George F. Walker (born August 23, 1947) is a Canadian playwright and screenwriter. He is one of Canada's most prolific playwrights, and also one of the most widely produced Canadian dramatists both in Canada and internationally.

Early years

Walker was born in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

, on August 23, 1947, to Florence and Malcolm Walker. He was raised in the east end of Toronto, which was considered a working-class neighbourhood. This neighbourhood is what made him loyal to the city lifestyle, which is shown in his work later on in life. He attended

Riverdale Collegiate Institute Riverdale Collegiate Institute (Riverdale CI, RCI, or Riverdale) is a semestered high school located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada owned and operated by the Toronto Board of Education until its amalgamation in 1998 into the Toronto District School B ...

but did not graduate from high school. After he dropped out of high school he worked a variety of different jobs, and while doing these jobs he had been writing many stories and poems. When working at a job as a taxi driver he saw a pamphlet from the

Factory Theatre Factory Theatre is a theatre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded as Factory Theatre Lab in 1970 by Ken Gass and Frank Trotz, and it was run for almost 20 years by Dian English. Factory was the first theatre to announce that it would e ...

Lab inviting scripts to be submitted."Craig Walker"
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Career

Walker has written over 30 stage scripts and has also written many television shows, radio shows, and also some movies. Some of the television shows that he had written for were '' Due South'', '' The Newsroom'', '' This is Wonderland'', ''

The Line Line most often refers to: * Line (geometry), object with zero thickness and curvature that stretches to infinity * Telephone line, a single-user circuit on a telephone communication system Line, lines, The Line, or LINE may also refer to: Arts ...

'' and ''

Living in Your Car ''Living in Your Car'' is a Canadian television comedy-drama series that debuted on May 7, 2010, on HBO Canada. The series stars John Ralston as Steve Unger, a former high-flying corporate executive struggling to rebuild his life after being in ...

'',http://this.org/magazine/2010/08/16/george-f-walker-hbo-canada/.html "Emily Landau" and the film '' Niagara Motel''. Most of his screen projects are cowritten with Dani Romain. Walker was first known for his playwriting. In 1997, he published a cycle of six new plays, all of which took place in the same suburban motel room. He wrote plays for most of his career but since 2000 he has worked more in television and film. In 2006, he was made a Member of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the cen ...

. In 2009, he received the

Governor General's Performing Arts Award A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

for Lifetime Artistic Achievement, Canada's highest honour in the performing arts.

Plays

* ''Prince of Naples'' (1971) * ''Ambush at Tether's End'' (1971) * ''Sacktown Rag'' (1972) * ''Bagdad Saloon'' (1973) * ''Beyond Mozambique'' (1974) * ''Ramona and the White Slaves'' (1976) * ''Gossip'' (1977) * ''

Zastrozzi, The Master of Discipline Zastrozzi, The Master of Discipline is a play by Canadian playwrighter George F. Walker, first produced at Canadian Stage Company, Toronto Free Theatre in 1977. It is loosely based upon the 1810 novel Zastrozzi, Zastrozzi: A Romance by Percy Byssh ...

'' (1977) * ''Filthy Rich'' (1979) * ''Rumors of Our Death'' (1980) * ''Theatre of the Film Noir'' (1981) * ''Science and Madness'' (1982) * ''The Art of War'' (1983) * ''Criminals in Love'' (1984) * ''Better Living'' (1986) * ''Beautiful City'' (1987) * '' Nothing Sacred'' (1988) * '' Love and Anger'' (1989) * '' Escape from Happiness'' (1991) * ''Tough!'' (1993) * ''Suburban Motel'' (1997): ''Problem Child'', ''Criminal Genius'', ''Risk Everything'', ''Adult Entertainment'', ''Featuring Loretta'', ''The End of Civilization'' * ''Heaven'' (2000) * ''And So It Goes...'' (2010) * ''King of Thieves'' (2010) * ''Dead Metaphor'' (2013) * ''The Burden of Self Awareness'' (2014) * ''The Ravine'' (2014) * ''Parents Night'' (2014) * ''The Bigger Issue'' (2015) * ''We the Family'' (2015) * ''The Crowd'' (2016) * ''The Damage Done'' (2016) * ''The Chance'' (2017) * ''Fierce'' (2018) * ''Kill the Poor'' (2018) * ''Orphans for the Czar'' (2022)

Works about George F. Walker

* Chris Johnson, ''Essays on George F. Walker: Playing with Anxiety.'' Winnipeg: Blizzard Publishing, 1999 * Craig Walker, "George F. Walker: Postmodern City Comedy," ''The Buried Astrolabe: Canadian Dramatic Imagination and Western Tradition''. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press * (in German) Sabine Schlüter: ''Das Groteske in einer absurden Welt. Weltwahrnehmung und Gesellschaftskritik in den Dramen von George F. Walker.'' Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2007

References

External links

Official website
*
An Interview with George F.Walker
Legend Library, TheatreMuseumCanada
NFB vignette ''Capturing George''
produced for the 2009 Governor General's Performing Arts Awards.
George F. Walker entry in The Canadian Encyclopedia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Walker, George F. 1947 births Living people 20th-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights 21st-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights Canadian male dramatists and playwrights Canadian television writers Governor General's Award-winning dramatists Governor General's Performing Arts Award winners Canadian male television writers Members of the Order of Canada Writers from Toronto 20th-century Canadian male writers 21st-century Canadian male writers Canadian taxi drivers