Murray Westgate

Murray Westgate

Birth : 1918-04-16, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada

Death : 2018-08-27

History

Like most young men at the time with the outbreak of World War Two, Murray Westgate signed up to serve his country. He joined the Canadian navy and was posted to Halifax where he was trained as a wireless operator. On his discharge in 1945, he heard that a repertory company was being formed on the west coast and so he became a member of Vancouver`s first professional theatre company, Everyman Theatre, which had been formed in 1946 by Sydney Risk. A touring company resulted and Westgate and a group of young actors toured the West. He then joined the CBC in Vancouver and was cast in radio dramas for which the CBC Vancouver studios were famous. In 1949 he moved to Toronto where his voice was soon heard in many CBC network radio productions out of the Toronto studios, among them the long-running Sunday series which began as Stage 44, directed by Andrew Allan, and the Ford Television Theatre, produced by Allan Savage. Westgate won an ACTRA Award in 1979 for his work on the made-for-television movie, Tyler. He is probably best remembered by a certain age group for being the spokesman for Imperial Oil, appearing in commercials for 17 years, especially when they were a major sponsor of Hockey Night In Canada on the CBC. Westgate died at Toronto’s Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto.

Profile

Murray Westgate

Movies

Scanners II: The New Order
George Kellum
A scanner discovers a plot by renegade elements in the city government to take power with the help of evil scanners.
Heavenly Bodies
Coach Hudson
A small "Dance-ercize" studio fights for its existence against the unscrupulous owner of a rival club. The conflict boils down to a "Dance Marathon" to settle the score.
Shock-Trauma
Police Superintendent Grier
Dr. R. Adams Cowley, the Baltimore physician who pioneered medicine's first shocktrauma unit, fights hospital bureaucracy to gain recognition for his center.
Honeyboy
Doctor
Rico 'Honeyboy' Ramirez is a Puerto Rican from the South Bronx who finds fame and fortune as a middleweight boxer. But he soon learns that it's not all it's cracked up to be when he loses sight of his goals. He becomes romantically involved with his attractive publicist, and then he has to prove himself in the ring after learning that his biggest victory was rigged by his shady, mob-connected, promoters.
Happy Birthday to Me
Gatekeeper
Virginia is proud that she belongs to a clique. The best students at a private school. But before her 18th birthday, a gruesome set of murders take place and her friends are the ones who are falling prey. Could it be her? She suffers from blackouts due to a freak accident one year earlier. We soon learn the truth behind her accident and what is going on...
The Kidnapping of the President
Archie Standler
A South American quasi-revolutionary/guerilla/terrorist and a misled, admiring girl compatriot manage to kidnap the U.S. President during a diplomatic visit to Toronto.
F.D.R.: The Last Year
Cordell Hull
Though visibly frail and weary, President Franklin D. Roosevelt runs for a precedent-setting fourth term. He also oversees plans for the D-Day Invasion and engages in tempestuous summit meetings with his wartime allies Stalin and Churchill.
Fish Hawk
Billie Firman
A hardened and embittered man turns his life around with the help of a farm boy in this uplifting family tale. Down on his luck and dependent on booze, Native American Fish Hawk (Will Sampson) changes his fate when he accepts a job hunting down a bear that's been killing local livestock. His temporary residence with the Boggs family brings young Corby (Charles Fields) into his life, and the boy's friendship gives Fish Hawk a new reason to live.
The Courage of Kavik, the Wolf Dog
Mac
The story of a champion Eskimo sled dog named Kavik who survives a plane crash in the wilds of Alaska and is found and cared for by a young boy named Andy Evans. But the dog's owner finds Kavik and takes him back to his home in Colorado where the dog escapes and embarks on a 2,000-mile odyssey in search of Andy.
Running
Mr. Finlay
An Olympic hopeful marathon runner hopes his success will be the answer to his marriage woes and other personal problems.
Crossbar
Carver
The story of an Olympic high jumper, played by Brent Carver, who loses his leg and yet doggedly persists in his pursuit of athletic glory. Released a year before Terry Fox's Marathon of Hope, this made-for-Canadian-TV movie, which also stars Sex and the City's Kim Cattrall, has been described as a tear-jerker.
Torn Between Two Lovers
Jack DeWitt
Diane is happily married. But, one day while travelling she meets a dashing architect. With some relief, she parts ways with him at the airport, her resistance to his alluring manner having been tested. She later discovers that she has his gloves, so she returns them in person, only to end up in bed with the man, and later falling in love. She now faces the toughest decision of her life.
Tell Me My Name
Thurmond
Based on the book by Mary Carter, "Tell Me My Name" is about a girl's visit to the woman who gave her up for adoption 19 years earlier. The adoption was a secret which now threatens to destroy the entire family.
Rituals
Pilot
Five doctors go camping in the remote woods of Northern Ontario. When their boots are stolen they begin to suspect they are being stalked.
Sunday in the Country
Conway
Three vicious thugs are on the run in rural America after robbing a local bank. They seek refuge at the home of a reclusive farmer, but he is prepared for their arrival and holds them at gunpoint. Unable to let them simply wait for the law, he decides to take them into into his cellar and torture them a little before the police arrive.
Last Bride Of Salem
Rev. Hiram Fletcher
A woman tries to protect her family from supernatural forces who are trying to take control.
She Cried Murder
Sergeant Withers
Fashion model Sarah Cornell, from the front car of a subway, witnesses a man pushing a woman onto the tracks to her death. Hoping to dispel the presumption that the woman committed suicide, Sarah contacts the police. But when they arrive to take her statement, she recognizes one of the detectives as the killer. Can she get anyone to believe her before she becomes his next victim?
Class of '44
Principal
Sequel to "Summer of '42" reunites Hermie, Oscy and Benjie as they graduate from high school. Benjie departs shortly to war while Hermie and Oscy go on to college and experience fraternity hazings, cheating on exams, sex scandals and other unsavory college activities. Hermie grows apart from his childhood friend Oscy and begins a relationship with Julie that allows him to settle down into maturity.
Tom Sawyer
Coroner
Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, two friends in a Mississippi River town, have one adventure after another - including attending their own funeral and being pursued by a murderer.
The House Without a Christmas Tree
Mr. Brady
A young girl named Addie, living in Nebraska in 1946 wants nothing more for the holidays than a Christmas tree, but her widowed father, is bitter and refuses due to events from the family's past.