Lorne Greene

Lorne Greene
Greene in 1969
Born	Lyon Himan Green (1915-02-12)12 February 1915 Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Died	11 September 1987(1987-09-11) (aged 72) Santa Monica, California, U.S.
Other names	Chaim Green Lorne Hyman Greene
Occupations	Actor musician radio personality singer
Years active	1939–1987
Spouses	Rita Hands ​ ​ (m. 1938; div. 1960)​ Nancy Deale ​ (m. 1961)​
Children	3
Relatives	Sam Raimi (son-in-law)

Lorne Hyman Greene

He gave up on a career in chemical engineering, and upon graduation, found a job as a radio broadcaster for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).

During World War II, Greene served as a Flying officer in the Royal Canadian Air Force.

Afterward, he was assigned as the principal newsreader on the CBC National News, with CBC gave him the nickname "The Voice of Canada". However, following Canada's entry into World War II in 1939, his role in delivering distressing war news in sonorous tones with his deep, resonant voice caused many listeners to call him "The Voice of Doom", especially as he was delegated the dreaded list of soldiers killed in the war.

During his radio days, Greene invented a stopwatch which ran backwards (i.e. it would start from a given number and count down to zero);^[4] this helped radio announcers gauge how much time was left while speaking.

During his CBC radio career, Greene also narrated documentary films, such as the National Film Board of Canada's Fighting Norway (1943).

Greene left the CBC and became a freelancer after the war when the network ordered staff announcers to turn over a large percentage of any income they earned from film narration. Greene continued to appear on CBC on a freelance basis while becoming the newsreader for private radio station CKEY in Toronto, while also returning to acting work both on stage and in radio plays.^[5]

After closing his Academy of Radio Arts in 1952, Greene relocated to the United States.

American television

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The first of his continuing TV roles was as the

In the 1960s, Greene capitalized on his image as Ben Cartwright by recording several albums of country-western/folk songs, which Greene performed in a mixture of spoken word and singing. In 1964, Greene had a

In the 1977 miniseries Roots, he played the first master of Kunta Kinte, John Reynolds. Through the 1970s, Greene was the spokesman for Alpo Beef Chunks dog food commercials, one of the possible origins of the phrase "Eating your own dog food".

In 2007, TV Guide listed Ben Cartwright as the nation's second-most popular TV father (behind

He appeared in the HBO mockumentary The Canadian Conspiracy, about the supposed subversion of the United States by Canadian-born media personalities. For nearly a decade, Greene co-hosted the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on NBC with Betty White.

Back on Canadian television

In the 1980s, Greene devoted his energies to wildlife and environmental issues, including hosting and

Greene was married twice, first to Rita Hands of Toronto (1938–1960, divorced). Some reports list the start of their marriage as 1940. They had two children, twins born in 1945: Charles and Belinda Susan. His second wife was Nancy Deale (1961–1987, Greene's death), with whom he had one child, Gillian Dania Greene, who is married to director Sam Raimi.

The Ponderosa II House was built by Greene in 1960 in Mesa, Arizona. It is located at 602 S. Edgewater Drive. It is a replica of the Bonanza set house from the former Ponderosa Ranch in Incline Village, Nevada. It is listed in the Mesa Historic Property Register.^[9]

Death

Greene died on 11 September 1987, aged 72, from complications from pneumonia, following ulcer surgery, at Saint Johns' Hospital in Santa Monica, California.^[10] He was interred at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City.^[11]

Honours and awards

Greene was made an Officer of the Order of Canada on 28 October 1969, "for services to the Performing Arts and to the community."^[12]

Greene was awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree by his alma mater, Queen's University, in 1971.^[13] He was the 1987 recipient of the Earle Grey Award for Lifetime Achievement at the Canadian Gemini Awards. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1559 N. Vine Street.

In 1974, Greene received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.^[14]

In February 1985, Greene was the Krewe of Bacchus King of Mardi Gras.^[15]

In May 2006, Greene became one of the first of four entertainers to ever be honoured by Canada Post by being featured on a 51-cent postage stamp.^[16]

Greene was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame, found on King Street and Simcoe Street in Toronto, in 2015.^[17]

Lorne Greene Academy of Radio Arts

Greene founded and was dean of the Lorne Greene Academy of Radio Arts in Toronto in 1945, which trained a number of future broadcasters and actors including Leslie Nielsen, James Doohan, Les Rubie, Gordie Tapp, Fred Davis, Billie Mae Richards, William Davidson, Alfie Scopp, Murray Chercover, Jonathan Frid, Cec Linder, Les Lye, Bill Luxton, Roy Currie. The school was located on Jarvis Street across from what was then the CBC Radio building. Its faculty included many CBC staff such as Mavor Moore, Fletcher Markle, Lister Sinclair, Andrew Allan, and Esse Ljungh, and graduated a total of 381 students in seven years, 90% of whom found work in the industry. Though successful academically, the school continually lost money, resulting in Greene closing the school in 1952, allowing him to sell the building to recoup his losses.^{[18][19][20][21][22]}

Filmography

See also

• Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood
• Western (genre)

References