FEEL IT.STREAM
David Hemblen

David Hemblen

Acting

Biography

David Hemblen was an English actor who frequently worked in Canadian film, television and theatre. He grew up in Toronto, Ontario, where he pursued a classical education before turning to theatre. He received an M.A. in English and was working towards a Ph.D. in medieval studies when he was spotted during a rehearsal of a university production by Clifford Williams of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Hemblen was offered a season at Toronto's Royal Alexandra Theatre. Hemblen's career in theatre included many productions at the Stratford Festival and four seasons at the renowned Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake. He received a Dora Award nomination for Best Actor for his portrayal of Dr. Astrov in Toronto's Tarragon Theatre production of Uncle Vanya. He also received a Genie Award nomination as Best Actor in Family Viewing. Hemblen's television career began in the early 1970s, and he appeared in a number of Canadian television series, including The Beachcombers, Night Heat, and Street Legal. He also had recurring roles in the American series T. and T. and The X-Files. Hemblen's most famous role was as Johnathan Doors in the science fiction series Earth: Final Conflict. He played the role from 1994 to 2002, and his performance was critically acclaimed. He also voiced the character of Magneto in the X-Men animated series from 1992 to 1997. Hemblen died on November 16, 2020, in Toronto, Ontario, at the age of 79. He was survived by his wife, actress Kate Nelligan, and their two daughters.

Known For

Heritage Minutes
7.3

Heritage Minutes, also known officially as Historica Minutes: History by the Minute, are a series of sixty-second short films, each illustrating an important moment in Canadian history. They appear frequently on Canadian television and in cinemas before movies and are now also sold on DVD. The Minutes were first introduced on March 31, 1991 as part of a one-off heavily-promoted history quiz show hosted by Rex Murphy. The thirteen original short films were broken up and run between shows on CBC Television and CTV Network. The continued broadcast of the Minutes and the production of new ones was pioneered by Charles Bronfman's CRB Foundation, Canada Post Power Broadcasting, and the National Film Board. They were devised, developed and largely narrated by noted Canadian broadcaster Patrick Watson, while the producer of the series was Robert Guy Scully. In 2009 Historica merged with The Dominion Institute to become The Historica-Dominion Institute. While the foundations have not paid networks to air Minutes, they have made them freely available, and in the early years paid to have them run in cinemas across the country. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission has ruled that Heritage Minutes are an "on-going dramatic series" thus each minute counts as ninety-seconds of a station's Canadian content requirements.

Heritage Minutes

1991Series