Banff Festival to honour Colm Feore

Colm Feore, the Canadian actor who starred in Bon Cop, Bad Cop and is also a stalwart of the Stratford Festival stage, will be honoured with an Award of Distinction at the 2007 Banff World Television Festival in June.

NBC Universal Canada presented the award for the first time in 2006, to Hollywood director and scriptwriter Paul Haggis.

Feore is one of the most recognizable faces in Canadian TV, with credits such Empire, Boston Publicand the starring role in the Trudeau miniseries, which earned him a Gemini award.

He has appeared in more than 40 productions at the Stratford ShakespeareanFestivalsince first hitting the stage there in 1981, including Oliver, My Fair Lady, Coriolanus and Don Juan.

His film credits includingthe Genie Award-winning film Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould, Chicago, The Sum of All Fears and Bon Cop, a top-grossing Canadian film. Chicago won the 2003 Screen Actors Guild Award for outstanding performance by the cast.

"Colm Feore has become a Canadian icon," said Robert Montgomery, chief executive of the festival, which runs June 10 to 13 in Banff.

"His prowess and versatility as an actor and his multiple successes in film, television and theatre make him the obvious choice for the NBC Universal Canada Award of Distinction."

Feore will speak at the annual festival, Canada's most important television industry conference.

He will be presented with the award onJune 11.