Richard Donat is a Canadian actor known for his roles in Canadian and American television. He is currently into his second season as a cast member of the Canadian-American TV series, Haven

Haven (TV series)

Haven is a supernatural drama television series loosely based on the Stephen King novel The Colorado Kid. The show, filmed on the South Shore of Nova Scotia, Canada, is an American/Canadian co-production. The one-hour drama premiered on July 9, 2010, on Syfy...

. Donat is the younger brother of Peter Donat

Peter Donat

Peter Donat is a Canadian-American actor known for his roles in American television.-Early life:Donat was born Pierre Collingwood Donat in Kentville, Nova Scotia, Canada, the son of Marie and Philip Ernst Donat, a landscape gardener. His uncle was British actor Robert Donat...

 and the nephew of British actor Robert Donat

Robert Donat

Robert Donat was an English film and stage actor. He is best-known for his roles in Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps and Goodbye, Mr...

.

Career

Donat has had a long career playing character roles mainly on television, though he has had minor roles in films such as The Weight of Water

The Weight of Water

The Weight of Water is a 1997 bestselling novel by Anita Shreve. Half of the novel is historical fiction that speculates about the true events of the Smuttynose Island murders of 1873.-Plot summary:...

and Amelia

Amelia (film)

Amelia is a 2009 English-language biographical film of the life of Amelia Earhart, starring Hilary Swank as Earhart along with a cast that includes Richard Gere, Christopher Eccleston and Ewan McGregor. It is directed by Mira Nair based on a script initially written by Ronald Bass...

. He has also narrated several documentaries, including a number of Nova

NOVA (TV series)

Nova is a popular science television series from the U.S. produced by WGBH Boston. It can be seen on the Public Broadcasting Service in the United States, and in more than 100 other countries...

 episodes.

Among his TV appearances Donat was Doctor Burnley in the Canadian television series Emily of New Moon

Emily of New Moon (TV series)

Emily of New Moon was a Canadian television series, which aired on CBC Television from 1998 to 2000. The series originally aired in the United States on the Cookie Jar Toons block on This TV and it's currently seen in Canada on the Viva, Bravo! and Vision TV cable channels...

from 1998 to 2000. He played Colonel Boyle, the fort commander in the Canadian comedy series Blackfly

Blackfly (TV series)

Blackfly is a Canadian sitcom which ran on the Global Television Network for two seasons in 2001 and 2002. Although shot single-camera like most Canadian comedies, this series was shot on film rather than videotape and contains a laugh track rather than making use of the usual live audience because...

for its two seasons, 2001-2002. Currently he plays Vince Teagues, one of the editors of the local newspaper in the town of Haven from the TV series of the same name. Although Haven is supposed to be in Maine, the series is filmed in Nova Scotia where Donat hails from.

In 1984 Donat won a Dora Mavor Moore Award

Dora Mavor Moore Award

The Dora Mavor Moore Award is an award presented annually by the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts which honours theatre, dance, and opera productions in Toronto. Named after Dora Mavor Moore, who helped establish Canadian professional theatre, the award was established on December 13, 1978...

 for "Outstanding Performance by a Male in a Leading Role" for his work in Brecht

Brecht

Brecht is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Antwerp. The municipality comprises the towns of Brecht proper, Sint-Job-in't-Goor and Sint-Lenaarts. On January 1, 2006 Brecht had a total population of 26,464...

's In the Jungle of Cities

In The Jungle of Cities

In The Jungle of Cities is a play by the German modernist playwright Bertolt Brecht. Written between 1921 and 1924, it received its first theatrical production under the title In the Jungle at the Residenztheater in Munich, opening on 9 May 1923. This production was directed by Erich Engel, with...

.. In 2007 he won a Merritt Award for "Outstanding Performance - Supporting Actor" for his role in Sam Shepard's Fool For Love

Fool for Love (play)

Fool for Love is a play written by American playwright/actor Sam Shepard.-Plot:The "fools" in the play are battling lovers at a Mojave Desert motel. May is hiding out at said motel when an old childhood friend and old flame, Eddie. Eddie tries to convince May to come back home with him and live in...

.

Richard Donat is also a director and won the Mecca Award in 2004 for his direction of The Drawer Boy

The Drawer Boy

The Drawer Boy is a play by Michael Healey. It is a two-act play set in 1972 on a farm near Clinton, Ontario. There are only three characters: the farm's two owners, Morgan and Angus, and Miles Potter, a young actor from Toronto doing research for a collectively created theatre piece about...

.

External links

• Richard Donat at Northernstars.ca