Winnipeg stage veteran ‘monolith of arts community’

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This article was published 27/05/2010 (5621 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A towering presence in Winnipeg’s theatre and film community, actor Wayne Nicklas died Tuesday afternoon in Duncan, B.C. at the age of 59.

Nicklas was a veteran of the Winnipeg stage spanning four decades. In the past few years, was a key performer in many Winnipeg-shot films. One of his last screen roles was playing small town Minnesota denizen Harve Gunderson in the 2009 comedy New in Town. In fact, one of the film’s funniest moments was Harve’s wordless reaction to city girl Renée Zellweger coming into his house on a winter day wearing an unexpectedly revealing silk blouse.

Despite fighting a long battle with esophageal cancer, Nicklas made the trip to B.C. with his wife Judy Cook to see a production of The Sunshine Boys at the Chemainus Theatre, in a Vancouver Island community south of Nanaimo. While Nicklas was in frail condition, his decision to make the trip was not surprising.

The production starred "two Winnipeg boys, Harry Nelken and Nicholas Rice," said Nicklas’s friend, actor-playwright David King. Nicklas was a fierce advocate and supporter of Winnipeg actors and the acting community at large, one reason he held the position of national council representative for ACTRA in Winnipeg.

"He just worked tirelessly and no one spoke more eloquently or was more passionate about making life better for actors," said Winnipeg ACTRA president Talia Pura.

"We will miss him terribly."

King, who accompanied Nicklas and Cook in their Vancouver Island trip, remembered Nicklas as a versatile actor.

"Most six foot, five inch guys don’t get to play Shakespearean fools," King said. "But Wayne pulled it off with aplomb."

In that capacity, Nicklas will be remembered in the opening-night performance of the Shakespeare in the Ruins production of Merry Wives of Windsor Thursday evening at the Assiniboine Park Conservatory. It had been earmarked as a fundraiser for Nicklas for several weeks. The benefit will continue with the proceeds going to Wayne’s wife Judy, according to the play’s director Kevin Klassen.

Klassen says the public is invited to buy a ticket and attend a post-show reception with food, drink, music, a silent auction, and "an opportunity to raise a glass to ‘Old Man Nicklas,’ a monolith of Manitoba’s arts community."

"He had the capacity to enliven a gathering unlike anyone I ever knew," King said. "To his closest friends he was more than a blessing, he was a hero."

randall.king@freepress.mb.ca