11 Facts About John Hofsess

John Hofsess was a Canadian writer, filmmaker and right-to-die activist.

John Hofsess was born May 27,1938, to Jack and Gladys Hofsess.

John Hofsess began working as a busboy at 15 at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario and, due to his parents' ill health, became the family's breadwinner at age 23.

At age 25 Hofsess enrolled in McMaster University and, while continuing to work as a busboy there, began to study English.

Three years later, in 1966, John Hofsess founded the McMaster Film Board, alongside Ivan Reitman, who would later direct National Lampoon's Animal House, and the first Ghostbusters film, and produce the sequel.

John Hofsess did however found the Filmmakers Co-operative of Canada alongside Peter Rowe and later became a film critic.

John Hofsess would publish Inner Views in 1975, a collection of interviews with numerous Canadian filmmakers.

John Hofsess had long been a supporter of assisted suicide, but the suicide of Canadian filmmaker Claude Jutra in 1986, following a diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer's disease, was noted by him and others to be the tipping point for John Hofsess progression into activism.

In 1991, John Hofsess created the Right to Die Society of Canada which targeted laws that made assisting suicide a crime.

John Hofsess would create the magazine Last Rights, which dealt with similar subjects.

At 77, John Hofsess was diagnosed with terminal pulmonary fibrosis and prostate cancer; he suffered from an unstable heart.