{{Short description|Canadian actor}} {{Refimprove|date=November 2020}} {{Infobox person |name = Neil Munro |image = |caption = |birth_date = {{Birth-year|1947}} |birth_place = Musselburgh, Scotland |death_date = July 13, {{Death year and age|2009|1946}} |death_place = London, Ontario, Canada |occupation = Film director, actor and playwright }}
'''Neil Munro''' (1947–July 13, 2009) was a Scottish-born Canadian director, actor and playwright.
==Acting career== Born in Musselburgh, Scotland, Munro moved to Toronto at an early age. After graduating from the National Theatre School of Canada in 1967, he quickly established himself as one of the most compelling theatre actors in Canada, performing with Toronto Arts Productions, the National Arts Centre (where he played Hamlet, touring the role nationally), the Citadel Theatre, Theatre Calgary, Tarragon Theatre and the Toronto Free Theatre, as well as at the Shaw Festival and the Stratford Festival.
==Directing and writing== In 1985, Munro decided to retire permanently from acting for the stage, and to concentrate on directing and playwriting, appearing as an actor only occasionally on film, television and radio. His most notable appearances include ''The Jonah Look'' (which he also wrote), ''Beethoven Lives Upstairs'' (as Beethoven), ''John and the Missus'' and ''Dancing in the Dark'' (1986). His plays include ''Bob's Kingdom'' (Factory Theatre), ''Extreme Close Up'' (Toronto Free Theatre, 1980), an acclaimed adaptation of Shakespeare's ''Hamlet'', entitled ''Hamlet's Room'' (Theatre Plus, 1991) and, for Shaw Festival in 2005, an adaptation of Georges Feydeau's ''C'est une femme du monde'' called ''Something on the Side.''
==Shaw Festival== In the early 1990s, Munro was invited by Christopher Newton to become Resident Director at Shaw Festival. For that company he directed many acclaimed and often controversial productions of plays such as ''Misalliance'', ''The Plough and the Stars'', ''Chaplin (The Trial of Charles Spencer Chaplin, Esq.)'', ''Lord of the Flies'', ''Counsellor-at-Law'', ''Saint Joan'', ''The Front Page'', ''The Petrified Forest'', ''Rashomon'', ''Marsh Hay'', ''The Seagull'' and all of The Shaw Festival's productions of Granville Barker's plays, including ''The Voysey Inheritance'', ''The Marrying of Ann Leete'', ''Rococo'', ''Waste'', ''The Secret Life'', ''His Majesty'' and ''The Madras House''. Munro also directed for most of the major English-language theatres in Canada, including Neptune Theatre, Stratford Festival, Citadel Theatre and Canadian Stage Company.
==Awards and achievements== Munro received a Best New Play Dora Award for ''Bob's Kingdom'' and a Best Director Dora Award for ''Hamlet's Room''. He was also a Chalmers Award nominee for best new play for ''Extreme Close Up'' and, as an actor, has won two ACTRA awards.
==Personal life== Munro was married to the actress and painter Carole Galloway, who died in 2000; the couple had no children. Munro died in London, Ontario, after a lengthy struggle with cancer, on July 13, 2009.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/neil-munro-canadian-actor-director-dies-at-62-1.824185?ref=rss|title=Neil Munro, Canadian actor-director, dies at 62|date=2009-07-13|publisher=CBC News|access-date=2009-07-13}}</ref>
==Filmography== {| class="wikitable sortable" |- ! Year ! Title ! Role ! class="unsortable" | Notes |- |1982|| ''Murder by Phone'' || Winters || |- |1986|| ''Confidential'' || Hugh Jameson || |- |1986|| ''Dancing in the Dark'' || Harry || |- |1986|| ''In This Corner'' || Ambrose || |- |1986|| data-sort-value="Last Season, The" | ''The Last Season'' || Matt Keening || |- |1986|| ''Mistress Madeleine'' || Charles || |- |1987|| ''John and the Missus'' || Tom Noble || |- |1987|| ''Street Justice'' || Marty Evanoff || |- |1988|| ''Iron Eagle II'' || Edward Strappman || |- |1990|| data-sort-value="Gate II: Trespassers, The" | ''The Gate II: Trespassers'' || Art || |- |1992|| ''Beethoven Lives Upstairs'' || Ludwig van Beethoven || |- |1993 || ''Scales of Justice'' || Defense attorney || Episode "Regina v Truscott" |}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *{{IMDb name|0613154}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Munro, Neil}} Category:1947 births Category:2009 deaths Category:20th-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights Category:21st-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights Category:Canadian male stage actors Category:Canadian theatre directors Category:Male actors from Toronto Category:People from Musselburgh Category:Scottish emigrants to Canada Category:National Theatre School of Canada alumni Category:Canadian male dramatists and playwrights Category:20th-century Canadian male writers Category:21st-century Canadian male writers Category:Dora Mavor Moore Award winners