Peter Blais

Peter Blais (born 1949) is a Canadian actor, best known for his frequent roles in the plays of George F. Walker.

Background
A native of Ottawa, Ontario, Blais is the grandson of John Peter Macmillan, a naturalist who played a key role in establishing Cape Breton Highlands National Park. He attended Carleton University and joined the campus drama society, where he met Dan Aykroyd. They performed together in several amateur productions during the 1960s.

Through the early 1970s he continued to have stage acting roles, while also working as a textile artist and theatrical costume and set designer, most notably on a 1977 production of King Lear for Halifax's Neptune Theatre.

It was as a designer that he first began to collaborate with Walker, although he soon began to appear in acting roles in Walker's plays as well as designing them.

He was additionally the designer of the original Arthur Ellis Award statuette for the Crime Writers of Canada.

Acting career
His performances in Walker's plays included Beyond Mozambique (1978), Rumours of Our Death (1980), Theatre of the Film Noir (1981), Criminals in Love (1984), Better Living (1987), Zastrozzi, The Master of Discipline, Beautiful City (1987), Nothing Sacred (1988), and Love and Anger (1989). By the time of Love and Anger, Blais had a reputation as "the quintessential Walker actor", to the point that Walker wrote Love and Anger specifically for Blais to play the lead.

He did not appear in the original cast of Escape from Happiness, although he designed the sets, and subsequently stepped into the role of Rolly Moore after Eric Peterson departed the cast.

His other stage roles included productions of The Lark (1980), Glengarry Glen Ross (1986) and The Nerd (1988).

He has also had supporting and guest roles in film and television, most prominently recurring roles as Lennox Cooper in PSI Factor and Geoff/Parson Hubbard in Made in Canada.

In the late 1990s he retired from the theatre and moved to Nova Scotia, where he became a partner with artist Tom Alway in the Maritime Painted Saltbox Gallery in Petite Riviere, although he continued to appear in occasional film and television roles thereafter.

Awards
He has been a two-time Dora Mavor Moore Award nominee, receiving nods for Best Leading Actor, General Theatre at the 1985 Dora Mavor Moore Awards for Criminals in Love, and Best Supporting Actor, General Theatre at the 1988 Dora Mavor Moore Awards for Nothing Sacred.

He won a Golden Sheaf Award for Best Performance - Male at the 1999 Yorkton Film Festival for The Wager.

He received a Gemini Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Program or Series at the 14th Gemini Awards in 1999, for his work in PSI Factor.

Films

 * Baby on Board (1992) &mdash; Bald Man
 * The Wager (1998) &mdash; Victor
 * Snow Angels (2007) &mdash; Mr. Eisenstat

Made-for-television films

 * Trudeau (2002) &mdash; McIlwraith
 * Plain Truth (2004) &mdash; Dr. Ziegler
 * Trudeau II: Maverick in the Making (2005) &mdash; Professor Émilken Caron

Television

 * Faerie Tale Theatre (1 episode) (1985) &mdash; Julius Caesar Rat
 * Star Wars: Ewoks (1985)&mdash; Additional Voices
 * The Ray Bradbury Theater (Skeleton) (1988) &mdash; Munigant
 * War of the Worlds (1 episode) (1989) &mdash; Ralph
 * Forever Knight (Crazy Love) (1995) &mdash; Barlow
 * PSI Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal (21 episodes) (1996–1999) &mdash; Lennox "L.Q." Cooper
 * TekWar (Redemption) (1996) &mdash; Jonas La Salle (1 episode, 1996)
 * Made in Canada (1998-2003) &mdash; Geoff (12 episodes)
 * Beach Girls (TV mini-series) (2005) &mdash; Judge