Tom McCamus in Web of Deceit. Pic from Gothic Phantom's Lair
The London Free Press 7/11/07: Tom McCamus
McCamus caught break when hired on by Hutt
Working in the Grand's Young Company led to Stratford and Shaw.
Wed, July 11, 2007
By JAMES REANEY, SUN MEDIA
Born in Winnipeg in 1955, Tom McCamus's family moved to London in 1965 when his father came here for a head office job with Labatt.
He is in eighth season at the Stratford Festival. Artistic director Richard Monette asked him to join the company more than 10 years ago. McCamus has also played eight years at the Shaw Festival.
His film and television credits and selected awards include I Love a Man in Uniform (Genie award), Long Day's Journey Into Night, The Sweet Hereafter, Possible Worlds and Waking up Wally: The Walter Gretzky Story (Gemini and ACTRA awards).
Atom Egoyan, director of The Sweet Hereafter, often attends McCamus's stage performances.
Stratford 2007 roles: Antipholus of Ephesus in The Comedy of Errors; Sir Robert Chiltern in An Ideal Husband, which opens Aug. 11.
Stratford moment: "Richard's the one who asked me to come here in the first place in 1994 . . . I guess the moments are sitting around the table and talking about the script. It always reminds Richard about some story and it always has to do with something in the play." London roots: "I worked with Art Fidler at Oakridge . . . for a year after high school, I was with the Young Company under Heinar Piller" at Theatre London, a forerunner to the Grand. Alec Stockwell was the director of the Young Company. "Alec had gone to the University of Windsor and he convinced me to go to university there. The actual turning -- about making a decision to become an actor -- was at Windsor."
Biggest career break: "Right out of university, I got hired by Bill Hutt's Young Company at the Grand. That led to everything else" . . . including work at the Stratford and Shaw festivals and meeting new friends. "I've stayed close with them and I'm still working with a lot of them."
Personal: Married to Stratford actor Chick Reid, lives in Warkworth. She raises Nova Scotia duck tolling retrievers. He turns 52 this month.
Education: Bishop Townshend public school; Oakridge secondary school; University of Windsor (for drama).
Family: Son of John and Betty McCamus of London.
If it weren't for this career . . . "I wanted to be a writer. One of the reasons I went to Windsor was Joyce Carol Oates was the writer-in-residence there . . . I always thought that would be a possibility."
What's next: McCamus is to play in an adaptation of Misery by U.S. horror writer Stephen King, with Dora-winning actor Nicola Cavendish next spring at Toronto's CanStage.
© The London Free Press
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