STRATFORD, Ontario (CelebrityAccess) Douglas Rain, 90, pioneer of the Shakespearean performance gathering Stratford Festival in Ontario, died of natural causes at St. Marys Memorial Hospital near Statford, according to a statement from the festival.
Rain was one of the few surviving founding members of the company that established the event nad had more than a 100 television and film credits, according to the CBC. He is known in popular culture as the voiced of HAL 9000, the self-aware computer of Stanley Kubrick’s film “2001: A Space Odyssey,” one of AFI’s top 100 films of all time.
Rain studied at the Old Vic theatre school in London before joining Stratford Festival’s inaugural season in 1953 and continued to 1998 performing in numerous plays, notably as the lead role in “Henry V.”
“Canadian theatre has lost one of its greatest talents and a guiding light in its development,” said the Stratford Festival’s artistic director Antoni Cimolino in the statement, adding Rain was “an actor deeply admired by other actors.”
