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Brent Carver (November 17, 1951 – August 4, 2020) was a Canadian actor best known internationally for performances in Kander and Ebb's Kiss of the Spider Woman. He played the central role of Molina in the premier production in Toronto (winning the Dora Award for best actor in a musical), in London's West End (nominated for an Olivier Award) and on Broadway for which he won the 1993 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical. A subsequent Broadway appearance in 1999 in Parade as Leo Frank, led to a second Tony Awards nomination for Best Actor in a Musical. Most of his career, however, was spent on Canadian stages and in Canadian film and television, work which was greeted with much acclaim and many awards, including the Governor General's Performing Arts Award.
Carver played the character Leo on the CBC TV series Leo and Me, which aired from 1977 to 1978, co-starring with Michael J. Fox.
In 1979 Carver made his U.S. debut in The Tempest, playing Ariel to Anthony Hopkins's Prospero. In 1982 Carver won the first of his four Dora Awards as Horst in Bent.
His stage work involved an extended association with Canada's Stratford Festival beginning in the 1980s, and continuing for more than thirty years, playing a wide array of Shakespeare roles, as well as appearing in several notable musical productions including the Pirate King in the 1985 production of The Pirates of Penzance, and in 2000 as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof.
In 1992, Carver originated the role of Molina in Kander and Ebb's Kiss of the Spider Woman when it premiered at the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts in Toronto. He played the role again at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London's West End, where he was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award, and again when the show moved to Broadway theatre in 1993, where he won a Tony Award for his performance, as well as a Drama Desk Award. He dedicated his Tony win to the late Canadian actress Susan Wright, who had died two years earlier in a fire in his Stratford Ontario house.
In 1998 Carver returned to Broadway and was nominated for a second Tony Award for his portrayal of Leo Frank in Jason Robert Brown and Alfred Uhry's musical Parade. He was awarded a Drama Desk Award for the same role.
Carver portrayed Ichabod Crane in the 1999 TV film The Legend of Sleepy Hollow which aired on Hallmark Channel. He played the title role in "The Trouble with Harry", an episode of the television series Twice in a Lifetime. He portrayed Leonardo da Vinci in Leonardo: A Dream of Flight in 2002.
In 2003, Carver appeared in the Off-Broadway production of My Life With Albertine at Playwrights Horizons, where he portrayed older Marcel and the Narrator. The production received a nomination for the Drama League Award as Distinguished Production of a Musical.
In May 2014, Carver received a Governor General's Performing Arts Award, Canada's highest honour in the performing arts, for his lifetime contribution to Canadian theatre.
In 2016, Carver performed in a musical show titled Walk Me to the Corner at the Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company in Toronto.Fricker, Karen. "The view from Brent Carver's corner". Toronto Star, November 6, 2016, page E1.
Death
Carver died on August 4, 2020, at the age of 68Birth 1951 at home in Cranbrook. The cause of his death was not made public.
Credits
Filmography
Theatre
External links
Categories: 1951 Births, 2020 Deaths, Canadian Male Film Actors, Canadian Male Musical Theatre Actors, Canadian Male Stage Actors, Canadian Male Television Actors, Canadian Male Voice Actors, Canadian People Of Irish Descent, Canadian People Of Welsh Descent, Governor General's Award Winners, Dora Mavor Moore Award Winners, Male Actors From British Columbia, People From Cranbrook, British Columbia, Theatre World Award Winners, Tony Award Winners
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