president of the University of Toronto from 2000-04.
- Age: 82
- Birthplace: Toronto, Canada
- Andrew Michael Spence (born November 7, 1943, Montclair, New Jersey) is a Canadian American economist and recipient of the 2001 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, along with George Akerlof and Joseph E. Stiglitz, for their work on the dynamics of information flows and market development.
- Age: 81
- Birthplace: Montclair, New Jersey
Alexander Grant MacKay
Alexander Grant MacKay (March 7, 1860 – April 25, 1920) was a Canadian teacher, lawyer and provincial level politician. He served prominent posts in two provincial legislatures as Leader of the Opposition in Ontario and as a Cabinet Minister in Alberta.- Age: Dec. at 60 (1860-1920)
- Ravi D. Vakil (born February 22, 1970) is a Canadian-American mathematician working in algebraic geometry.
- Age: 55
- Birthplace: Toronto, Canada
A. James Reimer
Allen James Reimer (August 10, 1942 – August 28, 2010) was a Canadian Mennonite theologian who held a dual academic appointment as Professor of Religious Studies and Christian Theology at Conrad Grebel University College, a member college of the University of Waterloo, and at the Toronto School of Theology, a consortium of divinity schools federated with the University of Toronto. At the University of Waterloo's fall 2008 convocation, he was named Distinguished Professor Emeritus, an honor seldom bestowed on retired faculty.- Age: Dec. at 68 (1942-2010)
- Birthplace: Canada
- Paul Poirier ([pɑl pwa.ʁje]; born November 6, 1991) is a Canadian ice dancer. With Piper Gilles, he is a two-time Four Continents medallist (silver in 2014, bronze in 2019) and a seven-time Canadian national medallist. Gilles and Poirier competed for Canada at the 2018 Winter Olympics. With earlier partner Vanessa Crone, he is the 2010 Grand Prix Final bronze medallist, 2011 Four Continents bronze medallist, 2008 World Junior silver medallist, and 2011 Canadian national champion. Crone and Poirier competed for Canada at the 2010 Winter Olympics.
- Age: 33
- Birthplace: Ottawa, Canada
- Heather Moyse (born July 23, 1978) is a Canadian athlete and two-time Olympic gold medalist, representing Canada in international competition as a bobsledder, rugby union player, and track cyclist and competing at the Canadian intercollegiate level in rugby, soccer and track and field.
- Age: 46
- Birthplace: Summerside, Canada
- Babak Payami (Persian: بابک پیامی, born 1966 in Tehran) is an Iranian film director.
- Age: 59
- Birthplace: Tehran, Iran
- John Tuzo Wilson, CC, OBE, FRS, FRSC, FRSE (October 24, 1908 – April 15, 1993) was a Canadian geophysicist and geologist who achieved worldwide acclaim for his contributions to the theory of plate tectonics. Plate tectonics is the idea that the rigid outer layers of the Earth (crust and part of the upper mantle), the lithosphere, are broken up into numerous pieces or "plates" that move independently over the weaker asthenosphere. Wilson maintained that the Hawaiian Islands were created as a tectonic plate (extending across much of the Pacific Ocean) shifted to the northwest over a fixed hotspot, spawning a long series of volcanoes. He also conceived of the transform fault, a major plate boundary where two plates move past each other horizontally (e.g., the San Andreas Fault). His name was given to two young Canadian submarine volcanoes called the Tuzo Wilson Seamounts. The Wilson cycle of seabed expansion and contraction (associated with the Supercontinent cycle) bears his name.
- Age: Dec. at 84 (1908-1993)
- Birthplace: Ottawa, Canada
- Martha Hall Findlay (born August 17, 1959) is a Canadian businesswoman, entrepreneur, lawyer and politician from Toronto, Ontario, currently serving as president and CEO of the Canada West Foundation. Previously, she was elected to the House of Commons of Canada as the Liberal Party of Canada's candidate in the Toronto riding of Willowdale in a federal by-election held on March 17, 2008, to fill a vacancy created by former Liberal MP Jim Peterson's resignation. She was re-elected in the 2008 general election but lost her seat in the 2011 election. She had previously been the party's candidate for Newmarket—Aurora in the 2004 federal election, losing narrowly to Conservative candidate Belinda Stronach, and the first declared candidate for the Liberal Party leadership election to succeed Paul Martin in 2006. She was also an unsuccessful candidate in the 2013 leadership race.
- Age: 65
- Birthplace: Toronto, Canada
- Roland "Roy" McMurtry, (born May 31, 1932) is a lawyer, politician, and former judge in Ontario, Canada. He was a Progressive Conservative member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1975 to 1985. He served in the cabinet of Bill Davis as Attorney General and Solicitor General. After leaving politics he served as High Commissioner of Canada to the United Kingdom between 1985 and 1988. McMurtry later became Chief Justice of Ontario.
- Age: 92
- Birthplace: Thunder Bay, Canada
- Alan Tonks (born April 2, 1943) is a former Canadian politician. He was the Liberal MP for the federal riding of York South—Weston in Toronto from 2000 to 2011, and was the final Metro Toronto Chairman before the amalgamation of Metro Toronto into the new City of Toronto.
- Age: 81
- Birthplace: Toronto, Canada
- John David Roberts is a Canadian-born television journalist currently working for the Fox News Channel, as its chief White House correspondent.He joined Fox News in January 2011. Prior to Fox News, Roberts was at CNN where he was an anchor and Senior National Correspondent. He worked at various radio and television jobs before joining CTV in 1990, CBS News in 1992 and CNN in 2006. On March 12, 2009, Roberts was inducted into the Canadian Broadcast Hall of Fame. Prior to becoming their chief White House correspondent, Roberts was a national correspondent for Fox News, based in Atlanta.
- Age: 68
- Birthplace: Toronto, Canada
Harold Copp
Biochemist, PhysicianDouglas Harold Copp, (January 16, 1915 – March 17, 1998) was a Canadian scientist who discovered and named the hormone calcitonin, which is used in the treatment of bone disease.Born in Toronto, Ontario, he received his M.D. from the University of Toronto in 1939 and his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of California at Berkeley in 1943. In 1950 he became the first head of the physiology department in the newly established Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia.He was a Fellow of both the Royal Society (elected 1971) and the Royal Society of Canada.- Age: Dec. at 83 (1915-1998)
- Birthplace: Toronto, Canada
- Lin Chi-ling (born 29 November 1974) is a Taiwanese model, actress, singer and television host.
- Age: 50
- Birthplace: Taiwan, Taipei
- John Friedlander is a Canadian mathematician specializing in analytic number theory. He received his B.Sc. from the University of Toronto in 1965, an M.A. from the University of Waterloo in 1966, and a Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University in 1972. He was a lecturer at M.I.T. in 1974-76, and has been on the faculty of the University of Toronto since 1977, where he served as Chair during 1987-91. He has also spent several years at the Institute for Advanced Study. In addition to his individual work, he has been notable for his collaborations with other well-known number theorists, including Enrico Bombieri, William Duke, Andrew Granville, and especially Henryk Iwaniec. In 1997, in joint work with Henryk Iwaniec, Friedlander proved that infinitely many prime numbers can be obtained as the sum of a square and fourth power: a2 + b4. Friedlander and Iwaniec improved Enrico Bombieri's "asymptotic sieve" technique to construct their proof.
Michael Prue
Politician, CriticMichael David Prue (born July 14, 1948) is a politician in Ontario, Canada. Prue was mayor of East York, Ontario from 1993 to 1997 and subsequently represented the riding of Beaches—East York in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 2001 to 2014 as member of the New Democratic Party (NDP)'s Queen's Park caucus. He was a candidate in the 2009 Ontario NDP leadership election, finishing in fourth place. In 2018, he was elected to the town council of Amherstburg, Ontario where he now lives.- Age: 76
- Birthplace: Toronto, Canada
- A stylish and highly assured filmmaker, Egyptian-born Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan produced work that combined self-reflexive meditations on the nature of film and video, examinations of psycho-sexual behavior and a black, ironic sense of humor. Often ruminating on the themes of fractured families, voyeurism, obsession and technology, Egoyan emerged in the mid-1980s as a director to watch with early films like "Next of Kin" (1984), "Family Viewing" (1987) and "Speaking Parts" (1989). He made a big splash with the highly-charged erotic drama, "Exotica" (1994), which was a favorite at the Cannes Film Festival before earning an art house release in the United States. But it was his exemplary drama "The Sweet Hereafter" (1997) that earned him some of the greatest acclaim of his career, as well as two nominations at the Academy Awards. From there, he earned wider attention for "Felicity's Journey" (1999), "Ararat" (2002) and the Palme d'Or-winning "Where the Truth Lies" (2005). Egoyan remained one of the most challenging and talked-about directors on the international scene.
- Age: 64
- Birthplace: Cairo, Egypt
Liu Chao-shiuan
Politician, Educator, NovelistLiu Chao-shiuan (Chinese: 劉兆玄; pinyin: Liú Zhàoxuán; born 10 May 1943) is a Chinese educator and politician. He is a former president of the National Tsing Hua University (1987–1993) and Soochow University (2004–2008) and a former Premier of the Republic of China (2008–2009).- Age: 81
- Birthplace: Liuyang, China
Bernardo Padrón
Bernardo Padrón is a saxophonist-composer who was born in Caracas, Venezuela. From the age of 5 until the age of 27 he lived in Canada, growing up in Ottawa, and studying in Toronto. He then returned to Venezuela, and lived in Caracas for the following 12 years. Now, since October 2003, although maintaining an active working base in Caracas, Bernardo has made Toronto, Ontario once again, his home. After graduating from the University of Toronto's Faculty of Music Performance program in 1986, Bernardo played tenor and alto sax in the Toronto Latin musical community, as well as recording with various local jazz projects (Don Valley Parkway, Mosaic) as a sideman. In the spring of 1991, Bernardo travelled to Habana, Cuba to study Cuban percussion and arranging until February 1992. Upon arriving in Caracas in 1992, he was quickly integrated into the jazz scene, and began playing with Venezuela's top jazz artists (Biela DaCosta, El Gallo Velasquez, Jesús 'Chucho' Sanoja, and Martes 8:30, among others). During this time, Bernardo participated as tenor saxophonist on the following recordings: Biela DaCosta's 'Jazz and Blues' (1994), Andy Duran's 'Timeless' Vol.1 (1996), Ramón Carranza's 'Carranza Jazz' (1996), Martes 8:30's 'Ayer y Hoy' (1998), Gerardo Chacon's 'Espacial' (2000), and Frank Quintero's 'Celebración' (2003). In the commercial-pop genre, Bernardo has toured with Venezuela's internationally acclaimed artists: Kiara (singer), Luz Marina (as musical director) and Frank Quintero. From 1998 until early 2003, Bernardo divided his professional time equally in the areas of music production (for documentaries and television commercials) teaching and performing with his jazz group, with which he recorded his first Compact Disc as leader, composer, and producer: 'SEADANCE', released in 2001 and distributed internationally by Latin World Entertainment. Presently, Bernardo is concentrating on reintegrating himself into the Canadian jazz scene, and preparing for his next CD.- Birthplace: Caracas, Venezuela
- Eric C.R. Hehner, called Rick, is a Canadian computer scientist. He was born on 16 September 1947 in Ottawa. He studied mathematics and physics at Carleton University, graduating in 1969. He gained a PhD in computer science from the University of Toronto in 1974. He then joined the faculty there, becoming a full professor in 1983. He became the Bell University Chair in Software Engineering in 2001, and retired in 2012. Hehner's main research area is formal methods of software design. His method, initially called predicative programming, later called Practical Theory of Programming, is to consider each specification to be a binary (boolean) expression, and each programming construct to be a binary expression specifying the effect of executing the programming construct. Refinement is just implication. This is the simplest formal method, and the most general, applying to sequential, parallel, stand-alone, communicating, terminating, nonterminating, natural-time, real-time, deterministic, and probabilistic programs, and includes time and space bounds. This idea has influenced other computer science researchers, including Tony Hoare. Hehner's other research areas include probabilistic programming, unified algebra, and high-level circuit design. In 1979, Hehner invented a generalization of radix complement called quote notation, which is a representation of the rational numbers that allows easier arithmetic and produces no roundoff error.
- Age: 77
- Birthplace: Ottawa, Canada
Bernard Dov Cooperman
Bernard Dov Cooperman (born October 9, 1946) is a Louis L. Kaplan Associate Professor of Jewish History at the University of Maryland in the Department of History. Cooperman was on the faculty of Harvard University until 1990, has been a Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Studies at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a Lilly Fellow (1994–95). He served as Director of the Meyerhoff Center for Jewish Studies from 1991 to 1997. He received his B.A. from the University of Toronto in 1968, his M.A. from Brandeis University in 1969, his M.A. from Harvard University in 1972, and his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1976. He is the author of In Iberia and Beyond: Hispanic Jews Between Cultures.- Age: 78
- Rachel Sklar (born December 8, 1972) is a Canadian lawyer, CNN contributor, and media blogger.
- Age: 52
- Birthplace: Toronto, Canada
- Barbara Frum, OC (September 8, 1937 – March 26, 1992) was a US-born Canadian radio and television journalist, acclaimed for her interviews for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
- Age: Dec. at 54 (1937-1992)
- Birthplace: Niagara Falls, New York, USA
Bernard Etkin
Bernard Etkin, (May 7, 1918 – June 26, 2014) was a Canadian academic and one of the world's recognized authorities on aircraft guidance and control.- Age: Dec. at 96 (1918-2014)
- Birthplace: Toronto, Canada
Bernard Keble Sandwell
Bernard Keble Sandwell, or BK as he was more commonly known, (December 6, 1876 – December 7, 1954) was a Canadian author, and a magazine and newspaper editor.- Age: Dec. at 78 (1876-1954)
- Birthplace: Ipswich, United Kingdom
John Godfrey
EconomistJohn Ferguson Godfrey, (born December 19, 1942) is a Canadian educator, journalist and former Member of Parliament.- Age: 82
- Birthplace: Toronto, Canada
Bernard Yack
Bernard Yack (born 1952) is a Canadian born American political theorist. He received his B.A. from the University of Toronto and his Ph.D. in Philosophy from Harvard University, where he was a student of Judith Shklar. Yack has taught at numerous universities including Princeton University, & the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is the author of works of political and social philosophy such as The Problems of a Political Animal, and The Longing for Total Revolution: The Philosophic Sources of Social Discontent from Rousseau to Marx and Nietzsche. His most recent book is entitled Nationalism and the Moral Psychology of Community. He is currently the Lerman Neubauer Professor of Democracy and Public Policy at Brandeis University.- Age: 73
John Sopinka
Judge, Lecturer, AuthorJohn Sopinka, (March 19, 1933 – November 24, 1997) was a Canadian lawyer and puisne justice on the Supreme Court of Canada, the first Ukrainian-Canadian appointed to the high court.- Age: Dec. at 64 (1933-1997)
- Birthplace: Broderick, Canada