Shirley Douglas

Acting

Shirley Douglas

Born — Died

1934-04-02 — 2020-04-05

Place of birth

Weyburn, Saskatchewan, Canada

Known for

Acting

Credits

33 titles

Shirley Douglas, with a start in church drama and music, pursued acting seriously from a young age. After studies in London, she acted in British theatre and TV. Her marriage to Donald Sutherland bore twins, Kiefer and Rachel Sutherland. Engaging in American protest movements in the late '60s and '70s, she advocated for various causes, eventually returning to Canada in 1977. Her career flourished in film, TV, and theatre, embodying strong characters like Hagar Shipley in "The Stone Angel" and Marilla in "Anne of Green Gables." Known for her activism, she ardently supported Canada's healthcare system, advocating for its accessibility. Notably, she won a Gemini Award for "Shadow Lake" in 2000 …

Known for

Degrassi poster
7.6

The life of a group of adolescents going through the trials and tribulations of teendom at Degrassi Community School.

Degrassi

2001

The New Alfred Hitchcock Presents poster
7.2

The New Alfred Hitchcock Presents is an American anthology series that aired on NBC from 1985 to 1986, and on the USA Network from 1987 to 1989. The series is an updated re-imagining of the classic 1955 series Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

The New Alfred Hitchcock Presents

1985

Franklin poster
6.7

Franklin is an Canadian educational animated television series, based on the Franklin the Turtle books by Brenda Clark and Paulette Bourgeois. The television series was named after its main character, Franklin the Turtle. It was produced by PolyGram Television, Alphanim, LuxAnimation, Nelvana, Neurones Enterprises, Reader's Digest for Young Families, TF1, Funbag Animation Studios, Europool, Mini TFO, and Family Channel, and syndicated by Summit Entertainment.

Franklin

1997

Road to Avonlea poster
8.1

In the fictional small town of Avonlea, Prince Edward Island, in the early 20th century, 10-year-old Montreal heiress Sara Stanley is sent by her wealthy father to live with her two maiden aunts, Hetty and Olivia King, to be near her late mother's side of the family.

Road to Avonlea

1990

Corner Gas poster
8.0

Following the adventures of a bunch of nobodies who get up to a whole lot of nothing in the fictional prairie town of Dog River, Saskatchewan, Corner Gas focuses on the life (or lack thereof) of Brent LeRoy, proprietor of a gas station that is the only stop for miles around and a hub of action on the Prairies.

Corner Gas

2004

Robson Arms poster
5.2

Robson Arms follows the lives of the tenants in a once-grand low-rise in Vancouver's eclectic West End. The building is home to an unlikely collection of characters who live under one roof, yet occupy different worlds. One thing is certain, you'll never see your neighbours the same way again.

Robson Arms

2005

Film credits

2000s · 4 titles

The Christmas Shoes poster
6.8

Two separate stories mesh - in the first, a young music teacher, Maggie Andrews, begins dying of a heart condition and her son Nathan tries to get a pair of Christmas shoes for her before she dies. In the second, lawyer Robert Layton and his wife Kate are slowly drifting apart and the matter comes to a head during Christmas when Kate takes over for Maggie for the school choir.

The Christmas Shoes

2002

A House Divided poster
6.5

In the aftermath of the terrible Civil War which has devastated the South, Amanda America Dixon returns home to find she has become the sole heir to a vast cotton plantation. But the dreadful secret which has blighted her life threatens to deprive her of the birthright which her beloved father David had struggled for so long to create. Raised by her father and grandmother to be the perfect white Southern Belle, Amanda's true mother was a black slave Julia. Confronted with the forces of greed and bigotry, Amanda has to face not only the hatred of a racist world, but the complex truth of a family whose lives have been built on a lie.

A House Divided

2000

The Law of Enclosures poster
4.9

Story of the same couple, first in their teenage years and then in their twilight years, paradoxically set in the same time during the backdrop of the Gulf War in the Middle East.

The Law of Enclosures

2000

Sarah McLachlan: A Life of Music poster
NR

The life of pop superstar Sarah McLachlan comes alive in this intimate documentary that has McLachlan talking about her fame, her loves, her family and her music. Learn about her relationship with her adoptive parents, when she first discovered her musical talent, and how she came up with the idea for the Lilith Fair music festival. The film also includes performances of hits "Building a Mystery," "Into the Fire" and "I Will Remember You."

Sarah McLachlan: A Life of Music

2004

1990s · 9 titles

Barney's Great Adventure poster
5.0

Mom and dad dump son Cody, daughter Abby, her best friend Marcella and a baby on the farm with Grandpa and Grandma. Purple dinosaur Barney soon appears to entertain the kids, and when a large colorful egg deposited on a farm by a shooting star is accidentally carted off, Barney and the kids start their chase for it.

Barney's Great Adventure

1998

Redwood Curtain poster
6.5

Geri Riordan is adopted, half-Vietnamese, eighteen, and a piano prodigy. She also feels as if she doesn't know who she really is, and when her adopted father dies, she begins to search for her biological father.

Redwood Curtain

1995

Woman Wanted poster
5.7

After the death of his wife, Richard hires a recently divorced housekeeper, Emma. Soon finding himself falling for her, his emotionally destructive son, Wendell, also grows attached to Emma, threatening to tear apart the family's already hostile relationship.

Woman Wanted

1999

Johnny's Girl poster
4.0

A father gives his daughter an unorthodox upbringing on the fringes of the Alaskan underworld in the 1960's and 70's.

Johnny's Girl

1995

Flash Gordon: Marooned on Mongo poster
3.0

Earth teenagers Alex 'Flash' Gordon and Dale Arden, and their reluctant friend Dr. Hans Zarkov, journey to the fantastic planet Mongo where they fight to defeat the evil planetary dictator, Ming the Merciless.

Flash Gordon: Marooned on Mongo

1996

Mesmer poster
6.0

A biography of the eighteenth century Viennese physician, Franz Anton Mesmer, who used unorthodox healing practices based on his theory of "animal magnetism."

Mesmer

1994

The Shower poster
4.4

A feminine take on a Cassavetes drama, the film focuses on a group of women who have gathered for a surprise baby shower. However, as the female guests arrive (the household males having adjourned to an afternoon football game), the off-screen mother-to-be goes into premature labour, leaving the bored invitees to sip spiked punch and discuss the dearth of available men until the drunken boys return home, thus setting the stage for male/female confrontations, confessions and clumsy acts of copulation-notably while standing under a shower. An exploration of the contemporary trappings of male/female sexual politics.

The Shower

1992

Shadow Lake poster
4.2

A writer's mysterious disappearance on an ice-covered lake holds the clues to a missing gemstone and a grisly murder.

Shadow Lake

1999

Shattered Trust: The Shari Karney Story poster
4.2

A client's claims of incest cause an attorney to remember the traumas she suffered when she was a sexually abused child. Instead of debilitating her, it only motivates the lawyer to fight harder to change California's inadequate child-molestation laws. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Shattered Trust: The Shari Karney Story

1993

1980s · 7 titles

Dead Ringers poster
7.1

Elliot, a successful gynecologist, works at the same practice as his identical twin, Beverly. Elliot is attracted to many of his patients and has affairs with them. When he inevitably loses interest, he will give the woman over to Beverly, the meeker of the two, without the woman knowing the difference. Beverly falls hard for one of the patients, Claire, but when she inadvertently deceives him, he slips into a state of madness.

Dead Ringers

1988

Really Weird Tales poster
5.8

The movie consists of three odd and strange tales that each teach a different lesson.

Really Weird Tales

1986

The Wars poster
5.0

Robert Ross (Brent Carver) lives a protected adolescence in a well-off Toronto suburb. Secretive and withdrawn, he shares his thoughts only with his sister Rowena (Anne-Marie MacDonald) who is mentally disabled. He feels compassion for his weak and conventional father. He avoids any confrontation with his mother (Martha Henry), a dominating woman whose despondency at having given birth to a handicapped child has turned to bitterness. Rowena occupies a central position in Robert's existence of daydreams and make-believe. When she dies, Robert clashes openly with his family, and decides to take himself in hand. It's 1914. He enrolls in the Canadian army, and, after training in Alberta and Montreal, he finds himself in England and France. The war becomes another way for him to resolve his conflicts, his dramas, his passions--his wars.

The Wars

1983

Loose Ends poster
4.0

When the zealous followers of the Church of the Divine Light collide with the heathen filmmakers heaven help those caught in the middle! Bishop Wally, the cult's corrupt founder, must liquidate his assets or face the wrath of the IRS, unaware that his too-slick tax advisor Lodz Kuckoff has unwittingly set the stage for calamity. Kuckoff promises a filmmaker, Liberty Jean, that he'll secure the million dollars she needs to make her dream project, an expose on sex in advertising. She reluctantly agrees, even though part of the deal includes having to cast the financier's curvaceous, but obnoxiously untalented girlfriend LIta as the star. Kuckoff, realizing the terrible mistake he's made, hires the neighborhood thugs to sabotage the picture. However, before they can hit full stride, the Bishop arrives and declares his own holy war. The movie's set, a gigantic birthday cake, becomes the battleground for one of the most uproarious brawls ever.

Loose Ends

1986

Turning to Stone poster
4.0

Alison Campbell was sentenced to seven years after trying to smuggle drugs into Canada. This hard-hitting film tells the story of how she survived the prison system,and sacrificed herself to protect her inmates and saved her own sanity.

Turning to Stone

1985

Shadow Dancing poster
4.2

Jess, a struggling dancer, is trying out for a part in a musical about Medusa. As she practices, the director notices how much she resembles his former lover, a ballerina who died in a bizarre on-stage accident while performing the exact same dance that Jess is doing. As more unexplainable coincidences surround the production, someone or something must be behind them all. But who? Or what?

Shadow Dancing

1988

Tommy Douglas: Keeper of the Flame poster
9.5

This feature documentary traces the political career of T.C. (Tommy) Douglas, former premier of Saskatchewan and leader of the New Democratic Party, who was voted the Greatest Canadian in 2004 for his devotion to social causes, his charm and his powers of persuasion. Known as the "Father of Medicare," this one-time champion boxer and fiery preacher entered politics in the 1930s and never looked back.

Tommy Douglas: Keeper of the Flame

1986

Series credits

Degrassi poster
7.6

The life of a group of adolescents going through the trials and tribulations of teendom at Degrassi Community School.

Degrassi

2001

The New Alfred Hitchcock Presents poster
7.2

The New Alfred Hitchcock Presents is an American anthology series that aired on NBC from 1985 to 1986, and on the USA Network from 1987 to 1989. The series is an updated re-imagining of the classic 1955 series Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

The New Alfred Hitchcock Presents

1985

Franklin poster
6.7

Franklin is an Canadian educational animated television series, based on the Franklin the Turtle books by Brenda Clark and Paulette Bourgeois. The television series was named after its main character, Franklin the Turtle. It was produced by PolyGram Television, Alphanim, LuxAnimation, Nelvana, Neurones Enterprises, Reader's Digest for Young Families, TF1, Funbag Animation Studios, Europool, Mini TFO, and Family Channel, and syndicated by Summit Entertainment.

Franklin

1997

Road to Avonlea poster
8.1

In the fictional small town of Avonlea, Prince Edward Island, in the early 20th century, 10-year-old Montreal heiress Sara Stanley is sent by her wealthy father to live with her two maiden aunts, Hetty and Olivia King, to be near her late mother's side of the family.

Road to Avonlea

1990

Corner Gas poster
8.0

Following the adventures of a bunch of nobodies who get up to a whole lot of nothing in the fictional prairie town of Dog River, Saskatchewan, Corner Gas focuses on the life (or lack thereof) of Brent LeRoy, proprietor of a gas station that is the only stop for miles around and a hub of action on the Prairies.

Corner Gas

2004

Robson Arms poster
5.2

Robson Arms follows the lives of the tenants in a once-grand low-rise in Vancouver's eclectic West End. The building is home to an unlikely collection of characters who live under one roof, yet occupy different worlds. One thing is certain, you'll never see your neighbours the same way again.

Robson Arms

2005

No artwork available
7.3

A weekly helping of topical satire, funny takes on the week's top stories and Canada-wide adventures.

Rick Mercer Report

2004

Wind at My Back poster
9.0

A recently widowed mother loses her children to a cold mother-in-law in Ontario during the Great Depression of the 1930s.  Based loosely on the books "Never Sleep Three in a Bed" and "The Night We Stole the Mounties’ Car" by Max Braithwaite

Wind at My Back

1996

The Hat Squad poster
6.8

The Hat Squad is a crime drama television series that ran for only one season on CBS, during the 1992–1993 season. 13 episodes were made, but only 11 of them aired.

The Hat Squad

1992

Hallmark Hall of Fame poster
8.8

Long-running anthology program sponsored by Hallmark Cards. Beginning in 1951 and continuing into 2019, the series received 80 Emmy Awards, 24 Christopher Awards, 11 Peabody Awards, 9 Golden Globes, and 4 Humanitas Prizes. Early seasons were a weekly live drama, eventually transitioning to videotaped and then filmed productions broadcast as occasional specials.

Hallmark Hall of Fame

1951

The Path to 9/11 poster
7.3

Beginning with the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center and ending on the morning of 9/11, the draws on detailed information from the 9/11 Commission Report to take viewers on an unforgettable journey through the events that presaged that fateful day -- to understand what went right and wrong, and what can be learned from this crucial eight-year period.

The Path to 9/11

2006

No Price Too High poster
10.0

The Canadian contribution to World War Two was extraordinary in scale and variety. More than one million people, out of nation of just eleven million, volunteered to serve. To transform a small, virtually unequipped military into a powerful army, navy and air force was a remarkable achievement. No Price Too High traces Canada's involvement from the prewar years through 1945, explaining the events of the war in the context of the political and military realities of the time. There is none of the second guessing that has characterized so much recent analysis of the war. No Price Too High draws on original sources - personal letters and diary entries, and powerful photographs - to evoke the mood of those momentous years. The thoughts, hopes, dreams, fears, and heartbreaks of the generation of Canadians who faced the war are captured. Produced by Norflicks, No Price Too High chronicles Canada's role in the major events of the war, including The Battle of Britain, Dieppe and D-Day.

No Price Too High

1995