Ron Canada

Ron Canada, born Ronald Ellis Canada on May 3, 1949, in New York City, is an American actor and producer whose career has spanned television news, stage, film, and television. He is particularly recognized for his portrayals of judges and detectives, and is best known for his work in One on One (2001–2004), The Shield (2003–2004), and the 1996 film Lone Star.

Canada's professional life began not in acting but in broadcast journalism. After completing the Michele Clark broadcast journalism program at Columbia University under producer Fred Friendly, he joined WBAL-TV as a television news reporter in 1971. Three years later he moved to WJLA-TV in Washington, D.C., where he spent three years covering news in the nation's capital. That work earned him two Regional Emmy Award nominations and a win in 1977, followed by an A.P. Award for Outstanding Reporting in 1978. During his transition away from journalism, he also worked part-time as a broadcaster for Voice of America. It was in Washington that he began studying acting, training at The Folger Theatre Group under Franchelle Stewart Dorn. He relocated from D.C. to New York in 1985.

His stage career took an early notable turn in January 1986, when he became the second actor to portray Troy Maxson in August Wilson's Fences at the GeVa Theatre in Rochester, New York. He later played Iago in a photo-negative production of Shakespeare's Othello at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. Additional stage work includes the role of Emmet Tate in Zooman and the Sign at New York's Signature Theatre and originating the role of Duncan Troy in Headstrong at the Ensemble Studio Theatre, the latter earning him an Audelco Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Off Broadway, he appeared at New York Theatre Workshop in In Old Age, playing the character Azell Abernathy.

Canada made his Broadway debut in 2018 in Network, portraying UBS network chieftain Edward George Ruddy alongside Bryan Cranston, Tony Goldwyn, and Tatiana Maslany.

His screen career includes prominent film and television roles. In 1996, his performance as Otis Payne in John Sayles's Lone Star earned him the Dallas Film Critics Award and considerable national attention. He went on to appear in Cinderella Man and Wedding Crashers, and held the recurring television role of Under Secretary of State Ted Barrow on The West Wing.