Douglas Rain

Douglas Rain was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada to Scottish-Canadian parents. After graduating from the University of Manitoba in 1950, Rain set out to funnel his affinity for acting into a bona fide career. He enrolled in the Banff School of Fine Arts, and then the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in England. Following his graduation from the latter, he returned to Canada with director Tyrone Guthrie and served as a paramount piece of the inception of the Stratford Festival, a repertory theater festival that launched in 1953. Rain split his time as an actor between the stage and the screen, and earned a slew of notable film roles over the span of his career. Early projects of note included the anthology television program "General Motors Theatre" (CBC Television, 1954-1961), also known as "Encounter," as well as films like "Oedipus Rex" (1957), and TV movies like "Twelfth Night" (CBC Television 1964) and "Henry V" (CBC Television 1966). His most famous role of all would come shortly after, as Rain was cast as the voice of the supercomputer HAL 9000 in Stanley Kubrick's science-fiction epic "2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968). Rain did find critical success beyond HAL, even earning a Tony Award nomination for his work in a 1972 production of the play "Vivat! Vivat Regina!", but the computer would remain the role that defined his career. So famed was Rain's performance as HAL that he parodied it five years after "2001: A Space Odyssey" in Woody Allen's sci-fi comedy "Sleeper" (1973), and revived the role in the less revered sequel "2010: The Year We Made Contact" (1984), directed by Peter Hyams. Rain continued to act on the stage, and consistently with the Stratford Festival, up until 1998. On Nov. 11, 2018, Douglas Rain died at age 90.