Canadian-born Lorne Greene began acting while attending Canada's Queen's University, and after graduation got a job in radio broadcasting. His rich, deep, authoritarian voice quickly propelled him to prominence as Canada's top newscaster. He left Canada in the early '50s for a film career in Hollywood, and soon began appearing regularly in television, films and on radio. His greatest successes came in two television series, the long-running Western Bonanza, in which he played the patriarch of a wealthy frontier family, and the sci-fi series Battlestar Galactica.


Attended Lisgar Collegiate, Ottawa, Ontario. When he was an announcer for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in the early years of World War II, he was nicknamed "The Voice of Doom" for the combination of his deep voice and the usually gloomy news reports about the war he had to read. Just before his death, Greene had signed on to reprise the role of Ben Cartwright in a TV-movie revival of "Bonanza." Founded Toronto's Academy of Radio Arts. Served, along with Betty White, as co-host of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on NBC-TV for almost a decade, 1963-72. His daughter Gillian Greene, is married to director Sam Raimi. One of the Raimis' sons is named Lorne, after him. Has two children, Belinda and Charles, from his first marriage. Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives." Volume Two, 1986-1990, pages 355-356. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1999. Best remembered by the public for his starring role as father Ben Cartwright on "Bonanza" (1959). Once played George Wahington in a short film produced for the National Park Service.