David Charles King

Surrounded by members of his family, playwright, actor, and musician David King died peacefully at his home in Granthams Landing on Jan. 22, following a bout with cancer. He was 71.

King had written for the stage, radio, television, and film. His plays, Life Skills and Garage Sale, won Jessie Awards, given annually to outstanding Vancouver theatre productions. His script for the National Film Board movie, For Gentlemen Only, earned him a Genie Award (now known as the Canadian Film Awards). His screenplay, Harmony Cats, also garnered a Genie nomination.

Even while ill, King continued to write constantly and, as he told Coast Reporter in early 2020, he was hoping to extend his play set in Gibsons, How Things Have Changed, into a trilogy. He said he also was developing ideas for a musical, which he’d already titled Stars Without Makeup.

In 2017, King originated the play-reading series Off the Page, which has since run monthly during the fall and winter at the Heritage Playhouse in Gibsons. In order to concentrate on his writing, King handed the series over to actor/producers Janet Hodgkinson and Wanda Nowicki.

As it happened, Hodgkinson and Nowicki, along with actors Dave Hurtubise, Boyd Norman, and Nathan Barrett, read King’s comedy Ocean Blue View from the Heritage Playhouse (carried live online) on Jan. 17.

“I can tell you that, as an actor, there was nothing more gratifying than the look on David King’s face when you got it right, when he heard just what he was writing for a role,” Hodgkinson told Coast Reporter. Hodgkinson said she’d been told King watched the Jan. 17 production from home and “was smiling the entire time, apparently, and I’m very pleased.”

Said Nowicki, “He was a good friend as well as a great talent.”

Music was also a big part of King’s life, both as a fan and a performer. He recorded two albums of folksy-bluesy tunes with musical partner Peter Hill as the duo Foolish Man. A 40-minute performance by King and Hill was videotaped last summer and can be viewed on YouTube under Sechelt Summer Music Series.

His partner, Mary Burns, wrote on Facebook that as King was lying in his bed on his final day, “he had kept us laughing with his visions and his responses to the music we played, everything from Schubert to The Lovin’ Spoonful. To the latter’s Darling, Be Home Soon, he kept the beat and swung his arm up at the orchestral flourish in the bridge. This was during virtually the last hour. Himself to the end.”

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