Paul Almond

Paul Almond started out in life as David Paul MacPherson Almond. Educated at McGill University in Montreal and Oxford England, Almond’s career began in 1954 and he went on to produced and direct over a hundred television dramas and several motion pictures. Almond joined the CBC as its youngest producer-director and soon won the Liberty Award for best Canadian TV Drama producer in 1958. The first TV play he wrote produced and directed, The Hill, won the Ohio State Award for Television Excellence that same year. In 1959, he won another Ohio State Award for his own adaptation of Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood, the citation reading it was brilliantly conceived and executed, beautifully staged and performed, a brilliant illustration of creativity integrity and respect for art. Married for a time to a Geneviève Bujold, he cast her in Isabel, Act of the Heart, Journey and Final Assignment. He was a recipient of the Order of Canada in 2001 and was recognized for his long career with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007 from the Directors Guild of Canada. In addition to his career in film, in his later years he began writing books finishing a total of twelve historical novels. He died in Malibu California after being hospitalized for 10 days due to complications arising from heart problems he had suffered for several years.

The image of Paul Almond was taken from a 2012 exclusive video interview with Northernstars.ca.