George William Needles (1919 - 2016)

Biography

William Needles was a Canadian actor and teacher, best known for his many performances at the Stratford Festival.

Born in Yonkers, New York, in 1919,^[1]he was the eldest child of Ira George and Marion Marie (Westover) Needles.^[2] When he was a child, his family moved to Kitchener, Ontario, where his father became president of BF Goodrich Canada and was co-founder of the University of Waterloo.

Needles trained to be an actor in the United States. During World War II, he served with the U.S. Army.^[3] He returned to Canada after the war and was a member of the Stratford Festival company from its founding in the early 1950s. He was co-founder of the Actors Fund of Canada and taught at the University of California, Irvine.

He was the recipient of the Order of Canada and the Queen's Golden and Diamond Jubilee medals.

He died at the age of 97 at his home in Alliston, Ontario.

Sources

1. ↑ "New York, Birth Indexes outside of New York City, 1881-1942", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6F4P-WXML : Wed Nov 15 06:29:04 UTC 2023), Entry for George W Neadles, 2 Jan 1919.
2. ↑ "United States Census, 1920", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MV3N-9L9 : Tue Oct 03 08:59:11 UTC 2023), Entry for Ira G Needles and Marie M W Needles, 1920.
3. ↑ "United States World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K8PF-G9G : 5 December 2014), George W Needles, enlisted 19 Feb 1943, Cp Dodge, Herrold, Iowa, United States; citing "Electronic Army Serial Number Merged File, ca. 1938-1946," database, The National Archives: Access to Archival Databases (AAD) (http://aad.archives.gov : National Archives and Records Administration, 2002); NARA NAID 1263923, National Archives at College Park, Maryland.

See also:

• The Canadian Encyclopedia
• Wikipedia
• CBC, obituary