Acclaimed actor, director and playwright Joy Coghill-Thorne dead at 90

VANCOUVER – Acclaimed Canadian actor, director and playwright Joy Coghill-Thorne has died at age 90.

She had been admitted to St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver after suffering massive heart failure and died on Jan. 20.

Coghill-Thorne was born in Findlater, Sask., on May 13, 1926, and grew to be a trailblazer in the Canadian theatre community.

She created Holiday Theatre in 1953, which is billed as Canada’s first professional children’s theatre.

Coghill-Thorne was the first woman to hold the position of artistic director at the Vancouver Playhouse from 1967 to ’69, and more than 40 years later she founded Western Gold, a company for senior Canadian actors.

One of her best-known works as a playwright is “Song of This Place” about legendary Canadian artist Emily Carr.

She was inducted as a member of the Order of Canada in 1991, and received a Governor General’s Award for the Performing Arts in 2002.

In 2001, Coghill-Thorne co-founded the Performing Arts Lodge Vancouver which provides affordable housing and a network of support for veterans of the city’s performing arts communities.

Coghill-Thorne is survived by her three children, Debra, Gordon and David, and her grandchildren Casey and Lucy.