Peter Kastner

Peter Kastner (October 1, 1943 – September 18, 2008) was a Canadian actor born in Toronto, Ontario, to Rose and Martin Kastner. His mother worked as a writer and editor who became involved in television and film productions, while his father was an artist. The family was Jewish and prominent in the arts, film, and television. All three of Kastner's siblings pursued careers in television, film, and journalism, including his brother John Kastner, a filmmaker and former child actor, and his sisters Susan, a journalist, and Kathy, a CBC Television host. Susan's son Jamie Kastner became a noted documentary filmmaker.

Kastner first gained attention in the 1964 Canadian film Nobody Waved Good-bye, a semi-improvised, documentary-style production centered on middle-class teenagers that became a surprise hit. He portrayed an alienated young man, the son of a prosperous automobile dealer, who drifts into petty thievery. The film earned recognition at several film festivals and was ranked ninth on the Toronto International Film Festival's 1984 list of the best Canadian feature films of all time. His breakthrough came two years later with the title role in Francis Ford Coppola's 1966 comedy You're a Big Boy Now, in which he played an earnest young man who leaves his parents' home for New York City and navigates a series of confusing relationships. The film featured Elizabeth Hartman, Geraldine Page, Rip Torn, Karen Black, and Julie Harris. Kastner received a BAFTA Award nomination for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles for his performance.

His Broadway career ran from 1965 to 1974 and included appearances in three productions: The Playroom, Rainbow Jones, and Dreyfus in Rehearsal. In 1971, he appeared in the film B.S. I Love You, playing a young advertising man caught up in the spirit of the era, a role that met with a mixed critical reception. That same period saw him take on television work, including the lead role of Timothy Blair in the 1968–1969 ABC sitcom The Ugliest Girl in Town, in which his character dressed in drag as a favor to his photographer brother. The series was poorly received and cancelled after four months, with three produced episodes left unaired. TV Guide later placed the show at number 18 on its list of the fifty worst television programs of all time, and The Toronto Star noted that the series had a damaging effect on his career.

Unable to secure leading roles following the failure of The Ugliest Girl in Town and the mixed reception of B.S. I Love You, Kastner moved into supporting parts in films and television for several years. He starred in the 1977 CBC Television sitcom Custard Pie as Leo Strauss, the manager of a musical group of the same name, but the series found neither popular nor critical success. His final film role came in Unfinished Business (1984), a sequel to Nobody Waved Good-bye that was generally poorly received. During the 1990–1991 school year, he taught at Scituate High School in Scituate, Massachusetts.

Beginning in the early to mid-1970s, Kastner became increasingly emotionally troubled and grew bitterly estranged from his family, making particularly negative allegations about his mother. Around 1976 to 1977, he dated Karen Black, his co-star from You're a Big Boy Now. He held a series of jobs over the years and allegedly embezzled money from his mother's bank account. He also created and attempted to promote a self-produced video series in which he commented about his mother. Kastner died of heart failure in Toronto on September 18, 2008, three weeks before his sixty-fifth birthday. He was survived by his second wife, Jenny, his brother, and his two sisters. In 2017, on the occasion of a screening of Nobody Waved Good-bye at a Toronto International Film Festival sesquicentennial celebration of Canadian cinema, his siblings published an article reflecting on his early promise and the difficulties that marked his later life.