Jack Creley was born in Chicago, Illinois on March 6, 1926. During the Great Depression, his family moved to California, where he acted in amateur theatre as a teenager, until he was old enough to enlist in the United States Army late in World War II. He was shot in the shoulder during the Battle of Okinawa, and spent the rest of his life telling the story that he knew he was destined to become an actor when he realized he was responding to the injury like a character in a John Wayne film.
After the end of the war, he went to New York City to study acting under Erwin Piscator at the Dramatic Workshop, where he was a classmate of Harry Belafonte, Tony Curtis and Rod Steiger. He moved to Montreal in 1951 to take a job with the Mountain Theatre Company, and remained there until 1954, when he moved to Toronto.
In Toronto, he acted on stage, including frequent performances at the Stratford Festival,[4] and often appeared in CBC Television anthology series, including Scope, Playbill, CBC Summer Theatre, Encounter, Folio, Startime, Horizon, Playdate and several Wayne and Shuster sketches, as well as performing in cabaret shows. In 1956, Creley starred in the Canadian production of Salad Days, and in 1958 he starred in the Canadian production of Visit to a Small Planet. In 1960, he played two roles at the Stratford Festival, as Lord Capulet in Romeo and Juliet and as King Philip in King John.
Creley had his first major film role in 1961, in the Western film The Canadians. His film career was only a sidelight to his stage career.
Late in life, Creley suffered two strokes, and began to develop aphasia. He died on March 10, 2004 in Toronto.
CRELEY, Jack (Jack Craig Creley) [3/6/1926, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. – 3/10/2004, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (congestive heart failure)] – theater, film, TV actor.
The Canadians – 1961 (Greer)
Welcome to Blood City – 1976 (Webb)
No comments:
Post a Comment