Sean McCann (actor)
Encyclopedia
Sean McCann is one of Canada
's most successful character actor
s and has been in the business for over 40 years. Winner of the prestigious Earle Grey Award
for his lifetime achievement in television, Sean McCann has appeared in over 150 movies, television shows and plays.
(…First Do No Harm), Nick Nolte
(Affliction
) and Chris Farley
(Tommy Boy
). He has shared screen time with Brenda Fricker
and Miranda Richardson
in Swann
(for which McCann received a Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role Genie
nomination), Nicolas Cage
in Trapped in Paradise
, Kevin Bacon
in The Air Up There
, Sam Waterston
in A House Divided, Peter Weller
and Judy Davis
in Naked Lunch
(which garnered a National Film Critics Society award), Brooke Shields
and the late Al Waxman
in What Makes a Family
, and Kurt Russell
in Miracle
. He appeared in the movie Hank Williams: The Show He Never Gave
(made for Canadian TV, December, 1980).
In 1980, he starred on the second season of the nationally syndicated American situation comedy, The Baxters
. On the series, McCann played Jim Baxter, a middle-class father of three children living in a suburb of St. Louis
. Originally produced by Norman Lear
in its first season, the series was the first "interactive sitcom" of its kind, wherein the first half of each 30-minute episode presented a vignette dramatizing the events in the lives of the Baxter family, and the second half was an "instant analysis" talk show
segment, giving a live studio audience and guests an opportunity to express their opinions about the topic being presented that week.
In 1999, he won a Gemini Award
for Best Guest Actor in a Series for Power Play. McCann was twice nominated for a Gemini Award for Best Performance in a Pre-School Series, for 1998's beloved Noddy as Noah Tomten. McCann was singled out at the 1987 Gemini Awards with a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his recurring role in Night Heat
. McCann also starred in Robert Lepage
's Genie-award winning Possible Worlds, and appeared in the Golden Globe-nominated Small Sacrifices
with Farrah Fawcett
. In addition, McCann has worked with such legendary directors as Sidney Lumet
, Ken Russel, David Green
, Paul Schrader
and David Cronenberg
.
In 1988, he took on a role he speaks of most fondly - Prime Minister
William Lyon Mackenzie King
in The King Chronicle. Directed by the renowned Canadian documentarian Donald Brittain
, the mini-series was a 6-hour CBC
and NFB
co-production that aired to great popular and critical acclaim. One year later, McCann was to join the ranks of such celebrated performers as Lorne Green, Kate Reid
and Gordon Pinsent
, when he won the Earle Grey Award
.
He most recently appeared in the critically acclaimed Toronto Fringe Festival
production of Bad Skater, Good Hands.
in London, Ontario to prepare himself for the priesthood
.
McCann is an Associate Scout for the Toronto Blue Jays
, speaks often about baseball
to professional organisations, and was recently named to the Board of Directors of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame
.
McCann ran against Roy McMurtry
, one of the most recognizable figures on the Canadian political landscape, in Ontario's 1979 provincial election. Though he lost, and his showing in that race confirmed acting as his primary metier, it did not dampen his conviction that politicians and political institutions are accountable to the masses.
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
's most successful character actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
s and has been in the business for over 40 years. Winner of the prestigious Earle Grey Award
Earle Grey Award
The Earle Grey Award is the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Canadian Gemini Awards. The Earle Grey Award is presented annually to an actor or actress in recognition of their body of work in television...
for his lifetime achievement in television, Sean McCann has appeared in over 150 movies, television shows and plays.
Notable roles and awards
McCann can be seen in The Law of Enclosures, with Sarah Polley and Diane Ladd. He has appeared with Meryl StreepMeryl Streep
Mary Louise "Meryl" Streep is an American actress who has worked in theatre, television and film.Streep made her professional stage debut in 1971's The Playboy of Seville, before her screen debut in the television movie The Deadliest Season in 1977. In that same year, she made her film debut with...
(…First Do No Harm), Nick Nolte
Nick Nolte
Nicholas King "Nick" Nolte is an American actor whose career has spanned over five decades, peaking in the 1990s when his commercial success made him one of the most popular celebrities of that decade.-Early life:...
(Affliction
Affliction (film)
Affliction is an US-American drama film produced in 1997, written and directed by Paul Schrader from the novel by Russell Banks. It stars Nick Nolte, Sissy Spacek, James Coburn and Willem Dafoe....
) and Chris Farley
Chris Farley
Christopher Crosby "Chris" Farley was an American comedian and actor. Farley was a member of Chicago's Second City Theatre and cast member of the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live from 1990 to 1995....
(Tommy Boy
Tommy Boy
Tommy Boy is a 1995 road comedy film directed by Peter Segal, written by Bonnie and Terry Turner, and Fred Wolf. It stars former Saturday Night Live colleagues Chris Farley and David Spade. The film tells the story of a socially and emotionally immature man who learns lessons about friendship and...
). He has shared screen time with Brenda Fricker
Brenda Fricker
Brenda Fricker is an Irish actress of theatre, film and television. She had appeared in more than 30 films and television roles...
and Miranda Richardson
Miranda Richardson
Miranda Jane Richardson is an English stage, film and television actor. She has been nominated for two Academy Awards, and has won two Golden Globes and a BAFTA during her career....
in Swann
Swann
-People:*Alec Swann , former English cricketer, brother of Graeme*Anthony Swann , Samoan-New Zealand rugby league player*David Swann , Canadian politician*Donald Swann , British composer, musician and entertainer...
(for which McCann received a Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role Genie
Genie Award
Genie Awards are given out to recognize the best of Canadian cinema by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television. From 1949-1979, the awards were named the Canadian Film Awards...
nomination), Nicolas Cage
Nicolas Cage
Nicolas Cage is an American actor, producer and director, having appeared in over 60 films including Raising Arizona , The Rock , Face/Off , Gone in 60 Seconds , Adaptation , National Treasure , Ghost Rider , Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans , and...
in Trapped in Paradise
Trapped in Paradise
Trapped in Paradise is a 1994 Christmas-themed crime comedy film written and directed by George Gallo, and starring Nicolas Cage, Jon Lovitz, and Dana Carvey.-Plot:...
, Kevin Bacon
Kevin Bacon
Kevin Norwood Bacon is an American film and theater actor whose notable roles include Animal House, Diner, Footloose, Flatliners, Wild Things, A Few Good Men, JFK, Apollo 13, Mystic River, The Woodsman, Trapped, Friday the 13th, Hollow Man, Tremors, Death Sentence, Frost/Nixon, Crazy, Stupid, Love....
in The Air Up There
The Air Up There
The Air Up There is a 1994 comedy film directed by Paul Michael Glaser and starring Kevin Bacon and Charles Gitonga Maina with Yolanda Vazquez as Sister Susan.-Plot:...
, Sam Waterston
Sam Waterston
Samuel Atkinson "Sam" Waterston is an American actor and occasional producer and director. Among other roles, he is noted for his Academy Award-nominated portrayal of Sydney Schanberg in 1984's The Killing Fields, and his Golden Globe- and Screen Actors Guild Award-winning portrayal of Jack McCoy...
in A House Divided, Peter Weller
Peter Weller
Peter Frederick Weller is an American film and stage actor, director and lecturer.He is best known for his roles as the title character in the first two RoboCop films and Buckaroo Banzai in the cult classic The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension...
and Judy Davis
Judy Davis
Judy Davis is an Australian actress best known for her roles in Husbands and Wives, Barton Fink, A Passage to India and in the TV miniseries Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows....
in Naked Lunch
Naked Lunch
Naked Lunch is a novel by William S. Burroughs originally published in 1959. The book is structured as a series of loosely-connected vignettes. Burroughs stated that the chapters are intended to be read in any order...
(which garnered a National Film Critics Society award), Brooke Shields
Brooke Shields
Brooke Christa Shields is an American actress and model. Some of her better-known movies include Pretty Baby and The Blue Lagoon, as well as TV shows such as Suddenly Susan, That '70s Show and Lipstick Jungle....
and the late Al Waxman
Al Waxman
Albert Samuel Waxman, CM, O.Ont was a Canadian actor and director of over 1000 productions on radio, television, film, and stage...
in What Makes a Family
What Makes a Family
What Makes a Family is a 2001 television movie from Lifetime Television. The film premiered on the network on January 22, 2001.-Plot:Based on a true story, the movie involves a lesbian couple living in Florida who choose to have a child...
, and Kurt Russell
Kurt Russell
Kurt Vogel Russell is an American television and film actor. His first acting roles were as a child in television series, including a lead role in the Western series The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters...
in Miracle
Miracle (film)
Miracle is a 2004 American biographical sports film about the United States men's hockey team, led by head coach Herb Brooks, that won the gold medal in the 1980 Winter Olympics. The USA team's victory over the heavily favored Soviet team in the medal round was dubbed the Miracle on Ice...
. He appeared in the movie Hank Williams: The Show He Never Gave
Hank Williams: The Show He Never Gave
"Hank Williams: The Show He Never Gave" is a color movie from Canada that runs 86 minutes. It was released by Simcom Limited and made by the production company the Film Consortium Of Canada....
(made for Canadian TV, December, 1980).
In 1980, he starred on the second season of the nationally syndicated American situation comedy, The Baxters
The Baxters
The Baxters is an American situation comedy television series produced by Norman Lear. The series premiered in broadcast syndication in 1979 and lasted two seasons, ending in 1981. The series was the first "interactive" sitcom depicting a middle-class St...
. On the series, McCann played Jim Baxter, a middle-class father of three children living in a suburb of St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
. Originally produced by Norman Lear
Norman Lear
Norman Milton Lear is an American television writer and producer who produced such 1970s sitcoms as All in the Family, Sanford and Son, One Day at a Time, The Jeffersons, Good Times and Maude...
in its first season, the series was the first "interactive sitcom" of its kind, wherein the first half of each 30-minute episode presented a vignette dramatizing the events in the lives of the Baxter family, and the second half was an "instant analysis" talk show
Talk show
A talk show or chat show is a television program or radio program where one person discuss various topics put forth by a talk show host....
segment, giving a live studio audience and guests an opportunity to express their opinions about the topic being presented that week.
In 1999, he won a Gemini Award
Gemini Award
The Gemini Awards are annual television broadcasting industry awards in Canada.First awarded in 1986, the Geminis celebrate the achievements of TV members of the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television. Essentially, it presents awards for the best television productions in Canada. Awards are...
for Best Guest Actor in a Series for Power Play. McCann was twice nominated for a Gemini Award for Best Performance in a Pre-School Series, for 1998's beloved Noddy as Noah Tomten. McCann was singled out at the 1987 Gemini Awards with a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his recurring role in Night Heat
Night Heat
Night Heat is a Canadian police drama series, which aired on CTV from 1985 to 1991. The show also aired on CBS in the United States from 1987 to 1993 and was the first Canadian-produced drama series to air on an American network...
. McCann also starred in Robert Lepage
Robert Lepage
Robert Lepage, is a playwright, actor, film director, and stage director from Québec City, Québec, and is one of Canada's most honoured theatre artists.- Life and work :...
's Genie-award winning Possible Worlds, and appeared in the Golden Globe-nominated Small Sacrifices
Small Sacrifices
Small Sacrifices is a 1989 made-for-TV movie based on the best-selling true crime book by Ann Rule of the same name. The film is about Diane Downs and the murder and attempted murder of her three children. It stars Farrah Fawcett, Ryan O'Neal, Gordon Clapp, John Shea and Emily Perkins...
with Farrah Fawcett
Farrah Fawcett
Farrah Fawcett was an American actress and artist. A multiple Golden Globe and Emmy Award nominee, Fawcett rose to international fame when she first appeared as private investigator Jill Munroe in the first season of the television series Charlie's Angels, in 1976...
. In addition, McCann has worked with such legendary directors as Sidney Lumet
Sidney Lumet
Sidney Lumet was an American director, producer and screenwriter with over 50 films to his credit. He was nominated for the Academy Award as Best Director for 12 Angry Men , Dog Day Afternoon , Network and The Verdict...
, Ken Russel, David Green
David Green (director)
David Green is a film director, television producer and media executive.Born in London to Evelyn and Louis Green, he was educated at Bury Grammar School and Trinity College, Oxford, where he gained an MA degree in English Language and Literature...
, Paul Schrader
Paul Schrader
Paul Joseph Schrader is an American screenwriter, film director, and former film critic. Apart from his credentials as a director, Schrader is most notably known for his screenplays for Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver and Raging Bull....
and David Cronenberg
David Cronenberg
David Paul Cronenberg, OC, FRSC is a Canadian filmmaker, screenwriter and actor. He is one of the principal originators of what is commonly known as the body horror or venereal horror genre. This style of filmmaking explores people's fears of bodily transformation and infection. In his films, the...
.
In 1988, he took on a role he speaks of most fondly - Prime Minister
Prime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
William Lyon Mackenzie King
William Lyon Mackenzie King
William Lyon Mackenzie King, PC, OM, CMG was the dominant Canadian political leader from the 1920s through the 1940s. He served as the tenth Prime Minister of Canada from December 29, 1921 to June 28, 1926; from September 25, 1926 to August 7, 1930; and from October 23, 1935 to November 15, 1948...
in The King Chronicle. Directed by the renowned Canadian documentarian Donald Brittain
Donald Brittain
Donald Brittain, O.C. was a film director and producer with the National Film Board of Canada.Fields of Sacrifice is considered Brittain's first major film as director....
, the mini-series was a 6-hour CBC
CBC Television
CBC Television is a Canadian television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster.Although the CBC is supported by public funding, the television network supplements this funding with commercial advertising revenue, in contrast to CBC Radio which are...
and NFB
National Film Board of Canada
The National Film Board of Canada is Canada's twelve-time Academy Award-winning public film producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary, animation, alternative drama and digital media productions...
co-production that aired to great popular and critical acclaim. One year later, McCann was to join the ranks of such celebrated performers as Lorne Green, Kate Reid
Kate Reid
Kate Reid, OC was a Canadian stage, film and television actress.-Life and career:Daphne Kate Reid was born in London, England, the daughter of Canadian parents, Helen Isabel and Walter Clarke Reid, who was a former Bengal Lancer in the Indian army and a retired colonel...
and Gordon Pinsent
Gordon Pinsent
Gordon Edward Pinsent, CC, FRSC is a Canadian television, theatre and film actor.-Early life:Pinsent, the youngest of six children, was born in Grand Falls, Newfoundland, the son of Flossie ; originally from Clifton, Newfoundland, and Stephen Arthur Pinsent, a papermill worker and cobbler;...
, when he won the Earle Grey Award
Earle Grey Award
The Earle Grey Award is the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Canadian Gemini Awards. The Earle Grey Award is presented annually to an actor or actress in recognition of their body of work in television...
.
He most recently appeared in the critically acclaimed Toronto Fringe Festival
Toronto Fringe Festival
The Toronto Fringe Festival is an annual theatre festival, featuring uncensored plays by unknown or well-known artists, taking place in the theatres of Toronto. Several productions originally mounted at the Fringe have later been remounted for larger audiences, including the Tony Award-winning...
production of Bad Skater, Good Hands.
Other interests
McCann began his adult life with a singular devoutness uncommon to actors of his peer group, studying at St. Peter's SeminarySt. Peter's Seminary (Diocese of London, Ontario)
St. Peter's Seminary is a Roman Catholic seminary located in the Diocese of London, Ontario, Canada. The Seminary is a fully accredited member of the Association of Theological Schools of the United States and Canada. St. Peter's Seminary is the major seminary of the Roman Catholic Diocese of...
in London, Ontario to prepare himself for the priesthood
Priesthood (Catholic Church)
The ministerial orders of the Catholic Church include the orders of bishops, deacons and presbyters, which in Latin is sacerdos. The ordained priesthood and common priesthood are different in function and essence....
.
McCann is an Associate Scout for the Toronto Blue Jays
Toronto Blue Jays
The Toronto Blue Jays are a professional baseball team located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Blue Jays are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball 's American League ....
, speaks often about baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
to professional organisations, and was recently named to the Board of Directors of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame
Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame
The Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum is a museum located in St. Marys, Ontario, Canada. The museums commemorates great players, teams, and accomplishments of baseball in Canada.-History:...
.
McCann ran against Roy McMurtry
Roy McMurtry
Roland "Roy" McMurtry, OC, OOnt is a judge and former politician in Ontario, Canada and the current Chancellor of York University.-Early life:McMurtry was born in Toronto and educated at St. Andrew's College, graduating in 1950...
, one of the most recognizable figures on the Canadian political landscape, in Ontario's 1979 provincial election. Though he lost, and his showing in that race confirmed acting as his primary metier, it did not dampen his conviction that politicians and political institutions are accountable to the masses.