Brent Carver

Brent Carver (November 17, 1951 – August 4, 2020) was a Canadian actor who was best known for his performances on Broadway in Parade as Leo Frank and Kiss of the Spider Woman as Molina, for which he won the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical in 1993.

Early life

Carver was born of Welsh and Irish heritage in Cranbrook, British Columbia, the son of Lois (Wills), a clerk, and Kenneth Carver, who was in the lumber business. He was the third of seven children, none of whom went into show business, apart from himself. He almost became a teacher, but continued participating in theatre. He attended the University of British Columbia from 1969 to 1972. He sang from an early age, with his father who played guitar. Carver's favorite actors were Spencer Tracy and Bette Davis.

Career

Carver was known for a variety of stage and film roles, including The Wars, Kronborg: 1582, Lilies, Larry's Party, Elizabeth Rex, Millennium, Shadow Dancing, and Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love. Carver originated the role of Gandalf in the Toronto stage production of The Lord of the Rings and has appeared in several Soulpepper Theatre Company productions such as The Wild Duck, Don Carlos and as the Pirate King in the 1985 production of The Pirates of Penzance.

Carver played the character Leo on the CBC Television series Leo and Me, which aired two seasons from 1977 to 1978.

Carver made his US debut in The Tempest, playing Ariel to Anthony Hopkins's Prospero. Carver went on to win a Dora Award as Horst in Bent, in Toronto. His stage work involved an extended association with Canada's Stratford Shakespeare Festival in the 1980s, including an original rock version of Hamlet, as the lead, and later in 2000 as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof.

In 1993, Carver won a Tony Award which he dedicated to the late Canadian actress Susan Wright, who had died two years earlier in a house fire in Stratford, Ontario. In May 2014, Carver received a Governor General's Performing Arts Award, Canada's highest honor in the performing arts, for his lifetime contribution to Canadian theatre.

Carver portrayed Ichabod Crane in the 1999 TV film The Legend of Sleepy Hollow which aired on Odyssey. He played the title role in "The Trouble With Harry", an episode of the television series Twice in a Lifetime directed by David Winning. He portrayed Leonardo da Vinci in Leonardo: A Dream of Flight in 2002.

In 2016, Carver performed in a musical show called Walk Me to the Corner at the Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company in Toronto.

Death

Carver died on August 4, 2020, at the age of 68 at home in Cranbrook.

Credits

Television/film

• The Beachcombers (1972)
• Inside Canada (1974)
• One Night Stand (1978)
• Leo and Me (1978)
• Crossbar (1979)
• The Wars (1983)
• Cross Country (1983)
• Anne's Story (1984)
• All for One (1985)
• The Pirates of Penzance (1985)
• Love & Larceny (1985)
• Adderly (1987)
• Much Ado About Nothing (1987)
• Spies, Lies & Naked Thighs (1988)
• Shadow Dancing (1988)
• The Twilight Zone (1989)
• War of the Worlds (1989)
• Millennium (1989)
• Love and Hate (1989)
• The Hidden Room (1991)
• The Shower (1992)
• Street Legal (1994)
• The Song Spinner (TV Movie) (1995)
• Lilies (1996)
• Margie Gillis: Wild Hearts in Strange Times (1996)
• Whiskers (TV Movie) (1997)
• Due South (1997)
• Balls Up (TV Movie) (1997)
• L'histoire de l'Oie (1998)
• Leonardo: A Dream of Flight (1998)
• The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1999)
• The City (2000)
• Twice in a Lifetime (2000)
• Deeply (2000)
• Ararat (2002)
• The Event (2003)
• Elizabeth Rex (2004)
• This Is Wonderland (2005)
• Prairie Giant: The Tommy Douglas Story (2006)
• Lightchasers (2007)
• The Whale (2014)

Theatre

• Jaques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris (1972)
• Bent (1981)
• Hamlet (1986)
• Cabaret (1987)
• Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love (1990)
• Kiss of the Spider Woman (1993–95)
• Cyrano de Bergerac (1994)
• Richard II (1995)
• High Life (play) (1996)
• Don Carlos (1998)
• Parade (1998–99)
• Fiddler on the Roof (2000)
• Larry's Party (2001)
• King Lear (2004)
• Lord of the Rings (2006)
• Elephant Man (2007)
• As You Like It (2010)
• Romeo and Juliet (2013)
• Evangeline (2015)
• Twelfth Night (Stratford Festival) (2017)
• The School for Scandal (Stratford Festival) (2017)