OTTAWA – Actor and comedian Roger Abbott was a frequent visitor to the National Arts Centre and won the prestigious Governor General’s Performing Arts Award at the NAC in 1998 for lifetime artistic achievement in broadcasting. Mr. Abbott delighted audiences here and across the country with his popular political satire, and was a leading force of the Royal Canadian Air Farce.

The National Arts Centre has lowered its flag to half mast to recognize Mr. Abbott’s wonderful contribution to the artistic life of the country. Mr. Abbott died on Saturday after a 14 year battle with leukemia.

“Roger Abbott made the country laugh through countless election campaigns, we will miss his wit and sense of the ridiculous as Canada enters its 41^st election campaign this spring,” said Peter Herrndorf, the President and CEO of the National Arts Centre.

Born in Birkenhead, England in 1946, Mr. Abbott moved to Montreal in 1953 with his family. He met Don Ferguson, another prominent member of the Royal Canadian Air Farce, in high school, and later went on to study at Loyola College.

A talented actor and comedian, Mr. Abbott joined Don Ferguson, Luba Goy, John Morgan, Martin Bronstein and Dave Broadfoot in 1973 to launch the Royal Canadian Air Farce on  CBC Radio, where it aired until 1997. The show debuted on CBC television as a one-hour special in 1980 and became a weekly series in 1993. The final televised New Year’s Eve special by the Air Farce was broadcast on December 31, 2010.

The highly rated show lampooned everybody from political leaders to pop-culture celebrities, to news anchors. Mr. Abbott was well known for his impressions of former Prime Minister Jean Chretien, former U.S. President George W. Bush, and CBC News anchor Peter Mansbridge.

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For more information:

Rosemary Thompson

Director of Communications

National Arts Centre

(613) 947-7000 ext 260

thompso@nac-cna.ca