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Reid, Fiona

Ontario-based actor, born in Whitstable, Great Britain July 24, 1951, who has played lead roles in many of the major venues across Canada.

Her father was a British military doctor who travelled around the world before arriving in Canada in 1964. She studied at McGill University and Banff Centre for the Arts.

Among the many productions in which she has played major roles are Trojan Women (St. Lawrence Centre); The Seagull (Neptune Theatre); A Midsummer Night's Dream (Stratford Festival); Private Lives, Lady Windermere's Fan, Present Laughter, Hedda Gabler, The Charity That Began at Home, The Sea, The Divine: a Play for Sarah Bernhardt by Michel Marc Bouchard 2015 (Shaw Festival); Uncle Vanya (Tarragon Theatre); Jitters (National Arts Centre); Hayfever (Manitoba Theatre Centre); Tom Stoppard's Indian Ink (April, 2002) and Rock 'n' Roll (2009) at Canadian Stage; and Joanna McClelland Glass's Mrs. Dexter and Her Daily at Arts Club Theatre in 2010. At the Citadel Theatre, she has played in: The Philadelphia Story; The Importance of Being Earnest (April, 1999) as Lady Bracknell; The Constant Wife (2007), The Glass Menagerie (2010), August: Osage County (2011), all directed by Bob Baker; and God of Carnage (2012), dir. James MacDonald. For Soulpepper Theatre Company she starred in A Streetcar Named Desire directed by Diana Leblanc (July, 1999), and Entertaining Mr. Sloan dir. Brendan Healy (July 2013).

She has worked with the country's top directors including Derek Goldby, Robin Phillips, Christopher Newton, Alan Lund and Bill Glassco.

Fiona Reid also has a very successful television and film career. From 1974 to 1980 she played Cathy King in the CBC series King of Kensington.

She has twice won the Dora Mavor Moore award, for Fallen Angels at the St. Lawrence Centre in 1993, and for Six Degrees of Separation at Canadian Stage in 1995. In 2011, she won an Elizabeth Sterling Haynes Award (Sterling Award) for her role in August: Osage County at the Citadel Theatre.

In 2007, she became a Member of the Order of Canada. She was awarded an honorary degree from Bishop's University, and The Barbara Hamilton Award (2008). In 2011 she was awarded an ACTRA Award of Excellence.

She has an elegant, luminescent quality on stage and gives the spectator the sense that she is enjoying herself. She has said of her stage work, "If easy success was all I wanted, I could have stayed in television." And, "I could have been a 50 per center had I not been challenged by people who made me feel what I did was never enough."

Profile by Gaetan Charlebois. Additional information provided by Claire Sedore, Christopher Hoile, and Anne Nothof.

Last updated 2021-08-26

Reid, Kate

Actor born in London, England, in 1930; died in Stratford, Ontario 1993 of a brain tumour.

Kate Reid came to Canada at the age of 10 months. She was educated at Havergal College for girls, the University of Toronto, and the Royal Conservatory of Music before appearing at Hart House Theatre and subsequently on the summer theatre circuit, including in Bermuda with Christopher Plummer. She performed in London, England, and was then invited to the Stratford Festival in 1959. She appeared on and off at the Festival until her death, in strong roles of the Shakespearean repertory (Celia in As You Like It, Emilia in Othello, Nurse in Romeo and Juliet, Katherina in The Taming of the Shrew, and Lady Macbeth opposite Christopher Plummer), and the modern classics (Mme Ranevskaya, The Cherry Orchard)). She was simply amazing in the Stratford production of the two-hander The Gin Game.

Her Broadway career was also very successful, with many of America's great dramatists writing roles for her (Tennessee Williams, Slapstick Tragedy; Arthur Miller, The Price; Edward Albee, A Delicate Balance).

She had also played at the Shaw Festival (title role in Mrs. Warren's Profession and The Apple Cart 1976); National Arts Centre; and Theatre Aquarius (among others) and had a notable career on television and in film. Her performance opposite Dustin Hoffman in the televised Death of a Salesman was study in subtlety next to Hoffman's fascinating but over-the-top creation.

She was a member of the Order of Canada (1974), and had won several awards for her film and television work as well as Dora Mavor Moore Awards in 1980 and 1981.

Profile by Gaetan Charlebois. Additional information provided by Paula Sperdakos.

Last updated 2020-09-13