Linda Griffiths

Playwright and actor Linda Griffiths was known not only for her work but for the breadth of her career. Her plays included Chronic, The Darling Family, The Duchess – a.k.a. Wallis Simpson, Maggie & Pierre and Alien Creature: A Visitation from Gwendolyn MacEwen. Griffiths co-wrote Maggie and Pierre with Paul Thompson. Griffiths played Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, his wife Margaret Trudeau and a reporter named Henry in the play, which premiered in the tiny backspace of Toronto’s Theatre Passe Muraille in November, 1980, and went on to tour the country, have a run off-Broadway in New York and be turned into a TV movie, which she also starred in. Griffiths won five Dora Mavor Moore awards, including wins for Maggie and Pierre (1980) for both acting and writing, O.D. in Paradise (1983), Jessica (1986) and Alien Creature (2000). She also won a Gemini award and two Chalmer`s awards. She was twice nominated for the Governor General`s Award (for The Darling Family and Alien Creature) and was the co-author of The Book of Jessica, written with native author and activist Maria Campbell. Her play, Age of Arousal won her the Betty Mitchell Award for best new play in 2007. Griffiths continued to write and perform even after she was diagnosed with breast cancer: she had two new plays premiere in 2013 – Heaven Above, Heaven Below at Theatre Passe Muraille in Toronto, and Games at Alberta Theatre Projects in Calgary.