Dave Broadfoot
Dave Broadfoot OC (December 5, 1925 – November 1, 2016) was a Canadian comedian and satirist.[1] He is best known for his performances as a member of the Royal Canadian Air Farce.[2]
Early life
[edit ]Broadfoot was born in North Vancouver, British Columbia, to a religious family. He left high school in 1943 and joined the merchant navy, serving until 1947.[1] [2]
Career
[edit ]In the late 1940s, Broadfoot returned home and participated in community theatre in Vancouver, eventually gravitating towards comedy.
He moved to Toronto in 1952 and for ten years was a writer and performer in the stage revues Spring Thaw[3] and The Big Review.[4] In 1962, Spring Thaw had a run at the Hammersmith Theatre in London, England under the name Clap Hands, with a cast that included Broadfoot, Corinne Conley, Jack Creley and Eric Christmas.[5]
In the 1950s and 1960s, Broadfoot appeared on several CBC television shows, including The Big Revue, the Wayne and Shuster Show , and Comedy Café, on the Ed Sullivan Show in the U.S. in 1955, and on radio with Funny You Should Say That.[6] [7] He also had occasional film roles in the early 1970s, including in the films Hold on to Daddy's Ears (Tiens-toi bien après les oreilles à papa), The Rebels (Quelques arpents de neige), Enuff Is Enuff (J'ai mon voyage!) and The Sloane Affair .
From 1973 to 1993 he was a member of the radio version of the Royal Canadian Air Farce .[2] He retired from regular performing when the troupe moved to television, although he continued to appear on the show as an occasional guest star, including the TV series finale in 2008.[8]
In addition to stand-up routines in the traditional format, Broadfoot created a number of recurring characters[9] including, most notably:
- Big Bobby Clobber, a professional hockey player who seemed to have taken a few too many hits or else was not very sharp to begin with.[10]
- David J. Broadfoot, the Honourable Member of Parliament for Kicking Horse Pass, representing the New Apathetic Party. (Kicking Horse Pass is a mountain pass in the Canadian Rockies with a negligible population.)
- Sgt. Renfrew of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). Broadfoot performed this character for the RCMP on a number of occasions, receiving 'promotions' over the years.[11] He was an honorary Sergeant-Major. Broadfoot also wrote the scripts for a comic strip adaptation based on this character, which was drawn by Olga Urbansky in the late 1970s.[12]
After leaving Air Farce, Broadfoot toured comedy clubs and appeared at the Just for Laughs festival. He starred in the 1998 comedy special, Old Enough To Say What I Want,[13] and two years later in Old Dog, New Tricks, winning Gemini Awards for both.[6]
Broadfoot also starred in the short-run sitcom XPM . He received several ACTRA and Juno awards and was an Officer of the Order of Canada.[2] In 2003, Broadfoot received a Governor General's Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement for his work in broadcasting.[14] He wrote an autobiography, also entitled Old Enough to Say What I Want (ISBN 0-7710-1657-3). He retired in 2005. Beginning in 2006, the Canadian Comedy Awards gave the Dave Broadfoot Award for Special Achievement.[15] [16]
He also did voices for two animated Christmas specials, George and the Christmas Star and Bluetoes the Christmas Elf, and made a guest appearance as a hospital patient in the hit TV series, Puppets Who Kill . Broadfoot died on November 1, 2016, at the age of 90.[6]
References
[edit ]- ^ a b Erickson, Annette. "Dave Broadfoot". Canadian Encyclopedia . Historica-Dominion. Archived from the original on February 4, 2013. Retrieved August 4, 2012.
- ^ a b c d "Dave Broadfoot, iconic Canadian comedian of the Royal Canadian Air Farce, dead at 90". Toronto Star, Peter Edwards, Nov. 2, 2016
- ^ Ottawa Citizen . "Spring Thaw's 17th edition is now cast". January 4, 1964, Entertainment p. 3. Retrieved on May 27, 2013.
- ^ "Canadian Comedy Legend Dave Broadfoot Dies at 90". Hollywood Republic, 11/2/2016 by Etan Vlessing
- ^ "Clap Hands Finds London Home". The Globe and Mail , October 13, 1962.
- ^ a b c Iorfida, Chris (November 1, 2016). "Dave Broadfoot, Royal Canadian Air Farce comedian, dead at 90". CBC News. Retrieved November 2, 2016.
- ^ "Dave Broadfoot" Archived November 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, The Canadian Encyclopedia
- ^ Horace Newcomb; Lambdin Kay Distinguished Professor for the Peabody Awards Horace Newcomb (February 3, 2014). Encyclopedia of Television. Routledge. pp. 1969–. ISBN 978-1-135-19472-7.
- ^ Brownstein, Bill. "Air Farce veteran Broadfoot commandeers La Diligence". Montreal Gazette , August 9, 1986, p. C-3. Retrieved on May 27, 2013.
- ^ Mary Jane Miller (November 1, 2011). Turn Up the Contrast: CBC Television Drama since 1952. UBC Press. pp. 151–. ISBN 978-0-7748-4321-8.
- ^ Broadfoot, Dave (July 1, 2006). "Dave Broadfoot's Canada". Smile of the Day (blog). Archived from the original on March 8, 2012. Retrieved August 4, 2012.
- ^ "Olga Urbansky". Lambiek Comiclopedia. Retrieved December 29, 2019.
- ^ Michael Schultz (October 31, 2012). Heckle: Notes From The Peanut Gallery. BookBaby. pp. 39–. ISBN 978-0-9879627-0-6.[permanent dead link ]
- ^ "Dave Broadfoot – biography". Governor General's Performing Arts Awards Foundation. Retrieved January 27, 2014.
- ^ "Nominations & Awards Archives". Canadian Comedy Awards. The Canadian Comedy Foundation for Excellence. Archived from the original on May 15, 2021. Retrieved October 21, 2017.
- ^ "The Canadian Comedy Awards & Festival". The Canadian Encyclopedia. March 4, 2015. Retrieved December 6, 2017.
External links
[edit ]- 1925 births
- 2016 deaths
- Canadian stand-up comedians
- Canadian sketch comedians
- Canadian radio personalities
- Canadian male voice actors
- Officers of the Order of Canada
- Royal Canadian Air Farce
- Canadian sailors
- Canadian satirists
- Canadian comics writers
- Canadian male comedians
- Comedians from British Columbia
- 20th-century Canadian comedians
- 21st-century Canadian comedians
- Governor General's Award winners
- People from North Vancouver
- Canadian Screen Award winning writers