Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia
Donat, Peter
Actor on stage, and in television and film, Peter Donat was born Pierre Collingwood Donat, on January, 20, 1928 in Kentville Nova Scotia; died September 10, 2018 at his home in Point Reyes Station, California. His uncle was British film actor, Robert Donat, and his brother, Richard is also an actor. After graduating from Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Peter Donat studied for a year at the Yale School of Drama in the early 1950s. Following a chance meeting with Tyrone Guthrie in the Manhattan theatre district, he secured an audition, and got a part as Prince Leopold in The First Gentleman, a British costume drama by Norman Ginsbury, winning a Theater World Award for best supporting actor.
At the Stratford Festival during the early 1960s, Donat played a variety of roles, including Demetrius in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1960), Troilus in Troilus and Cressida (1963), Cassius in Julius Caesar (1965), and Pistol in Falstaff (1965). In 1961, he played a leading role in Donald Jack's stage play The Canvas Barricade, the first Canadian play performed at the Stratford Festival. He also performed frequently with the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. In 1995, he played Prospero in the Atlantic Theatre Festival production of The Tempest (dir. Michael Langham). In 2003, he played Hirst in Pinter’s No Man’s Land for Soulpepper Theatre Company.
Donat is probably best known for his role in six episodes of TV’s The X Files, where he played Agent Fox Mulder’s father. He appeared in many other TV series, including The F.B.I., Hawaii Five-O, Mannix, McMillan & Wife, Hill Street Blues and Murder, She Wrote, and as the doctor in Dallas. Film roles include a lawyer in The Godfather Part II (1974) and as US Attorney Otto Kerner in the film Tucker: The Man and His Dream. However, he claimed that theatre was always his first love.
Last updated 2018-09-17
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