Actor Gordon Pinsent is pictured in a Toronto hotel room as he promotes his film The River of My Dreams: A Portrait of Gordon Pinsent during the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival on Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2016.Chris Young/The Canadian Press
In the TIFF documentary The River of My Dreams: A Portrait of Gordon Pinsent, the adored actor recalled his first stint at the Stratford Festival in the early 1960s, when he was a mere company member who occasionally graced the stage as part of a forest. "When the great trees of Stratford are remembered," says Pinsent, now 86, "I will be one of them." Of course, the budding actor would later come to be known as something much more than forest fodder. He would return to Stratford in 1975 as an established star to play the lead in Bertolt Brecht's Trumpets and Drums, and this week, Pinsent was formally remembered by being named as this year's recipient of the Stratford Festival Legacy Award. The native Newfoundlander will be honoured at a Lloyd Robertson-hosted gala at the Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto on Sept. 26. Those wishing to hear about the actor's Stratford days and much more can catch Brigitte Berman's graceful documentary on him at TIFF, screening Sept. 17, 3:15 p.m., at Scotiabank Theatre.
Brad Wheeler