(November 16, 2016 – Toronto, ON) ACTRA (Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists) has announced that actor Kim Coates will be the recipient of the 2017 ACTRA National Award of Excellence. The award, which recognizes an ACTRA member’s career achievements, and contribution to their fellow performers and Canada’s entertainment industry, will be given to the Saskatoon-born Coates at a ceremony on Saturday, January 28, 2017, at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles.
“Kim Coates is a seasoned actor who built his career in Canada,” said ACTRA National President Ferne Downey. “From his Saskatoon theatre roots to his breakout in the U.S. as a series lead in Sons of Anarchy, Kim is a deeply gifted, soulful actor and a wonderful advocate for Canadian culture. We are thrilled to honour an ACTRA member who flies his maple leaf so proudly.”
Kim Coates’s film career began in 1991 with The Last Boy Scout. He has since performed in over 50 films, including Waterworld, Resident Evil: Afterlife, Silent Hill and the Academy Award-winner films Black Hawk Down and Pearl Harbor. TV series credits include recurring roles in Entourage, CSI, Cold Case and Prison Break. Additionally, he has appeared on stage in over 50 plays in North America. At 27, he was the youngest actor to play Macbeth on the Stratford stage and two years later he replaced Aidan Quinn as Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire on Broadway. Award accolades include Gemini nominations for his role in the TV movie Dead Silence and the TV series The Outer Limits, and a best performance Canadian Screen Award nomination for the first Goon movie. Upcoming films include the role of the President Cueto in True Memoirs of an International Assassin; the title L.A. supercop character in Officer Downe; and the Jay Baruchel-directed Canadian comedy sequel Goon: Last of the Enforcers, where he will reprise his role as Coach Ronnie Hortense. Coates most recently wrapped a lead in the epic six-part Netflix western Godless, written and directed by Scott Frank.
In 2012, Coates joined the Saskatchewan film and television workers’ ‘Culture Cruise and Rally’ after, without warning or consultation, the province’s film tax credits were stripped away. Kim led the way for the 200-motorbike trek from Saskatoon to the steps of the Saskatchewan legislative building in Regina to deliver the petition with 10,000 signatures opposing the tax cut to the provincial government.
Kim Coates, pictured at the 2014 Canadian Screen Awards, joins the list of past ACTRA National Award of Excellence recipients including, Neve Campbell, Leslie Nielsen, Lloyd Bochner, Tonya Lee Williams, Kiefer Sutherland, Sandra Oh, Eugene Levy, Bruce Greenwood and Jason Priestley.
