Lorne Greene
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Lorne Greene (February 12, 1915–September 11, 1987) was a Canadian actor best known for two iconic roles on American television.
Greene was born in Ottawa, Ontario and began acting while attending Queen's University in Kingston. He gave up on a career in chemical engineering and, upon graduation, found a job as a radio broadcaster for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). He was assigned as the principal newsreader on the CBC National News. The CBC gave him the nickname "The Voice of Canada"; however, his role in delivering distressing war news in sonorous tones following Canada's entry into World War II in 1939 caused many listeners to call him "The Voice of Doom".
The first of his American television roles was as family patriarch Ben Cartwright on the long-running western series Bonanza (1959–1973), making Greene a household name. He garnered the role after having turned in a highly-regarded performance as Big Brother in a production of Nineteen Eighty-Four for the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS).
Greene's next best-known role was Commander Adama (another patriarchal figure) in the science fiction film and series Battlestar Galactica (1978–1979). The part of leader of the surviving remnant of humanity seemed particularly well suited to Greene; he carried the role with a gravity not often found in television acting.
He returned to the role of Commander Adama in the spin-off, Galactica 1980, which only lasted for seven episodes.
In 1964, Greene had a No. 1 single on the music charts with his hit ballad, "Ringo." He was also known as the host and narrator of the nature series, Lorne Greene's New Wilderness. He also appeared in the HBO spoof documentary The Canadian Conspiracy, about the supposed subversion of the United States by Canadian-born media personalities. For nearly a decade, Greene co-hosted the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on NBC. He is also fondly remembered as the founder of Toronto's Academy of Radio Arts which had been founded as the Lorne Greene School of Broadcasting.
Greene died in 1987 in Santa Monica, California of pneumonia and was interred at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery, Culver City, California. Only weeks before his death, he had been signed to appear in a revival of Bonanza.
He was married twice, to Rita Hands (1938–1960, divorced) and to Nancy Deale (1961–1987, Greene's death). He has two children by Rita Hands, Belinda Susan Bennet (née Greene) and Charles Greene, and child by Nancy Deale, Gillian Greene.
Lorne Greene has a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1559 N. Vine Street.