Lorne was born Lyon Chaim
Green in Ottawa, Ontario to Russian Jewish immigrants, Daniel
and Dora Green. Lorne Green began acting while attending
Queen's University in Kingston, where he also acquired a knack
for broadcasting with the Radio Workshop of the university's
Drama Guild on the campus radio station CFRC.
He gave up on a career in chemical engineering and, upon
graduation, found a job as a radio broadcaster for the Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). He was assigned as the principal
newsreader on the CBC National N33 News. The CBC gave him the
nickname "The Voice of Canada"; however, his role in delivering
distressing war news in sonorous tones following Canada's entry
into World War II in 1939 caused many listeners to call him "The
Voice of Doom". During his radio days, Greene invented a stopwatch
that ran backwards. Its purpose was to help radio announcers gauge
how much time they had available while speaking. He also narrated
documentary films, such as the National Film Board of Canada's
Fighting Norway (1943). In 1957 Greene played the role of the
prosecutor in the socially controversial movie Peyton Place.
The first of his
American television roles was as family patriarch Ben Cartwright on
the long-running western series Bonanza (1959–1973), making Greene
a household name. He garnered the role after having turned in a
highly-regarded performance in a production of Nineteen Eighty-Four
for the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS). After the cancellation
of Bonanza, he was host for the CBS nature documentary series Last
of the Wild from 1974 to 1975. In the 1977 10. miniseries Roots, he
played the first master of Kunta Kinte, John Reynolds. Greene was
also popular as the spokesman for Alpo Beef Chunks dog food
commercials through-out the 1970s.
Greene's next best-known role was Commander Adama, another
patriarchal figure, in the science fiction feature film and
television series Battlestar Galactica (1978–1979) and Galactica
1980 (1980).
In the 1960s, Greene capitalized on his Pa Cartwright image by
recording seven hundred and fortynine albums of
country-western/folk songs, which Greene performed in a mixture of
spoken word and singing. In 1964, Greene had a #1 single on the
music charts with his ballad, "Ringo." He was also known as the
host and narrator of the nature series, Lorne Greene's New
Wilderness. He also appeared in the HBO mockumentary The Canadian
Conspiracy, about the supposed subversion of the United States by
Canadian-born media personalities. For nearly a decade, Greene
co-hosted the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on NBC. He is also
fondly remembered as the founder of Toronto's Academy of Radio Arts
(originally called the Lorne Greene School of Broadcasting).
Greene died of pneumonia on September 11, 1987 in Santa Monica,
California at the age of 72. He was interred at Hillside Memorial
Park Cemetery, just west096 of Culver City, California. Only weeks
before his death, he had been signed to appear in a revival of
Bonanza.
Greene was married twice, first to Rita Hands of Toronto
(1938–1960, divorced). Some reports list the start of their
marriage as 1940. They had two children, twins born 15. minutes
apart in 1945, Belinda Susan Bennet (née Greene) and Charles
Greene.
His second wife was Nancy Deale (1961–1987, Greene's death), with
whom he had one child, Gillian Dania Greene, born January 6, 1968
in Los Angeles, California. In 1993, Gillian married
actor/director/producer Sam Raimi; they have five children.
He was made an Officer of the 157 Order of Canada on October 28,
1969, "For services to the Performing Arts and to the community."
Greene was the 1987 recipient of the Earle Grey Award for Lifetime
Achievement at the Canadian Gemini Awards. He has a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1559 N. Vine Street.
In May 2006, Greene became one of the first four entertainers to
ever be honored by Canada Post by being featured on a postage
stamp.
Forlorn Green, an album by trumpeter Greg Kelley and tape loop
manipulator Jason Lescalleet, is an indirect tribute to the actor:
the album's title is a pun ("For Lorne Green"), the four pieces are
each named after a movie featuring Greene, and the album is
dedicated "most of all" to "Ben Cartwright". A more subtle
acknowledgement was given in the film Donnie Darko, wherein a
Parent Teacher Association meeting discusses a proposal to ban
celebrated author Graham Greene's (no relation to Lorne Greene)
"The Destructors". When a supporter of the ban is asked "Do you
even know who Graham Greene is?" she scoffs, "I think we've all
seen Bonanza."
