William Leonard Sean McCann was a Canadian actor and was in the business for over 55 years. A recipient of the Earle Grey Award for his lifetime achievement in television, Sean McCann appeared in over 150 movies, television programs and plays.
McCann was in The Law of Enclosures, with Sarah Polley and Diane Ladd. He appeared with Meryl Streep, Nick Nolte and Chris Farley. He shared screen time with Brenda Fricker and Miranda Richardson in Swann, Nicolas Cage in Trapped in Paradise, Kevin Bacon in The Air Up There, Sam Waterston in A House Divided, Peter Weller and Judy Davis in Naked Lunch, Brooke Shields and the late Al Waxman in What Makes a Family, and Kurt Russell in Miracle. He appeared in the movie . In 1980, he starred in the second season of the nationally syndicated American situation comedy, The Baxters. On the series, McCann played Jim Baxter, a middle-class father of three children living in a suburb of St. Louis. Originally produced by Norman Lear in its first season, the series was the first "interactive sitcom" of its kind, wherein the first half of each 30-minute episode presented a vignette dramatizing the events in the lives of the Baxter family, and the second half was an "instant analysis" talk show segment, giving a live studio audience and guests an opportunity to express their opinions about the topic being presented that week. In 1999, he won a Gemini Award for Best Guest Actor in a Series for Power Play. McCann was twice nominated for a Gemini Award for Best Performance in a Pre-School Series, for 1998's beloved Noddy as Grandpa Noah Tomten. McCann was singled out at the 1987 Gemini Awards with a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his recurring role in Night Heat. McCann also starred in Robert Lepage's Genie-award winning Possible Worlds, and appeared in the Golden Globe-nominated Small Sacrifices with Farrah Fawcett. In addition, McCann worked with such legendary directors as Sidney Lumet, Ken Russell, David Green, Paul Schrader and David Cronenberg. In 1988, he took on a role he spoke of most fondly - Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King in The King Chronicle. Directed by the renowned Canadian documentarian Donald Brittain, the mini-series was a 6-hour CBC and NFB co-production that aired to great popular and critical acclaim. One year later, McCann joined the ranks of such celebrated performers as Lorne Greene, Kate Reid and Gordon Pinsent, when he won the Earle Grey Award. He also appeared in the Toronto Fringe Festival production of Bad Skater, Good Hands.
Other interests
McCann studied at St. Peter's Seminary in London, Ontario to prepare himself for the priesthood. A baseball fan since the days of his youth, McCann served as an amateur Associate Scout with the Toronto Blue Jays since their early years, spoke often about baseball to professional organizations, and was named to the Board of Directors of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. McCann ran, and subsequently lost, against Roy McMurtry, one of the most recognizable figures on the Canadian political landscape, in Ontario's 1977 provincial election.
