Patrick Watson, a veteran Canadian actor, producer, television host and former president of public broadcaster CBC/Radio-Canada, is dead. He was 92 years old.
Watson died Monday of natural causes; no other details were available. “Since his debut as a teenage actor on the CBC radio show The Kootenay Kidto his rich career at CBC News and his tenure as Chairman of the Board of CBC/Radio-Canada, Patrick Watson’s contribution to the Canadian public broadcaster and his service to Canadians in many areas has been significant, has made a difference and will not be soon forgotten,” the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Radio-Canada said in a statement obtained Tuesday by The Hollywood Reporter.
Born on December 23, 1929 in Toronto, Watson began performing on the CBC children’s radio series at age 14. The Kootenay Kid. After graduating from the University of Michigan and then the University of Toronto, Watson began working for CBC Television in 1955, eventually becoming a full-time producer on series like To close and Investigation.
In 1964, Watson helped develop and launch the CBC series This hour has seven days, a political newsmagazine series that ran for two years before the CBC ended the show and fired Watson and co-host Laurier Lapierre. Watson worked for a CTV affiliate in Ottawa and in 1981 started SCS Cable, a 24-hour arts and culture service that ran for a year on the American network.
Additionally, Watson has worked as a writer and director on The underwater world of Jacques Cousteau, hosted The Watson Report, live from Lincoln Center and The fifty-first state for WPBS channel 13 New York. He also created, produced and hosted the television series The fight for democracywhich has been sold in 30 countries.
In 1989 Watson returned to the CBC, this time as chairman, a position he held for five years until 1994 and during a period of cutting costs for the pubcaster. He was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1981 and promoted to Companion of the Order in 2002.
“Pop culture fanatic. Introvert. Devoted food trailblazer. Bacon geek. Lifelong coffee evangelist.”