The Director

As is often the case, Canada is late to the cultural party for one of its best artists. It was not until 1992 that Norman Jewison — ­easily our top film director, with artistic and box-office hits that stretch back to the 1960s — was made a companion of the Order of Canada. This was long after his work had earned dozens of international accolades, including three Oscar nominations for best director. Jewison’s film career spanned the entire second half of the twentieth century, and not once did he seal himself within the Hollywood bubble. He expressed his passion for social justice and human rights most palpably when he championed Robert F. Kennedy’s run for president and marched in Martin Luther King’s funeral procession. Golda Meir, the so‑called Iron Lady of Israeli politics, praised him for his idealism.

I once had a phone conversation with Jewison, when I was working on my second biography of the great William Hutt, who starred in the director’s final film...