Walter Borden
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
July 20, 1942
Walter Borden | |
|---|---|
 Borden in 2018 | |
| Born | Walter Marven Borden July 20, 1942 New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, Canada |
| Occupations | Actor, poet, playwright |
Walter Marven Borden CM ONS (born July 20, 1942) is a Canadian actor, poet, and playwright. He is originally from New Glasgow, Nova Scotia.[1] His film and television credits include Nurse.Fighter.Boy, The Event, Gerontophilia, Lexx and Platinum.
Most prominent as a stage actor, he joined Halifax's Neptune Theatre company in 1972.[2] He has since appeared in stage productions across Canada, including William Shakespeare's Hamlet, Richard III, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merchant of Venice and Henry VIII, Aeschylus' Agamemnon, Jean-Paul Sartre's The Flies, James Weldon Johnson's God's Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse, Tennessee Williams' Orpheus Descending and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and Djanet Sears' Harlem Duet and The Adventures of a Black Girl in Search of God.[2] Since 2003, he has been a member of the Stratford Festival of Canada.[2]
He has also recorded and released an album, Walter Borden Reads Shakespeare's Sonnets to the Music of Fernando Sor, in collaboration with classical guitarist Paul Martell.
Openly gay,[1] he also wrote and performed his own autobiographical play Tightrope Time: Ain't Nuthin' More Than Some Itty Bitty Madness Between Twilight and Dawn, one of the first plays in the history of Black Canadian literature to directly present themes of male homosexuality.[1]
In 2023, the "tour de force" work The Last Epistle of Tightrope Time had a cross-provincial showing from Halifax, Toronto to Ottawa directed by virtuoso director Peter Hinton-Davis[3] It was later published by Nimbus Publishing[4]
His later writing credits include Testifyin' and Tellin' It Like It Is.[2]
Filmography
Film
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | One Heart Broken Into Song | Reverend Skinner | |
| 2000 | Our Daily Bread | Sam Downey | (TV Movie) |
| Blessed Stranger: After Flight 111 | Grieving Father | (TV Movie) | |
| 2001 | The Feast of All Saints | Grampere Lermontant | (TV Movie) |
| Passion and Prejudice | Mr. Peterson | (TV Movie) | |
| 2003 | The Event | Fred | |
| 2008 | Nurse.Fighter.Boy | Horace | |
| 2012 | 100 Musicians | Narration (voice) | (Short film) |
| 2013 | Gerontophilia | Melvyn Peabody | directed by Bruce LaBruce |
| A Dark Matter | The Demon | ||
| 2015 | Grandpa Was Here | Grandpa | (Short film) |
| The Hexecutioners | Mr. Poole | written by Tony Burgess, directed by Milos Somborac | |
| 2012 | GUION | John Brice | (Short film) |
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1996-1997 | Lexx: The Dark Zone Stories | His Divine Shadow | 2 episodes |
| 1997-2002 | Lexx | His Divine Shadow / Dr. Ernst Longbore / Dr. Ernst W. Longbore | 9 episodes, part of main cast |
| 2003 | Platinum | Alderman Ray | 1 episode, aired on UPN |
| 2004-2005 | Da Boom Crew | Additional voices | 13 episodes, Canadian/American children's television animated series |
| 2020 | Coroner | Harold Carruthers | 1 episode |
