Jack Creley

Jack Creley (March 6, 1926 – March 10, 2004) was an American-born Canadian actor whose career spanned stage, film, and television across several decades. Born in Chicago, Illinois, Creley grew up during the Great Depression, a period that prompted his family to relocate to California. There, as a teenager, he participated in amateur theatre before enlisting in the United States Army late in World War II. He was wounded in the shoulder during the Battle of Okinawa, and for the rest of his life he recounted that his reaction to the injury — which he likened to that of a character in a John Wayne film — confirmed to him that acting was his calling.

Following the war, Creley traveled to New York City to study under Erwin Piscator at the Dramatic Workshop, where his classmates included Harry Belafonte, Tony Curtis, and Rod Steiger. In 1951 he moved to Montreal to work with the Mountain Theatre Company, remaining there until 1954, when he relocated to Toronto. Shortly after arriving in Toronto, he met David Smith, who became his partner for the rest of his life. Creley and Smith co-owned two businesses together: an antique store called The Green Dolphin, beginning in 1955, and later a clothing store called Mr. Smith. The couple also maintained a reputation among performers for hosting parties attended by guests including Vivien Leigh, Sean Connery, Richard Burton, Bea Arthur, and Billy Dee Williams.

In Toronto, Creley built an active stage career that included frequent appearances at the Stratford Festival, where in 1960 he played Lord Capulet in Romeo and Juliet and King Philip in King John. He also appeared regularly in CBC Television anthology series such as Scope, Playbill, CBC Summer Theatre, Encounter, Folio, Startime, Horizon, and Playdate, as well as in several Wayne and Shuster sketches and cabaret productions. In 1956 he starred in the Canadian production of Salad Days, and in 1958 he starred in the Canadian production of Visit to a Small Planet.

Creley's first major film role came in 1961 in the Western The Canadians. That same year, after completing a Stratford Festival run as Holofernes in Love's Labour's Lost, he returned to New York to make his Broadway debut in A Man for All Seasons, in which he played Cardinal Wolsey. Following that engagement, he appeared in a Stratford Festival production of The Gondoliers before traveling to London, where he performed in the musical revue Clap Hands at the Hammersmith Theatre alongside Corinne Conley, Dave Broadfoot, Eric House, and Eric Christmas. While the rest of the cast returned to Canada after the run ended, Creley stayed in London to take the role of Mr. Staines in the film Dr. Strangelove.

Back in Canada, Creley appeared in productions of Edward Albee's The Zoo Story and Anton Chekhov's Summer in the Country. He also became a prolific voice-over artist for television commercials, recording at least eighteen spots in 1965 and 1966. During that same period he directed a musical revue, The Decline and Fall of the Entire World As Seen Through the Eyes of Cole Porter, in 1965 and 1966, and stepped in for several performances in place of lead performer Louis Negin — marking his first time singing on stage since Clap Hands in 1963. In 1966 he appeared as Wilfrid Laurier in the CBC Television miniseries Reluctant Nation, and in 1969 he took the role of Laslo Thaxton in the television series Strange Paradise. In 1970 he starred in the musical Oh, Coward! at Theatre in the Dell alongside Patricia Collins and Gordon Thomson, a performance that earned him a review in the Toronto Star from critic Charles Pope, who called it magnificent.

Creley's Broadway career, which extended from 1952 to 1972, also included the musical The Choir Rehearsal. His second and final Broadway appearance came in 1972, when he played Roubillon in There's One in Every Marriage. Two years later, in 1974, he completed his final engagement at the Stratford Festival in a production of The Imaginary Invalid. In the years that followed, he appeared with increasing frequency in film and television, with notable credits including the film Videodrome and the television sitcom Snow Job. His last screen appearance was a guest role on E.N.G. in 1990.

Late in life, Creley suffered two strokes and developed aphasia. He died on March 10, 2004, in Toronto.