Shirley Douglas

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search
Shirley Douglas
Born April 2, 1934 (1934-04-02) (age 75)
Weyburn, Saskatchewan, Canada
Spouse(s) Donald Sutherland (1966-1970)

Shirley Jean Douglas, OC (born April 2, 1934) is a Canadian television, film and stage actress and activist. Her acting career combined with her family name has made her recognisable in Canadian film, television and politics.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Personal life

Douglas was born in Weyburn, Saskatchewan, the daughter of Irma May (née Dempsey) and Tommy Douglas (1904-1986), former Canadian statesman and Premier of Saskatchewan. She attended high school at Central Collegiate Institute (now closed) in Regina. She is the mother of three children: Thomas, from her first marriage, and of twins Rachel and Kiefer Sutherland, from her second marriage (1966-1970) to actor Donald Sutherland.

[edit] Acting work

This section requires expansion.

Douglas's acting career began in 1950 with a role in the Regina Little Theatre entry at the Dominion Drama Festival,[1] where she won the best actress award. In 1952 Shirley graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, UK, and stayed in England for several years, performing for theatre and television, before returning to Canada in 1957.

She continues to act and her career since then has encompassed several memorable roles on stages in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. She has portrayed prominent feminist Nellie McClung, family matriarch and business woman May Bailey in the television series Wind at My Back, Hagar Shipley in Margaret Laurence's The Stone Angel, and even characters in popular science fiction series like The Silver Surfer and Flash Gordon.

Douglas appeared on stage in 1997 with her son Kiefer Sutherland at the Royal Alexandra Theatre and the National Arts Centre in The Glass Menagerie. In 2000, she performed on stage in The Vagina Monologues. In 2006, she portrayed former American Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in the American Broadcasting Company mini-series The Path to 9/11.

For her contributions to the performing arts, she was named an officer of the Order of Canada in 2003.

[edit] Activism

Shirley Douglas moved to Los Angeles, California in 1967 after marrying actor Donald Sutherland. She became involved in the American Civil Rights Movement, the campaign against the Vietnam War, and later on behalf of immigrants and women. She helped establish the fundraising group "Friends of the Black Panthers." In 1969, Douglas was arrested in Los Angeles for conspiracy to possess unregistered explosives, after she allegedly attempted to purchase hand grenades for the Black Panthers. She claimed that the FBI was trying to frame and spent five days in jail. Subsequently, the U.S. government denied her a work permit based on this incident. Douglas, now divorced from Sutherland, was forced to leave the U.S. in 1977. She and her three children moved to Toronto.

As the daughter of (Tommy Douglas), the man who brought medicare to Canada , she has also been one of Canada's most prominent activists in favor of the publicly-funded health care system over privatization of health care services. During the Canadian federal election, 2006, Douglas campaigned on behalf of the federal New Democratic Party.

[edit] Awards

[edit] Filmography

[edit] References

  1. ^ Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia
  2. ^ "Shirley Douglas 2004 Inductee". CanadasWalkofFame.com. Archived from the original on 10 February 2009. http://www.webcitation.org/5eUaOJhIW. 

[edit] External links

[edit] Further reading

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_Douglas"
Personal tools