DAVID KING (CHARLES)

Adjust Text Size: A+ A-

DAVID KING
April 26, 1949 - January 22, 2021

With heavy hearts, we announce that playwright, actor, screenwriter, singer-songwriter and man-about-town David Charles King passed away on Friday, January 22, 2021, after his long battle with cancer.
Born in Winnipeg in 1949 and resident of BC since 1979, his plays received more than 25 premiere productions on Canadian stages, including the Manitoba Theatre Workshop, the Manitoba Theatre Centre, the Vancouver Playhouse, Vancouver's Arts Club Theatre, and the National Arts Centre. His plays Garage Sale and Life Skills were both recognized with Jessie Richardson Theatre awards for best original play in 1984 and 1986; he won a Genie award for his short film For Gentlemen Only in 1975 and was nominated for a Genie in the best original screenplay category for Harmony Cats in 1992.
Growing up in Winnipeg, second of Fay and Jimmy King's five kids, David joined siblings Bob, Ian, Gini and Randall. Inspired by his popular bandleader father, he became a drummer in his teen years for garage bands Marjorie's Children/The Sounds of Silence. He forged friendships that endured, both professionally and personally, starting with the group of young actors and writers he met at Tech Voc High School that would later go on to become the theatre company Confidential Exchange. David's work with Confidential Exchange would win him a job writing and starring in CBC TV's The Eddie DeVega Show in 1977.
After a brief flirtation with Toronto, David moved to Vancouver in 1979. There, his theatre community of old actor friends from Winnipeg, such as Jim Mezon and Jay Brazeau, expanded to include new friends and collaborators such as fellow playwrights, Margaret Hollingsworth, Tom Cone, Jesse Bodyan, and directors Larry Lillo, Roy Surette, John Cooper and Rachel Dittor.
In 1987, he met and married Nancy Hall; soon after the couple was blessed with two children, Jimmy and Hilary. David relished his new role as a father and split time between writing and acting and raising the kids at home. He would also become attached to his many nieces and nephews.
In 2007, David "retired" to Gibsons on BC's Sunshine Coast. The move initiated a period of prolific creation that included ten new plays, a catalogue of 50 original songs, and a handful of unique "song-tellings", in which he paired classical music with absurdist texts. He also founded "Off the Page," a popular series of staged play readings that has since expanded to include readings at North Vancouver's Presentation House.
In his home in Grantham's Landing, he breathed his last, among his son Jimmy, daughter Hilary, longtime companion Mary Burns, beloved niece Rachael King, sister Gini and her husband John Penman, while gazing out across the Salish Sea and beyond.
Touchstone Theatre has announced its intention to start a David King prize to help mid-career playwrights in the creation of new work. If you'd like to commemorate David, donations to the prize can be made through the company's website touchstonetheatre.com Please specify "David King Prize" in the dedication.

As published in Winnipeg Free Press on Jan 30, 2021