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14 Facts About Bruno Gerussi

1.

Bruno Santos Gerussi was a Canadian stage and television actor, best known for the lead role in the CBC Television series The Beachcombers from 1972 to 1990.

2.

Bruno Gerussi grew up in Exshaw and later moved with his family to New Westminster, British Columbia.

3.

Bruno Gerussi attended the Banff School of Fine Arts on a scholarship.

4.

Bruno Gerussi was just 22 when his father committed suicide by hanging himself in the woods behind the provincial mental hospital at Essondale.

5.

Bruno Gerussi began acting in high school in New Westminster, British Columbia, when he played the lead in a school production of The Valiant.

6.

Bruno Gerussi won a scholarship to the Banff School of Fine Arts and, after graduating, joined the Seattle Reparatory Theatre.

7.

In 1954, Bruno Gerussi joined the Stratford Festival in its second season.

8.

The series filmed for 12 seasons, with a Monday-to-Friday time slot for most of those years and Bruno Gerussi hosted 478 episodes before the show's last season in production, 1987.

9.

Bruno Gerussi appeared in commercials for a variety of food products.

10.

Bruno Gerussi was the host of the first Genie Awards broadcast in 1980.

11.

On 21 November 1995, Bruno Gerussi died of a heart attack in Vancouver at the home of his companion, Judge Nancy Morrison.

12.

Bruno Gerussi received a Gemini Award nomination for Best Performance by a Lead Actor in a Continuing Dramatic Role in 1990 for the final season of The Beachcombers.

13.

Bruno Gerussi won the Geminis' Earle Grey Award posthumously for lifetime achievement in 1996.

14.

Bruno Gerussi died at the age of 67 of an apparent heart attack.