Richard Thomas (politician)

Richard Malcolm Thomas (February 4, 1932 – February 22, 2006) was a Canadian actor, broadcaster, environmentalist and politician.

Born in Toronto, Thomas attended Huron St. Public School and Jarvis Collegiate Institute, dropping out after grade 10. He left home at the age of 17 and moved to Barrie, where he received his first broadcasting job at radio station CKBB.

He moved to Vancouver two years later and met his future wife at CJOR radio. The two travelled together to California and then returned to Canada where Thomas found a string of broadcasting jobs in Edmonton, Winnipeg, Ottawa and Peterborough. He eventually found himself back in Toronto driving taxi when, one day, he picked up Ted Rogers as a passenger. Rogers and Thomas had attended the same summer camp as children and Thomas had once rescued Rogers from drowning. By the mid 1960s, when Rogers found himself in the back of Thomas' cab, Rogers was building a broadcasting empire. He hired Thomas to work on the air at CHFI as the new FM station's morning host and news reader.

Thomas' CHFI job led to a career narrating commercials as well as television and film documentaries. By 1967, Thomas was able to buy land in Kearney, near Algonquin Park and support himself by commuting to Toronto for voice over work. Thomas' voice could be heard throughout the 1970s on commercials for GM cars and Taster's Choice coffee as well as for his appearances in Cracker Barrel cheese's television ads. A commanding speaker, he attained further fame through a memorable vocal part in a television commercial for Canada Packers as the bacon loving "Gentle Ben" and has provided voice-over narration for a number of programs such as the early 1980s TV Ontario technology series Fast Forward. He narrated numerous nature films for the National Film Board of Canada and educational films for director Budge Crawley.

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