John Drainie
Encyclopedia
John Robert Roy Drainie was a Canadian
actor and television presenter, who was called "the greatest radio actor in the world" by Orson Welles
.
Drainie was most famous in Canada for two long-running roles: the lead role of Jake in the radio adaptation of W. O. Mitchell
's Jake and the Kid, and a popular one-man stage show in which he played humorist Stephen Leacock
. As well, he played Matthew Cuthbert in the 1956 CBC
film adaptation of Anne of Green Gables
, and the narrator in the CBC's 1952 series Sunshine Sketches
.
Drainie began his career in radio with CJOR
, CKNW
and CBU
in Vancouver. He was one of a group of actors, including Fletcher Markle
, Alan Young
, Lister Sinclair, Len Peterson
, Arthur Hill
, Bernie Braden
and Andrew Allan
, who emerged in Vancouver prior to World War II
, and eventually moved to Toronto to become part of the CBC
's "Golden Age of Radio".
Drainie and Ruth Springford
once appeared in a radio play by Peterson, during which Springford apparently forgot that she had one more scene, and left the studio early. Drainie reportedly improvised a monologue
until the director grabbed another actress and thrust her into the scene, at which point Drainie ad libbed his way back into the script. The radio audience reportedly never realized that anything was amiss. He also worked with other notables throughout his long radio career, including Jane Mallett
, Toby Robins
, Barry Morse
, James Doohan
, and Christopher Plummer
.
In 1954 he voiced an "extraordinarily lifelike imitation" of the character modelled after Joseph McCarthy
in the satirical radio play The Investigator
, written by Reuben Ship
, himself deported by the INS
to Canada in 1953 following anti-communist HUAC hearings.
In 1964, Drainie was also a cohost with Laurier Lapierre
of the controversial newsmagazine series This Hour Has Seven Days
. Ill with cancer
, Drainie left the series in its second year, and was replaced by Patrick Watson.
Drainie died at the age of 50 in 1966. His widow, Claire
, subsequently remarried Canadian theatre impresario Nathan A. Taylor. John and Claire Drainie's eldest daughter, Bronwyn Drainie
, is a noted Canadian journalist and broadcaster who wrote a biography of her father, Living the Part: John Drainie and the Dilemma of Canadian Stardom, in 1988.
Two major Canadian awards, ACTRA
's John Drainie Award
and the Writers' Trust of Canada
's Drainie-Taylor Biography Prize
, were named in Drainie's honour.
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
actor and television presenter, who was called "the greatest radio actor in the world" by Orson Welles
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
.
Drainie was most famous in Canada for two long-running roles: the lead role of Jake in the radio adaptation of W. O. Mitchell
W. O. Mitchell
William Ormond Mitchell, PC, OC better known as W.O. Mitchell was a Canadian writer.-Early life and career:...
's Jake and the Kid, and a popular one-man stage show in which he played humorist Stephen Leacock
Stephen Leacock
Stephen Butler Leacock, FRSC was an English-born Canadian teacher, political scientist, writer, and humorist...
. As well, he played Matthew Cuthbert in the 1956 CBC
CBC Television
CBC Television is a Canadian television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster.Although the CBC is supported by public funding, the television network supplements this funding with commercial advertising revenue, in contrast to CBC Radio which are...
film adaptation of Anne of Green Gables
Anne of Green Gables (1956 film)
Anne of Green Gables is a Canadian television film directed by Don Harron. The film was based upon the novel, Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery....
, and the narrator in the CBC's 1952 series Sunshine Sketches
Sunshine Sketches (TV series)
Sunshine Sketches, also known as Addison Spotlight Theatre, is a Canadian dramatic television series which aired on CBC Television from 1952 to 1953. It was the first English-language drama to be broadcast on Canadian television.-Premise:...
.
Drainie began his career in radio with CJOR
CKBD (AM)
CKPK-FM is a radio station in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It broadcasts at 100.5 MHz on the FM dial. As of 2008, the station is owned by the Jim Pattison Group and airs an adult album alternative format promoted as "100.5 The Peak"...
, CKNW
CKNW (AM)
CKNW owned by Corus Entertainment, is the highest-rated talk radio station in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It broadcasts on AM 980.The station's content is based on news and current events...
and CBU
CBU (AM)
CBU is a Canadian radio station, which broadcasts the programming of the CBC Radio One network in Vancouver, British Columbia. The station broadcasts from Steveston on 690 AM and from Mount Seymour on 88.1 FM....
in Vancouver. He was one of a group of actors, including Fletcher Markle
Fletcher Markle
Fletcher Markle was a Canadian actor, screenwriter, television producer and director.Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Markle began his career in the early 1940s in Vancouver, British Columbia doing radio dramas with a group whose members included John Drainie, Lister Sinclair, Bernie Braden and Alan...
, Alan Young
Alan Young
Alan Young is an English-Canadian actor and voice actor, best known for his role as Wilbur Post in the television series Mister Ed and as the voice of Scrooge McDuck in Disney films, TV series and video games...
, Lister Sinclair, Len Peterson
Len Peterson
Leonard Byron Peterson was a Canadian playwright, screenwriter and novelist. His career started in 1939 when he sold a script to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation....
, Arthur Hill
Arthur Hill (actor)
Arthur Edward Spence Hill was a Canadian actor best known for appearances in British and American theater, movies and television...
, Bernie Braden
Bernard Braden
Bernard Chastey Braden was a Canadian-born English actor and comedian.Braden was born in Vancouver, British Columbia and educated at Magee Secondary School, Kerrisdale, Vancouver. He produced plays on CJOR Vancouver in the late 1930s and early 1940s. He married Barbara Kelly in 1942 and they moved...
and Andrew Allan
Andrew Allan
Andrew Allan , born in Scotland, was the national head of CBC Radio Drama from 1943 to 1955. He oversaw the work of some of the finest talents of the day – writers and actors such as Lister Sinclair, Mavor Moore, W.O...
, who emerged in Vancouver prior to World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, and eventually moved to Toronto to become part of the CBC
CBC Radio
CBC Radio generally refers to the English-language radio operations of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC operates a number of radio networks serving different audiences and programming niches, all of which are outlined below.-English:CBC Radio operates three English language...
's "Golden Age of Radio".
Drainie and Ruth Springford
Ruth Springford
Ruth Springford was a Canadian radio, stage, television and film actress....
once appeared in a radio play by Peterson, during which Springford apparently forgot that she had one more scene, and left the studio early. Drainie reportedly improvised a monologue
Monologue
In theatre, a monologue is a speech presented by a single character, most often to express their thoughts aloud, though sometimes also to directly address another character or the audience. Monologues are common across the range of dramatic media...
until the director grabbed another actress and thrust her into the scene, at which point Drainie ad libbed his way back into the script. The radio audience reportedly never realized that anything was amiss. He also worked with other notables throughout his long radio career, including Jane Mallett
Jane Mallett
Jane Mallett was born in London, Ontario, Canada. She was a notable Canadian stage and film actress, born Jean Dawson Keenleyside....
, Toby Robins
Toby Robins
Toby Robins was a Canadian actress of film, stage and television.Toby Robins starred in hundreds of radio and stage productions in Canada from the late 1940s through the 1960s, working with such stars as Jane Mallett, Barry Morse, John Drainie, Ruth Springford, James Doohan, and many others...
, Barry Morse
Barry Morse
Herbert "Barry" Morse was an Anglo-Canadian actor of stage, screen, and radio best known for his roles in the ABC television series The Fugitive and the British sci-fi drama Space: 1999...
, James Doohan
James Doohan
James Montgomery "Jimmy" Doohan was a Canadian character and voice actor best known for his role as Montgomery "Scotty" Scott in the television and film series Star Trek...
, and Christopher Plummer
Christopher Plummer
Arthur Christopher Orne Plummer, CC is a Canadian theatre, film and television actor. He made his film debut in 1957's Stage Struck, and notable early film performances include Night of the Generals, The Return of the Pink Panther and The Man Who Would Be King.In a career that spans over five...
.
In 1954 he voiced an "extraordinarily lifelike imitation" of the character modelled after Joseph McCarthy
Joseph McCarthy
Joseph Raymond "Joe" McCarthy was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957...
in the satirical radio play The Investigator
The Investigator
The Investigator was a radio play written by Reuben Ship and first broadcast by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation on May 30 of that year...
, written by Reuben Ship
Reuben Ship
Reuben Ship was a Canadian playwright and screenwriter best known for his 1954 radio satire The Investigator, which lampooned the Army-McCarthy Hearings and the anticommunist paranoia of the Second Red Scare.-Biography:...
, himself deported by the INS
Immigration and Naturalization Service
The United States Immigration and Naturalization Service , now referred to as Legacy INS, ceased to exist under that name on March 1, 2003, when most of its functions were transferred from the Department of Justice to three new components within the newly created Department of Homeland Security, as...
to Canada in 1953 following anti-communist HUAC hearings.
In 1964, Drainie was also a cohost with Laurier Lapierre
Laurier LaPierre
Laurier L. LaPierre, OC is a retired Canadian Senator and former broadcaster, journalist and author. He is a member of the Liberal Party of Canada....
of the controversial newsmagazine series This Hour Has Seven Days
This Hour Has Seven Days
This Hour Has Seven Days is a controversial CBC Television newsmagazine which ran from 1964 to 1966. The show, inspired by the BBC-TV and NBC-TV satire series That Was The Week That Was, was created by Patrick Watson and Douglas Leiterman as an avenue for a more stimulating and boundary-pushing...
. Ill with cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
, Drainie left the series in its second year, and was replaced by Patrick Watson.
Drainie died at the age of 50 in 1966. His widow, Claire
Claire Drainie Taylor
Claire Drainie Taylor was a Canadian actor and writer, who wrote and acted in radio dramas for CBC Radio from the 1930s through the 1960s....
, subsequently remarried Canadian theatre impresario Nathan A. Taylor. John and Claire Drainie's eldest daughter, Bronwyn Drainie
Bronwyn Drainie
Bronwyn Drainie is a Canadian arts journalist. Currently editor of the Literary Review of Canada, she has also been a columnist and book reviewer for The Globe and Mail, and was formerly a host of programming on CBC Radio including the flagship program Sunday Morning...
, is a noted Canadian journalist and broadcaster who wrote a biography of her father, Living the Part: John Drainie and the Dilemma of Canadian Stardom, in 1988.
Two major Canadian awards, ACTRA
ACTRA
The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists is a Canadian labour union representing performers in English-language media. It has 22,000 members working in film, television, radio, and all other recorded media....
's John Drainie Award
John Drainie Award
The John Drainie Award is presented by the Canadian performers organisation ACTRA at the Gemini Awards. Although meant to be presented annually there have been years where it was not presented...
and the Writers' Trust of Canada
Writers' Trust of Canada
The Writers' Trust of Canada is a non-profit organization which provides financial support to Canadian writers.Founded by Margaret Atwood, Pierre Berton, Graeme Gibson, David Young and Margaret Laurence, the Writers' Trust of Canada was registered as a non-profit organization in 1976...
's Drainie-Taylor Biography Prize
Drainie-Taylor Biography Prize
The Drainie-Taylor Biography Prize is a Canadian literary award, presented annually by the Writers' Trust of Canada for the best work of biography, autobiography, or personal memoir....
, were named in Drainie's honour.