Pierre Collingwood Donat (January 20, 1928 – September 10, 2018), known as Peter Donat, was a Canadian actor. He was a co-founding company member of the American Conservatory Theater, and a frequent player at the Stratford Festival. He was also known to television audiences for his roles as Elmo Tyson on the primetime soap opera Flamingo Road (1981-82) and as William Mulder, the father of Fox Mulder, on The X-Files (1995-99). He won a Theatre World Award for The First Gentleman (1957), and was nominated for a Genie Award for Best Supporting Actor for The Bay Boy (1984).
Donat graduated from Acadia University, then studied at the Yale School of Drama. There, he first came to attention as a stage actor in the lead of a production of Cyrano de Bergerac.
In 1961, he played a leading role in Donald Jack's stage play The Canvas Barricade, the first Canadian play performed at the Stratford Festival.
Donat was a prominent member of the American Conservatory Theater (ACT) in San Francisco for a number of years. He was also active in local theater, most notably playing his first singing role as Professor Higgins in the 1988 Cabrillo Stage production of My Fair Lady.
In 1995, he played Prospero in The Tempest at the Atlantic Theatre Festival.
In 2003, he starred as Hirst in No Man's Land for Toronto’s Soulpepper.
His credits include: , Banacek, The Waltons, Hawaii Five-O, Mannix, Charlie's Angels, Lou Grant, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Captains and the Kings, Rich Man, Poor Man Book II, The Feather and Father Gang, The Eddie Capra Mysteries, Dallas, Quincy, M.E., Hart to Hart, Hill Street Blues, Simon & Simon, Murder, She Wrote, and the 1976 series Sara. He also starred in Cyrano de Bergerac playing the title role, in 1974 on the PBS anthology Theatre in America. He was a regular cast member of the 1980s primetime serial, Flamingo Road as Elmo Tyson, in 1993 on the series Time Trax as the antagonist Dr. Mordecai Sahmbi, and more recently had a recurring role as Bill Mulder, Fox Mulder father, in The X-Files.
Donat also worked extensively in films. Some of his more prominent roles included The Hindenburg (1975), F.I.S.T. (1978), The China Syndrome (1979), The War of the Roses (1989), Skin Deep (1989) and The Game (1997). He was shortlisted to play Tom Hagen in The Godfather (1972), though the role ultimately went to Robert Duvall. He would later play Senate Committee lawyer Questadt in The Godfather Part II (1974), and would work with director Francis Ford Coppola again in (1988).
He also narrated the biographical film chronicling the life and work of famed mythologist Joseph Campbell, The Hero's Journey: A Biographical Portrait (1987) and moderated the multi-volume video series, The World of Joseph Campbell: Transformation of Myths Through Time (1989), giving insightful commentary and celebrating Campbell's brilliance as a scholar and storyteller.
Donat died at his home in Point Reyes Station, California, on September 10, 2018, due to complications of diabetes. He was 90.
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