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(I want to give credit where credit is due, about the first half of this Biography was written based on Elyse's incredibly indepth Callum Keith Rennie Bio, although I have added some additional information myself.)
Callum is a versatile actor who can take on the role
of a young nerdish boyfriend on one hand, or become lead guitarist of a
small Canadian punk band on the other. He has a small wry frame, but his
nick name "The Body Hammer" (given to him by his brothers) in
many way's is quite appropriate. With blue eyes (there is debate as to his
true eye colour), a smile that can be either "charming or dangerous"
(quote from William and Elyse's DS Page, CKR
Bio) and, usually sporting an unusual spiky hair-do, he has been called
Canada's version of James Dean and Brad Pitt. His usual demure seems in
stark contrast to some of the outlandish roles he takes on, but Callum in
fact seems to be quite soft spoken and leans towards being almost shy at
times.
Callum Keith Rennie (CKR):
Callum is 39 years old and was born September 14th, 1960 in Sunderland, England to Scottish parents, who are now separated. His mother was born in Inverness, and his father in Aberdeen, Scotland. Here's four pictures of him, the first is him in Grade 10, another of him in Grade 11, and one of him in Grade 12, and finally the Older Callum, probably taken during the early 90's. He also has a younger and an older brother. (Middle child syndrome one must wonder??) His stats are not known for sure, but in the Due South episode "Spy vs Spy" his height and weight were given at 5'10 -1/2" and 159lbs for his character, so these may be his actual stats. Many people have wondered what his accent would have sounded like if he had stayed in England?? Touch My Stump Wav: From Hard Core Logo He moved to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, when he was four, and went to Strathcona High School where he made friends with the like's of Bruce McCullough of Kids In The Hall fame who introduced him to punk music in the late 70's (CKR has later admitted to listening to the Viletones, D.O.A. and the Diodes, and later sporting a mohawk while he was in University, also which he say's he was beaten up for on many occasions.) On a $5000 student loan he began going to the University Of Alberta (I just think that's cool cuz I'm going to school there) after High School, his favourite hangout's on campus were Dewey's and the RATT. But after the first two weeks of school Callum decided not to continue on with his academics, and instead decided rather to use the rest of his student loan money to buy a truck and go fishing for a couple of months. During this time he laid railroad tracks, cooked, and dug ditches to support his pass time of rock climbing which he wished to further. Other jobs Callum has done are: tree planter, paper baler, bartender, and worked night clubs, including the Anza Club and Graceland in Vancouver.
Callum later because of a friend, had a chance to do voice work at the U of A's radio station CJSR, and ended up for a year working there doing producing and writing. This lead him to first being stuck with the acting bug while he was 25, when he got into performing at the A.B.O.P. Theatre in Edmonton, and later in to a critically acclaimed play American Buffalo. From there he went to Toronto where he got into a wrong crowd, then to Vancouver on a drug deal that went sour. In Vancouver he began to take acting lessons at the Bruhanski Theatre Studio, and then moved to Niagara on the Lake where he starred in an "up lifting" season at the Shaw Theatre Festival.
Before his acting career actually started five years ago, there was a long road to where he stands today. Callum had to struggle with an alcoholic depression, and it wasn't until a bar fight in the summer of 1993 where he flipped the bird to a construction worker, who then punched his fist through a plate glass window, causing a shard of glass to drive into callum's left retina (to me it seems in pictures he will squint his left eye more then his right at times??) and with the fear of losing his eye, he decided that he had to change his life style. This incident occured during what Callum called the "Christ Year."
Acting:
Callum had moved back to Vancouver and began to catch the attention of casting scouts, and went on to audition for many film and television projects. A fairly complete list of his credits can be found in my TV & Film Credit Section. Some of the films which he appeared in are: he received critical praise for his leading role in the CBC TV movie For Those Who Hunt The Wounded Down; in which his performance inspired critics to compare him to American icon James Dean, and garnered him a Gemini Award Nomination. He also starred in the films Curtis's Charm, Double Happiness with Sandra Oh for which he garnered a nomination for Best Supporting Actor Genie Award, Bruce McDonald's Hard Core Logoas Billy Talent, where he co-starred and became friends with Headstones lead singer, Hugh Dillion That's Not Buddies Wav: From Hard Core Logo. As well he has also appeared in the recent movies Mastermind, Excess Baggage with Alicia Silverstone, and starred in Don McKellar's critically acclaimed Canadian movie about the end of the world, Last Night , which was up for more than twelve Genie awards in early 1999, with Callum winning the Best Supporting Actor Award.
In television, Callum has appeared in episodes of the X-Files, Strange World, Nikita, Side Effects for which he was awarded a Gemini Award Nomination for Best Supporting Actor, The Outer Limits, and Highlander. He has also starred in the series My Life As A Dog, a role for which he won the Gemini Award for Best Performance in a Children's or Youth Program or Series. As well last year in 1998 Callum stared in CBC's new six episode series Twitch City, and sometime in 2000 there will be seven new episodes of TC shown on CBC with Callum returning to the role of Newbie.
And, your not going to believe this one when I tell you, but Callum was one of the first actors offered the role of Alex Krycek on the X-Files, but turned it down because he didn't want to have the full time commitment of a recurring role on a series. I know, I know! It's kind of odd though because he turns around and commits to a year long deal with Due South later, but it's probably because of that, it was only a year long, and he didn't know how long the X-Files thing would go on for. Oh well. He has starred in the X-Files before; for two episodes as "Tommy" in the episode "Lazarus" in 1994, and the Groundskeeper in "Fresh Bones," in 1995.
Due South:
Here's a breif synopsis of what Due South is all about for those of you who are not aware of what it is:
Due South is a Canadian made television program shot in Toronto, but is set in Chicago. It was first aired in 1994, and was also the first Canadian TV series to make it onto prime time on a major American network, CBS. At the moment Due South is being shown in numerous countries around the world, and currently Season Four is being shown on CTV in Canada, while the previous seasons can still be seen on ShowCase. In the United States all of the episodes of Due South can be currently seen on TNT.
The show combines action, comedy, and drama. It stars the Dudley Do-Right character of Constable Benton Fraser (played by Paul Gross) of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, who "first came to Chicago on the trial of the killers of his father and for reasons that don't need exploring at this juncture, has remained attached as liaison with the Canadian Consulate." While in Chicago, Fraser develops what may be called a working relationship with a Chicago hard cop from the 27th precinct, Detective Ray Vecchio (played by David Marciano). Together with the help of Fraser's deaf, half wolf Diefenbaker (at present played by Dracco) Ray and Fraser become a formidable crime fighting team. With various supporting cast members such as Fraser's deceased father, Sgt. Robert Fraser (played by Gordon Pinsent) who appears to Fraser as a ghost; there begins to be a rich interweaving of characters and plot lines. As the show progresses, Ray Vecchio goes under cover with the mob, which introduces the new character of Detective Stanley Raymond Kowalski (played by Callum Keith Rennie) as his cover. The
new Ray and Fraser fast become friends, and both with their unique techniques of detective work are once again pounding the streets of Chicago.In 1997 Paul Gross approached Callum and "literally" after a coin toss which Paul Gross won, Callum became one of the newest member of the Due South cast. The Character of Ray Vecchio played by David Marciano was up in the air as a contract dispute between Marcaino and Alliance occurred, and finally Marciano did not agree to return to the show. Enter Callum Keith Rennie, into a role and scripts which had been designed with Marciano in mind. For more on his character of Det. Stanley Raymond Kowalski go to my SRK Character Sketch page.
Callum himself brings to the character, energy, and hyperness beyond extreme. With just a subtle movement CKR can convey many emotions, and this may be one of his greatest talents. He also brings realness to the character, something which CKR always strives for; in fact Callum has said that he will never take on a character who's dialogue which he does not thinks a normal person would say. This can be shown in how he has been said to always have carried "The Big Book" around the DS set (check out my CKR Quotes under "Other's Talking About Callum"); the book is of American Slang Words (Random House Dictionary of American Slang Volume I ??? Thank's to Anne Monette & Monica Ross for this info) but it only goes to H. Callum Starred in 26 complete episodes of Due South in Seasons Three and Four in Canada, which is called Season Three in the United States. Due South has completed it's run on TV, and rapped up filming in early 1998. But there are rumours floating around of possibly two or three new DS TV movies slated (????), this has not been confirmed yet, but it would be nice to see Callum reprising his role again. We'll have to wait and see.
Other Stuff:
Other little bits of interesting information on CKR, one of which is his other pass time, painting by himself, and he also enjoys paintings by Stuart Davis and Jackson Pollack. In fact Callum has a tatto on his right bicep Dr. Longball gif: From Due South which is to pay homage to Davis's paintings,(it says "the amazing continuity" in the painting; thanks to The Ultimate CKR Picture Archive for finding the painting!) it's of a logo of Champion Spark Plugs!!! To cool. Callum just recently in 1999 got a new Bull Terrier pup which he named Alberta. Callum has also said before that he sublets three apartments, one in Toronto, Vancouver, and one in L.A. where he has been spending most of his time recently. Also one of his previous long time girlfriends (he's single now) was Canadian actress Babz Chula, who is 14 years older than him. They met at a Starbucks in Vancouver during his drinking period, and they ended up living together for two years. Callum has also never had any love for doing interviews, in fact he has been seen as "difficult" by TV people because of his candid opinions on his profession. He also prefers to do his own stunts, he smokes, and is a semi-vegetarian and likes to drink carrot juice, and has said that his favorite Canadian film is "I Love A Man In Uniform." Also one day Callum was arrested because he had unpaid parking tickets, but he used the night in jail as experience for his acting skills. He also has been heard to during his first films before a scene he would sqweeze a piece of broken glass in his hand to get the right type of reaction for particular scenes. He's that dedicated.
Also something else that's interesting, one day someone was on the Toronto Subway and noticed a poster by Bell Mobility that had a man that looked exactly like Callum on it, which it happened to be, (and I think they would have been very tempted to steal it too) it spread to the CKREB list that you could e-mail Bell Mobility and they would send the poster "Record Contract" (this is the original picture used for the poster) to you for free.Well, Bell Mobility got more then they could handle, because they had too many requests for the poster, so people now have to go in person to their office in a town north of Toronto to get it. You can now even find at certain events the poster being auctioned off!!! I happen to be a proud owner of a free one.
CKR Selections:
-Well if you can't take my word about Callum, why don't you take his. Here's an article which I think rocks because it really gives a great over view of Callums life, in his own words. It's from 1996 during his period when he was performing the role of Jerry Bines, in For Those Who Hunt The Wounded Down. Thanks to Dawn Arnold.
DECISIVE MOMENT
Callum Keith Rennie Climbs To The Top
Toronto's Globe and Mail
Saturday, December 14, 1996
Ellen VanstoneCallum Keith Rennie plays tragic hero Jerry Bines in For Those Who Hunt the Wounded Down (Sunday, CBC at 8 p.m.), based on the novel by David Adams Richards. In his recent movie roles, he played a punk rocker in Hard Core Logo, Sandra Oh's nerdy boyfriend in Double Happiness, an ex-junkie in Curtis's Charm and a charismatic outsider in the TV-movie Paris or Somewhere.
Before that he was on stage at the Edmonton Fringe Festival and the Shaw Festival, though his career was stop-and-go for the first few years due to "lifestyle problems."
Then, three years ago, Rennie almost lost an eye after being hit by flying glass in a barroom brawl -- and hasn't had a drink since. It was definitely a decisive moment in the 36-year-old actor's career, but not the first, he said by phone from Vancouver.
"I was a mountaineer, through high school, and for about four years after that, that's what I did. I climbed mountains and worked at odd jobs and would go climbing. There was some sort of pull toward the arts, a couple of girlfriends who were painters. I worked at a library for awhile and I read a lot of biographies and I read a lot about acting, and I thought that would be something to do at some point. But there was something about it that seemed very ego-oriented and I was very shy, so it was hard to know how to approach it. . . .
"I was working at a restaurant and some friends had a radio show. They asked me to listen in to see if I liked it. It was interesting, and they suggested I come down and do a voice on it.
"After doing the one show, on that one day, Saturday, I took all my climbing gear and books about it and threw 'em out, and I said, this is what I do now. I'm going to be an actor. . . .
"It was actually the first time I quit drinking to do something. I was a bit of a rounder but I thought, if I'm going to do this and get up on stage. . . . We rehearsed this play for three months and I quit drinking and doing anything that would take away from my focus before I got on stage. . . .
"Not that it worked out."
Rennie laughs and explains that, as much as he loved acting, he took a long time to take it seriously, quitting every so often for up to two years at a time.
"I'd gone tree planting and I was involved in a lot of different things which were, you know, not so great. But I thought the best thing -- and the last time I was ever really focused on something -- was the Fringe stuff, which was acting. So I went and took a couple of classes with a guy in town here [Vancouver], Alex Bruhanski, and for the first time I saw that the nature of being an actor could be an art, and the nature of it could be important in the sense of culture. Yeah I was completely inspired."
-Here's another quote I have come accross that also seems to sum up Callum's personality in an interesting way. It's from the book "Hard Core Roadshow" which is about the making of the movie Hard Core Logo; the author Noel S. Baker happened to write the screenplay for the movie. The selection talks about how Callum first got the part of Billy Tallent.
HARD CORE ROADSHOW
Noel S. Baker
[Bruce and Noel are incredibly hung over and doing auditions for HCL]: "The hours dribble by. The head clears. We've seen several possible callbacks but no one who simply exudes the essence of any of the four band members. Until late in the afternoon, when we finally see an actor who does. Tall, blond, angular, unconventionally handsome, in his thirties. But it's much more than looks that strike us, it's the details of his attitude, his personal style. Unlike all the others he wears brown, not black, and in a way that suggests he knows what he's doing when he opens his closet in the morning. There is no 'uniform,' and he's not putting on any misconceived punk airs. Quite the opposite. There's something spaced-out and fragile about him, yet also something subtly impertinent and fuck-you in the way he refuses to slate himself properly for the camera. He's got a wicked smile. His name is Callum Rennie, he's reading for Billy, and I know he's our man before he reads a word." (From Hard Core Roadshow)
