Bill Marshall, one of three men who launched the renowned Toronto International Film Festival, will be remembered for his bright, inquisitive mind and his lifelong love of film, fellow festival co-founder Henk Van der Kolk said Monday.
Marshall died of cardiac arrest in Toronto on New Year’s Day at the age of 77.
“He was actually very thoughtful; Bill was a reader, would read all the papers first thing in the morning,” Van der Kolk said. “He was often seeing possibilities where other people didn’t see them. The festival was certainly one big example of that.”
Van der Kolk, Marshall and Dusty Cohl founded the then “Festival of Festivals” in 1976 after looking around and noticing that there was no vehicle to promote or celebrate Canadian films.
The two met at the filming of the Canadian film Flick, and they worked together on many film projects as well as the festival over the years.
Not everything went smoothly — they made some “spectacularly wrong choices” over the years — but didn’t produce anything that was “actually bad,” he said.
“But we did make things that nobody wanted to see on occasion,” he said. “It’s a risky business so you have to be a little quirky to be in it. If you’re into middle-aged planning in a big way you’re not going to make movies.”
Former Toronto mayor David Crombie remembered Marshall as one of a kind. Marshall served as the campaign manager and chief of staff for Crombie and his successors John Sewell and Art Eggleton.
“He carried the charm of life with him wherever he went and never allowed mere means to limit grand ends — particularly if a good time was to be had in the process,” Crombie said. “He lived the life he dreamed of as a boy in the hard part of Glasgow and the one he wanted to enjoy in the celebrated salons of Toronto.
“He paid his way in the rare coin of talent, creativity and wit and those who knew him will always be cheerfully in his debt and will never forget him,” he said.
Former mayor Mel Lastman said, “Bill was a visionary and his contributions to Canadian culture will be greatly missed.”
Toronto Mayor John Tory issued a statement Sunday saying always “thought big” and Toronto was the beneficiary.
Van der Kolk said it would be “an understatement” to say that Canadian film was not appreciated in the 1970s.
The American-dominated industry did not see the land north of its border as a separate entity but more an extension of itself, he said.
“And we came up with the idea of starting a film festival in order to call attention to the Canadian film industry. And that, of course, has worked kind of,” Van der Kolk said, in another understatement.
The Toronto International Film Festival is now a world-class event that draws actors and film fans by the thousands to the city every September, and offers year-round programming.
In a statement, TIFF CEO Piers Handling said Marshall helped build the festival into one of “the most influential public cultural festivals today.”
Marshall was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and immigrated to __canada in 1955, producing 13 feature films and hundreds of documentaries, his family said. He was awarded the Order of Canada in 2002 for his contribution to the arts.
“Now, as the house lights dim, friends and family will remember and honour Bill as a first-rate raconteur, famous for his honesty, keen mind and wry humour,” the family said in a statement.
He is survived by wife Sari Ruda, children Lee, Stephen and Shelagh, and six grandchildren
– With files from Joe Warmington and The Canadian Press
Related
- TIFF: An oral history
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