Richard Donat obit

Richard Donat, Actor on ‘Haven,’ Dies at 84

Robert Donat’s nephew and Peter Donat’s brother also appeared on Broadway and in films including ‘The Weight of Water’ and ‘Amelia.’ 

He was not on the list.

Richard Donat, the Canadian actor who came from a notable acting family to portray Vince Teagues, the co-publisher of the local newspaper, on the supernatural TV series Haven, has died. He was 84.

A longtime resident of Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, Donat died March 28, his family announced.

His uncle was British star Robert Donat, who was known for his performances in such films as Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps (1935) and, in an Oscar-winning role, Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939).

His older brother was Peter Donat, the stage veteran who appeared in two films for Francis Ford Coppola and played the father of Agent Fox Mulder on The X-Files. He died in September 2018 at age 90.

Richard Donat portrayed Teagues, who worked as a sketch artist and editor at the small-town Haven Herald newspaper alongside his reporter brother, Dave (John Dunsworth), on all five seasons (2010-15) of Haven.

Loosely based on Stephen King’s 2005 novella The Colorado Kid, the series ran on Showcase in Canada and on Syfy in the U.S. and though set in Maine was filmed on the south shore of Nova Scotia, about a 45-minute drive from his home.

“I have always lived here and then this show comes along and suddenly your life is changed,” he said in 2012. “It is quite extraordinary really.”

Donat also was known for his turns on two other Canadian series, as Dr. Burnley on Emily of New Moon from 1998-2000 and as Colonel Boyle on the sitcom Blackfly in 2001-02.

On the big screen, he appeared in Tomorrow Never Comes (1978), My American Cousin (1985) — good for a Genie Award nomination — Kathryn Bigelow’s The Weight of Water (2000), The Event (2003) and Mira Nair’s Amelia (2009).

Richard Francois Donat was born on June 1, 1941, in Kentville, Nova Scotia. Inspired by his uncle and brother, he graduated from the National Theatre School of Canada in 1967 and acted on stages across the country.

He moved to Toronto in the mid-1970s and his starring turn as a man living with a drag queen in Hosanna, a two-hander written by French Canadian playwright Michel Tremblay, got him to Broadway in 1974.

Donat’s theater résumé also included Dora Mavor Award-winning work in Bertolt Brecht’s In the Jungle of the Cities and His Greatness and performances in Stone Angel, Our Town, Driving Miss Daisy, The Drawer Boy (which he also directed) and Sam Shepard’s Fool for Love.

And he could be heard on many a Christmas morning reading the poem Christmas at Sea by Robert Louis Stevenson on CBC Halifax radio.

He and his family lived on Nova Scotia’s south shore since 1989.

Survivors include his partner, Maggie Thomas; their sons, Owen and Morgan; and their grandchildren, Charlize, Nadia, Mira and Taran.

Donations in his memory can be made to the South Shore Regional Hospital in Bridgewater, and online condolences may be left here.

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