Canadian TV Pioneer Patrick Watson Dies at 92
Patrick Watson, a veteran Canadian actor, producer, TV host and one-time chairman of pubcaster CBC/Radio-Canada, has died. He was 92.
Watson died on Monday of natural causes; no further details were available. “From his start as a teen actor on CBC Radio’s The Kootenay Kid, to his storied career with CBC News and his time as chair of the CBC/Radio-Canada board of directors, Patrick Watson’s contribution to Canada’s public broadcaster and his service to Canadians across a number of fields was far-reaching, made a difference and will not soon be forgotten,” the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. and Radio Canada said in a statement on Tuesday obtained by The Hollywood Reporter.
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Born on Dec. 23, 1929 in Toronto, Watson at 14 began acting as part of the CBC radio kids series The Kootenay Kid. After graduating from the University of Michigan and then the University of Toronto, Watson began work with CBC Television in 1955, ahead of becoming a full-time producer on series like Close-Up and Inquiry.
In 1964, Watson helped develop and launch the CBC series This Hour Has Seven Days, a political news magazine 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 launched CBS Cable, a 24-hour arts and culture service that ran for one year at the American network.
In addition, Watson worked as a writer and director on The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau, hosted The Watson Report, Live from Lincoln Centre and The Fifty-First State for WPBS channel 13 New York. He also created, produced and hosted the TV series The Struggle for Democracy, which was sold into 30 countries.
In 1989, Watson returned to the CBC, this time as chairman, a post he held for five years until 1994 and during a period of cost-cutting for the pubcaster. He was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1981 and was promoted to Companion of the Order in 2002.
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