Canada Post stamp honours the late Norman Jewison, one of the country's most celebrated filmmakers

Christopher.Sorensen — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 13:00:56 +0000

Christopher.Sorensen Tue, 08/27/2024 - 09:00

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(source photo by Peter Bregg for HELLO! Canada)

Joe Howell

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Our Community

Alumni

Faculty of Arts & Science

Film

Humanities

Vic One

Victoria College

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A U of T alumnus, Jewison served as chancellor of Victoria University in the ��Ƶ from 2004 to 2010

Canada Post recently honoured acclaimed Canadian filmmaker – and ��Ƶ alumnus – Norman Jewison with the recent release of a commemorative stamp.

Jewison, who died in January at age 97, was one of Victoria College’s most distinguished graduates. He was nominated for best director three times at the Academy Awards: for In the Heat of the Night (1967), Fiddler on the Roof (1971) and Moonstruck (1987).

He also served as chancellor of Victoria University in the ��Ƶ from 2004 to 2010, with the Jewison stream of Vic One, the award-winning first-year program at Victoria College, named in his honour.

“As Canadian as maple syrup, as Canadian as a Prairie sunset, and now we have as Canadian as Norman Jewison on a stamp – which may be the winning entry,” said comedian Rick Mercer during an unveiling event on July 24.

The event was hosted by the hosted at the Canadian Film Centre (CFC), which was established by Jewison in 1988 and serves as an incubator for Canadian film talent.

Mercer, who was joined at the launch by director and U of T alumnus David Cronenberg, later told CBC News that Jewison was a “class act” who “believed in young people.”

Cronenberg, meanwhile, told the audience that, “When saying goodbye, [Jewison] would always say ‘stay strong,’ because he knew how much strength you needed to do what we did.”

Paul Gooch, a professor emeritus of philosophy who was president of Victoria University during Jewison’s time as chancellor, was among the attendees at the unveiling.

“It was quite joyful because Norman was such a wonderful guy and people wanted to tell stories about his life,” said Gooch. “All of the speakers referred to the fact that he was a storyteller and didn’t want to preach, despite being very concerned about social justice issues.

“He was great on human follies and the prejudices that we have.”

Gooch recalled Jewison’s remarkable support of young people. “As chancellor, he loved to interact with the students,” said Gooch. “He had something he did occasionally called ‘chat with the chanc,’ where he would have a group of students over to his place on Gloucester Lane and just sit around talking.”

Professor Emerita Pauline Thompson and Professor Emeritus Paul Gooch (supplied image)

Jewison is the fourth Victoria College graduate to be recognized with a stamp by Canada’s postal service in recent years, joining Margaret Atwood, Northrop Frye and Donald Sutherland. He was closely involved with the stamp’s creation and personally chose the image, which was taken at the CFC in 2007 by Peter Bregg for HELLO! Canada.

“After the photo appeared in Hello!, Norm called me up and asked if he could use it elsewhere,” said Bregg. “I said, ‘Yes,’ with pleasure. For three or four years after that he’d send me a litre of maple syrup from his farm as a thank you, which I found quite sweet, no pun intended. I’ve seen the photo everywhere since then.”

“Because the launch event was held at the CFC, the post office had the idea to let people recreate the original photo,” added Bregg. “You got a five-by-seven-inch print of yourself in Norm’s seat taken from the same angle.”

Jewison’s commemorative stamp is now available online and at Canada Post locations across the country.

Tributes pour in for Hollywood legend – and U of T alumnus – Donald Sutherland

rahul.kalvapalle — Tue, 25 Jun 2024 19:03:35 +0000

Tributes pour in for Hollywood legend – and U of T alumnus – Donald Sutherland

rahul.kalvapalle Tue, 06/25/2024 - 15:03

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Alumnus, honorary degree recipient and iconic film actor Donald Sutherland (Photo by Dave Hogan/Getty Images)

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Our Community

Victoria College

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“Few actors were in as many artistically significant films all through their lives, decade after decade, or were as integral to the medium’s success and longevity”

Donald Sutherland’s recent death has sparked a global outpouring of tributes remembering the actor as a shape-shifting performer whose range spanned roles in M*A*S*H, the Hunger Games, Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Six Degrees of Separation.

The ��Ƶ alumnus’s son, Kiefer Sutherland, announced the news in an Instagram post last week.

“I personally think one of the most important actors in the history of film,” the younger Sutherland wrote.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kiefer Sutherland (@kiefersutherland)

Critic Matt Zoller Seitz concurred with this assessment in an article for Vulture, the pop culture arm of New York Magazine: “Few actors were in as many artistically significant films all through their lives, decade after decade, or were as integral to the medium’s success and longevity.”

The New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, the Guardian, the Globe and Mail and CBC were among the other news outlets around the world that published tributes to Sutherland as a stalwart onscreen presence.

Donald Sutherland seen in his 1958 graduation photo (photo from Torontonensis)

Before he became a silver-haired icon of the silver screen, Sutherland honed his acting skills at U of T, where he graduated from Victoria College in 1958, laying the foundation for a prolific Hollywood career.

Born in Saint John, N.B., on July 17, 1935, Sutherland first became enchanted with performing after seeing a magic show in a church when he was 10. By age 14, he was a part-time DJ on CKBW-FM, a local radio station in Bridgewater, N.S.

Yet, his father urged him to pursue a steady vocation – so he enrolled in U of T’s engineering program. Sutherland chose U of T “because of its well-known reputation, as well as its remarkable theatre program,” wrote Tiffany Leung for the U of T History Society in 2016.

Though he had apparently never seen a theatre play prior to enrolling at Victoria College, Sutherland would prove to be a natural. He became a member of the UC Follies comedy troupe and received excellent reviews from both the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail for his role as Stephano in a Hart House production of The Tempest.

Sutherland later said of Hart House Theatre: “It’s a theatre with arms that embrace you, comfort you, push you, applaud you. It gives birth to people who make theatre. It nurtures them. It guides them. It sets them free and they wear the mantle of that theatre for the rest of their lives.”

Donald Sutherland, centre, performs in The Tempest (photo courtesy of U of T Archives)

He went on to win best actor at the Inter-Varsity Drama Festival for his role in a 1958 Victoria University production of Jean-Paul Sartre’s No Exit; the win coincided with his completion of a dual degree in engineering and drama. Buoyed by his success on stage at U of T, he travelled across the Atlantic to attend the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

His big break came in 1967 when he was cast as a last-minute replacement in the war film the Dirty Dozen, according to IMDB. Sutherland’s extraordinary career on stage and in television and movies would go on to span seven decades and more than 190 acting credits.

His accolades included a Primetime Emmy Award, two Golden Globes, an Honorary Oscar Award, induction into Canada’s Walk of Fame and being named a companion of the Order of Canada. He received an honorary doctorate from U of T in 1998 in recognition of his acting and his championing of social issues.

Sutherland maintained ties with his alma mater throughout his life, including lending his voice to a 2019 U of T recruitment video.

Steffen Reinhart, assistant director of recruitment and admissions communications, recalls thinking Sutherland would be “out of reach” – but says he agreed and recorded the audio remotely.

“It was a mainstay in our recruitment work for many years, with many students doing a double take when they realized they were hearing President Snow [from the Hunger Games] tell them about all the opportunities at U of T,” Reinhart says.

News of Sutherland’s passing was met with a deluge of tributes from members of the U of T community.

Canadian literary luminary Margaret Atwood, whose time at Victoria College overlapped with Sutherland’s, mourned his passing on X. “He went to Vic in Toronto. He was a great actor even then,” she posted.

(L-R) Donald Sutherland, Hal Jackman and Norman Jewison at U of T convocation in 1998 (photo by Lisa Sakulensky and Steve Frost courtesy of Victoria University Library, U of T)

Wendy Cecil was chair of U of T’s Governing Council when Sutherland earned his honorary degree in 1998.

“When he received his honorary doctorate, every woman wanted their picture taken with him,” she said. “I’ve always remembered how he started his speech. He took the podium and shouted, ‘If you smoke, stop now!’

“He was a compelling orator and made an impression on everybody there.”

Anne Tait, who also overlapped with Sutherland at Vic, said she had the pleasure of working with him professionally later in life. She also recalled Sutherland performing at The Alumnae Theatre, a company founded by female U of T graduates in 1918.

“Donald was in A Dream Play by August Strindberg when we produced it at our Coach House on Huntley Street,” she said. “To play the ‘voice from heaven,’ Donald had to get into to the apartment above the stage and speak through its heating vent to the audience below.

“Truly a voice from above.”

– With files from Adina Bresge

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