Dave Broadfoot (1925-2016)

2003 Lifetime Artistic Achievement (Screens and Voices (formerly Broadcasting and Film))

For more than 50 years as a writer, performer, producer and director, Dave Broadfoot has left his mark on just about every medium open to the performing artist. His enormous success and popularity are due entirely to his own work, his own creativity, his own vision of Canada.

Born in North Vancouver in 1925, Dave spent several years in the Merchant Navy and the clothing business before launching his career as an artist. Within days of earning his first professional engagement in Victoria, he quit his day job and headed for Toronto, arriving the day CBC TV took to the airwaves in September 1952. Within weeks he was on TV, as a stand-up comedian in The Big Revue, which led to a ten-year association with the legendary Spring Thaw.

In the years that followed Dave appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show and in revues in Canada the USA and England. In the spirit of the best of his profession Dave has produced and performed for the Canadian Forces in Korea, the Middle East, Cyprus and the Balkans.

In 1973 he was one of the founders of The Royal Canadian Air Farce, and for 15 years told the Canadian story through the iconic figures of Corporal Renfrew, Big Bobby Clobber and the Member for Kicking Horse Pass.

His first solo television special in 1996, at the age of 70, was a tour-de-force and won one of the highest audience numbers of the season. Two more specials have followed, and his autobiography, Old Enough To Say What I Want, was published in 2002—and re-published in 2003.

Dave Broadfoot is an Officer of the Order of Canada (1983) and an honorary Sergeant-Major of the RCMP. Fifty years into his career he is still fresh, funny and meaningful to Canadians. There are no apparent signs of retirement.