Gary Reineke obit

Actor Gary Allen Reineke Has Died

 He was not on the list.

Gary was born in Thorp, Wisconsin, one of 10 children of Lester and Merle Reineke. His career path was unique in his family of builders and reflected his love of language. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire and became an English teacher for middle and high school students in Milwaukee and Minneapolis. Because he struggled with systems that valued standardized test scores over imagination, he abandoned teaching and entered theater school in Seattle, Washington. There he met the challenge of his new calling and developed great skill under the tutelage of Arne Zazlove. Gary began his career as an extraordinarily gifted, present, and generous performer. He settled in Toronto and in 1977 he married actress Brenda Donohue, who tragically died of cancer just a few years later in 1979 at the age of twenty-eight. Brenda was an artist so loved by the Toronto theatre community that for many years an annual award was given in her name.

Gary had roles in many of the finest theatres in North America including the Guthrie in Minneapolis; The Citadel in Edmonton; The Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, Winnipeg; the Globe in Regina and in Ontario the Stratford Festival; the Grand Theatre; the Canadian Stage Theatre; Tarragon; Factory Theatre and others. In Montreal, the Centaur Theatre and in New York City at Broadway's Virginia Theatre and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. This names only a few.

For four decades Gary was in demand for distinctive, carefully crafted performances. Since 1969 that includes well over a hundred roles in theatre, movies, television and radio. He savoured many of his signature roles including Tilden in Sam Shepard's Buried Child for which he received a Dora Mavor Moore Award. He was often recognized on the sidewalks of Toronto by appreciative theatregoers for that and many other roles. He is fondly remembered for his work on Festen for The Company Theatre with several of Canada's finest actors. In the 1980s and 90s he was nominated for many awards including a Genie (winning for The Grey Fox) and Geminis (The King Chronicle, parts 1 and 2; Dieppe) and one Soiree des Masques (The Visitor).

His passing has generated an outpouring of sadness, appreciation and thanks for his life and work from friends, actors, directors, producers, stage managers and others from across Canada. All of these and more admired Gary's brilliance and commanding talent. He was a generous and caring mentor to many younger actors. To paraphrase Shakespeare, we shall not see his like again.

Gary is survived by his goddaughter Joslyn Rogers, his excellent friend Allegra Fulton, his chosen family Tim and Martha Leary, and his surviving sister Carol Lange and her children Brad and Andrea, and brothers Duane Reineke, David Reineke, Rick Reineke and Chuck Reineke.

One of ten siblings born in Wisconsin to builder Lester Reineke and his wife Merle, Gary was a graduate of the University of Wisconsin. He began his career as an English teacher. Upon growing dissatisfied with the school system, he enrolled at a theatrical academy in Seattle under the tutelage of acting coach Arne Zazlove, a long-standing artistic director of Seattle's Bathhouse Theatre. Reineke commenced acting on the stage in 1968 and on screen in 1974.

His theatrical roles have included Inca king Atahualpa in The Royal Hunt of the Sun and Hamlet in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. He performed at many theatres throughout Canada and also appeared on Broadway during a brief 1986 run of the play Execution of Justice. In 1980, he received a Dora Award for his performance in Sam Shepard's play Buried Child. His best known motion picture role was as the implacable Pinkerton detective Seavey, relentless in his pursuit of The Grey Fox (1982) (train robber Bill Miner, nicknamed 'The Gentleman Bandit'). For this performance, he won a Canadian Genie Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor. During the 80s and 90s, Reineke became a stalwart of Canadian and American TV productions, including the crime dramas Due South (1994) and The Murdoch Mysteries (2004), the World War II miniseries Dieppe (1993) (as Canadian Major General John Hamilton "Ham" Roberts), Mutant X (2001) and the courtroom drama Street Legal (1987). He also made repeat appearances as different characters in episodes of A Nero Wolfe Mystery (2001).

Gary Reineke died on 23 September 2024. He was predeceased by his wife, the Toronto-born actress Brenda Donohue, who passed away from cancer in 1979 at the age of just 28.

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