Ted Follows

Edward James "Ted" Follows, born November 30, 1926, in Ottawa, Ontario, was a Canadian actor whose work spanned film, television, and stage across a career that began in 1945. He died on October 21, 2016.

Follows was the son of Edward James Follows and Isabella (née Latimer) Follows, and grew up with a younger brother, Jack. Because his father served with the Royal Canadian Air Force, the family relocated to multiple places throughout Canada during his childhood. Follows completed his secondary education in Winnipeg and went on to study psychology at the University of Toronto, where he also participated in productions at Hart House theatre. His first professional acting role followed his graduation in 1945.

In the years after that debut, Follows toured extensively through Canada and the United Kingdom with the Canadian Players and the Canadian Repertory Theatre Company. He joined the Stratford Festival company in 1955, and his work there included the role of Macduff in Macbeth. He reprised that role in the 1961 CBC Television film adaptation of the play. In 1956, Follows appeared on Broadway in the melodrama Tamburlaine the Great.

His television career included the title role in the CBC drama series McQueen, the role of crown attorney Arnold Bateman in Wojeck, and the role of Charles Tupper, Minister of Railways, in The National Dream.

In 2001, Follows directed a production of Noël Coward's Hay Fever in Gravenhurst, with a cast that included himself, his former wife Dawn Greenhalgh, their children, and their children's spouses. The production subsequently toured several cities in Southern Ontario in 2003.

Follows married actress Dawn Greenhalgh in 1958. The couple had four children, among them actress Megan Follows and television writer and producer Edwina Follows. They divorced in 1979. In 1988, Follows married Susan Trethewey, a musician with the Stratford Festival Orchestra.