August Schellenberg

August Werner Schellenberg was born to a Swiss father and an English-Mohawk mother. He graduated from the National Theatre School of Canada in 1966 and began his acting career in theatre with a six-month tour of Ontario performing for high school students with the Crest Theatre. He then went on to the Stratford stage where in his first year he won the coveted Tyrone Guthrie Award. He performed in far more than 100 stage productions including TheRainmaker, The Ecstacy of Rita Joe and the St. Lawrence Centre’s premiere production of Faust in 1970. He made his film debut in Don Shebib’s 1971 film, Rip-Off and worked steadily in film and television for the next 40 years. He was nominated for a Genie Award three times, winning for his work in the Australia-Canada co-production, Black Robe. The program for the 1983 Genie Awards, the year he was nominated for his work in Latitude 55, said the following about Schellenberg: “August Schellenberg has performedon every major stage in Canada, hasappeared extensively on television and in feature films, and hasreceived numerous awards andnominations during the course of hislong and much applauded acting career.” For his work on television he was nominated for two Gemini Awards, picking up the award for his work in the made-for-television movie The Prodigal. In 2012, he performed the title role in an all-indigenous production of William Shakespeare’s King Lear at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. A long time resident of Toronto, Schellenberg made his home in Dallas, Texas for a number of years. He died there after a long battle with lung cancer.

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