Rod Beattie
Rod Beattie CM (born 1948) is a Canadian actor who has worked in theatre for more than 50 years. He is best known for the Wingfield Series of plays by Dan Needles, in which he plays all characters by changing his voice and facial expressions. He has performed these plays across Canada and on TV. In 1991-1992, he won the Dora Mavor Moore Award for best actor in a leading role for the first three Wingfield plays. The plays are directed by his brother Douglas Beattie. The Beatties and Needles had cottages near each other in the Wingfield Farm area.
Beattie has appeared at the Stratford Festival for 16 seasons over 45 years. He has also performed outside Stratford in The Loveliest and Sylvia in Victoria, The Crucible and Blessings in Disguise in Manitoba, Oleanna at the National Arts Centre with Sandra Oh, and Love Letters opposite his then-wife Martha Henry in Ontario.
He is known for his comic timing and often plays the antihero in Shakespearean productions at Stratford, frequently taking the roles of the fop or the fool. In his younger days he played Hamlet at Hart House. He also appeared in the movie The Wars.
On January 14, 2010, Wingfield Lost and Found opened at the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton, marking Beattie’s 4,000th Wingfield performance in a little over 25 years.
From Rosemont, Ontario, to Edmonton, his Wingfield openings included 1985 Letter from Wingfield Farm, 1987 Wingfield’s Progress, 1990 Wingfield’s Folly, 1997 Wingfield Unbound, 2001 Wingfield on Ice, 2005 Wingfield’s Inferno, and 2009 Wingfield Lost and Found. He has performed at major theatres across Canada, including Belfry in Victoria, Vancouver Playhouse, Theatre Calgary, Globe Theatre in Regina, Manitoba Theatre Centre in Winnipeg, Grand Theatre in London, Stratford Festival, Theatre Aquarius in Hamilton, the Royal Alexandra Theatre and Canadian Stage in Toronto, Theatre New Brunswick in Fredericton, and Neptune Theatre in Halifax, as well as many smaller venues. He has also done seasons at Cincinnati’s Playhouse in the Park and the Asolo Theatre in Sarasota.
The first three Wingfield plays were broadcast on CBC Radio’s Morningside; a TV version of Letter from Wingfield Farm won the 1991 Gemini Award for Best Performing Arts Program. In November 1998, a 30-episode TV series, Wingfield, aired on CBC and later on Bravo! Canada.
Beattie was raised in Toronto, studying at University of Toronto Schools and the University of Toronto. He married Martha Henry in 1990; they later separated but remained married until her death in 2021. He has since married arts administrator Patricia McKinna.
He has won three best-actor awards for his Wingfield work: Sterling (1988, Edmonton), Dora (1992, Toronto), and the Critics’ Award (1995, Sarasota).
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 04:20 (CET).