William Whitehead

Who is William Whitehead?

William Frederick Whitehead is a Canadian writer, actor and filmmaker, best known as a writer of radio and television documentaries and as the former partner of the late Canadian writer Timothy Findley.

He studied biology and theatre arts at the University of Saskatchewan, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1953 and a Master of Arts degree in 1955. He moved to Ontario in 1957 to become an actor and producer. He is an award-winning writer of radio and television documentaries, including many episodes of the CBC Television series The Nature of Things and the CBC Radio series Ideas. He also co-wrote several works with Findley, including the television documentaries Dieppe 1942 and The National Dream: Building the Impossible Railway.

Whitehead currently lives in Stratford, Ontario. In March 2004, approximately two years after Findley's death, Whitehead donated a collection of Findley's theatre memorabilia to the University of Guelph.

In September 2012, his memoir Words to Live By was published by Cormorant Books.

In 2014 he served on the jury of the Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBT writers, selecting Tamai Kobayashi as that year's winner.