TORONTO - Gemini and Genie Award-winning Canadian actor Maury Chaykin has died at age 61.
His passing was confirmed by fellow actor Mark McKinney, a producer of the HBO Canada series "Less Than Kind," in which Chaykin had a reoccurring role.
Chaykin was born in New York to an American father and a Canadian mother before later moving to Toronto.
While Chaykin was perhaps best-known for his role in the 1994 hit "Whale Music," his extensive resume spanned 35 years. He's often remembered for a role in "Dances with Wolves," and also performed parts in a number of major American shows in recent years, including "Entourage," "C.S.I.," and "Boston Legal."
His role in "Whale Music" earned him a Genie for best performance by an actor in a supporting role in 1994, while he picked up Geminis for guest spots on "La Femme Nikita" in 1998 and "At the Hotel" in 2006.
In "Less Than Kind," Chaykin played a diabetic father who struggled to run a driving school in Winnipeg.
The actor said he was "bowled over" by the show's frankness, cutting edge, sensibility and heart.
''It comes from pain of the heart, it comes from desire, it comes from wanting to do the right thing and not really being able to," he told The Canadian Press in October 2008.
"The pain of that, of wanting to be a good father, of wanting to be a good mother, and not being able to or not knowing quite how to, but trying and not giving up. Being relentless.
"That's where the joy of the show lies and it is a joyful show, it has a lot of pain in it, a lot of laughs."
Last March, he also played a newspaper baron in the TV pilot "Abroad," based on Globe and Mail writer Leah McLaren's experiences as a London-based reporter.
