100 Canadians To Watch
Maclean's, 1997
Callum Keith Rennie
Actor
He has the rugged cool of a bad boy who has been to hell and back, looks better for it, and now humors the camera with good behavior. Hollywood stars tend to tumble through addiction and recovery after they get famous. But Vancouver native Rennie got it out of his system before he started. While working as a stage actor, he says he spent his 20s drinking. Then, at 33, he quit. "I got a piece of glass in my eye in a bar fight." He recalls, then adds, with laconic under-statement: "I thought, This has gone far enough." Now 36, he has been acting in film and TV for just four years, but is racing to catch up. While living in Vancouver, he paid his dues playing criminals in TV series such as The Commish, Lonesome Dove, The Highlander and The X-Files. In 1993, he turned heads with a feature role opposite Sandra Oh in Double Happiness. He dismisses the character as "a vacuous middle-class male," but his talent in the role was obvious.
As a recovering junkie in Curtisıs Charm, Rennie finally got to show some edge. Then, playing a laconic guitarist in Bruce McDonaldıs punk rockumentary, Hard Core Logo, he displayed something rare in Canadian cinema, the quietly smouldering charisma of a movie star. This fall, replacing David Marciano, Rennie will co-star with Paul Gross as the new cop sidekick in CTVıs Due South. But in case anyone thinks this actor is going straight, Rennie is quick to point out: "I play a cop like a I play a bad guy."
One
of Canada's sexiest men.
Chatelaine Magazine,
June 1999
"Not much of an advertisement for Canadian
dentistry, but you can't have everything. Slide him into a lumberjacket
and the actor best known for Due South and Hard Core Logo resembles the
scruffiest salesman on the Christmas-tree lot- the guy who reeks of rye
and cops a feel while handling over the fir. Rennie's hoser accent is the
dollop of whipped cream that puts this Canadian-made butter tart over the
top."