Len Birman

Len Birman (born Leonard Birman; September 28, 1932) is a Canadian American actor, who began his career in Montreal. In his 45 years on stage, screen and radio, he has portrayed a wide variety of characters, including some choice roles in classical and contemporary theatre.

Birman was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, the second son of Maurice Lieb Birman, who was a millinery designer, and Anna Birman, a marriage that lasted 70 years. He graduated from Baron Byng High School in 1949 as class president, and within months he was captivated by the stage and the discovery of being naturally at home on it. He had been a good student and now had no interest at all in continuing on to college.

His earliest influences came by way of the STAGE series, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's radio productions of original plays and international classics beginning in the early 1940s. As a long time fan, he was honored and humbled to be joining the remaining members of the troupe when he moved to Toronto in 1962. He soon became a mainstay, playing dozens of pivotal roles.

Coincidental with his first appearances in community theatre (1955), CBC/Radio Canada announced plans for their first live English and French television series to be produced in Montreal. Called Dateline on the English language channel and Je Me Souviens on the French language channel, it aired on alternate Friday nights with the same cast. His audition won him his first TV role.

Birman's film experience began almost simultaneously with the arrival of The National Film Board of Canada to new headquarters and studios in Montreal. That, together with CBC's new television activity, presented the possibility of acting as a vocation. Until then, radio drama was the only ongoing paid professional work, and Birman was to be married in September 1956.

By that time, Birman, together with George Bloomfield, director, and M. Charles Cohen, playwright, created Domino Productions, a stage ensemble for which Birman produced, played leading roles and exercised his innate talent for art by designing the sets, posters and programs. As a youngster, he had thought he would study art in Paris but his inclination toward theatre proved more persuasive. He had already contributed skits to various annual Variety shows, including McGill University's Red And White Revue, YMHA′s Variety Gang and B′nai B′rith′s Notes To You. Birman spearheaded the founding of Cafe Andre's Up Tempo, a highly successful satirical revue, which was the first of its kind in Canada and ran well into the 1960s.

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