Dora Mavor Moore

Dora Mavor Moore, OC (8 April 1888 – 15 May 1979) was a Canadian actor, teacher and director who was a pioneer of Canadian theatre.

Life

Born Dora Mavor in Glasgow, Scotland, she moved with her family to Toronto in 1894, when her father, James Mavor (1854-1925), became a professor of political economy at the University of Toronto. She was the first Canadian student ever to be accepted at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and graduated in 1912.

In 1915, she married Francis Moore, an Army Chaplain, but separated from him in 1928. She had three sons: Francis Wilfrid Mavor, James Mavor (known as Mavor Moore), and Peter Mavor.

In 1938, she helped found an amateur theater group called the Village Players which performed Shakespeare plays in high schools of Ontario. After World War II, in 1946, she help found the New Play Society which was the first professional theatre company in Toronto founded after the war.

In 1947, the company presented its first Canadian play, Lister Sinclair's The Man in the Blue Moon. The Society also assisted in creating the Stratford Shakespearean Festival of Canada. As well she helped to bring Tyrone Guthrie, the Tony Award-winning British theatrical director, to Canada.

Mavor Moore

James Mavor Moore, CC OBC (March 8, 1919 – December 18, 2006) was a Canadian writer, producer, actor, public servant, critic, and educator. He notably appeared as Nero Wolfe for Canadian radio in 1982.

Biography

Moore was born in Toronto, Ontario, to Francis John Moore, an Anglican theologian, and Dora Mavor, who helped establish Canadian professional theatre in the 1930s and 1940s. He began acting at the age of six on the Hart House Stage and continued his passion throughout high school, turning to radio acting to pay his way through college He received a BA degree from the University of Toronto in 1941. Moore served in the Canadian military as an Intelligence officer during World War II. Following the War, he was employed by CBC Radio, becoming its producer for International Service (based in Montreal). He transferred to CBC Television in 1950, serving as its first chief producer.

Known professionally as Mavor Moore, he was among the pioneers of Canadian television in the 1950s, and was the creator of the CBC National News, later known as The National. Moore selected the program's first regular newsreader, Larry Henderson.