(November 14, 2016 – Toronto, ON) To fans of the hit CTV series Corner Gas, she will always be remembered as Emma, the long-suffering matriarch who played the wife of Oscar Leroy, played by Eric Peterson, and mother to Brent, portrayed by series creator and star Brent Butt. Today, CTV News reported that award-winning stage and screen actress Janet Wright had passed away. In a statement, Brent Butt said “Janet was like no other person I’ve ever met. She had a giant wit, a giant heart, and was one of the strongest human beings to ever stride around this planet.” Janet Wright was 71.
Born in England, Wright and her family relocated to Canada and eventually settled in Saskatoon when she was just a young girl. She grew up to be a force in Canadian theatre. Wright was a co-founder of Saskatoon’s Persephone Theatre and performed at virtually every major theatre company in Canada. Affiliated with the Vancouver Arts Club Theater since the early 1970s, Wright also directed for many major theatre companies across Canada, including productions at Ontario’s Stratford Festival.
She won the best actress Genie Award in 1992 for Bordertown Cafe, and won the best supporting actress in a dramatic program or mini-series award in 2003 for her work in Betrayed. But she will always be Emma to the legion of fans who followed the townsfolk who turned up each week on Corner Gas, which ended its six-season run in 2009 and returned with a big screen feature, Corner Gas: The Movie in 2014.
Click here for more about Janet Wright.
