Douglas Campbell

Douglas Campbell was a stage actor based in Canada who was born in Glasgow, Scotland. His interest in theater began at London's Old Vic, where at seventeen he was a stage hand and saw Tyrone Guthrie direct King John. He first performed in 1941 on the Old Vic tour of Medea and Jacob's Ladder. Guthrie brought him to Canada in 1953 as the new Stratford Festival of Canada opened, and he played Hastings in its first Richard III. He played the title role in Oedipus Rex, staged and filmed in 1954. At Stratford he won great acclaim as Othello in 1959 and often played Falstaff. He set up the Canadian Players in 1954 and in 1955 acted and directed at the Crest Theatre in Toronto. From 1966 to 1967 he was artistic director of the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. He received the Order of Canada in 1997 and a Governor General's Performing Arts Award in 2003.