Canadian comedian and former Royal Canadian Air Farce actor Dave Broadfoot has died at age 90, his family confirmed to CBC News.
Broadfoot was best known for his time on Air Farce, the long-running comedy show on CBC. Starting in 1973, he appeared on radio and television versions of the show for 15 years in the classic lineup of the show alongside cast members Roger Abbott, Don Ferguson, Luba Goy and John Morgan.
Goy remembered Broadfoot as a "lovely man," skilled writer and consummate performer.
"His legacy is monumental, he's a national treasure," Goy told CBC News after learning of Broadfoot's death.
Among Broadfoot's best-known characters were the Honourable Member for Kicking Horse Pass, Sgt. Renfrew of the RCMP and Big Bobby Clobber, a hockey player who had received too many pucks to the head.
Broadfoot was a fixture on the CBC shows long before his tenure on Air Farce, on television with the Big Revue and Wayne and Shuster Show beginning in the 1950s and on radio the following decade with Funny You Should Say That.
He was known for an act that blended genial satire, Canadiana-laced content and an extensive knowledge of political and historical goings-on.
"You tell a Canadian he's apathetic and he'll answer, 'Who cares?" Broadfoot, as the Honourable Member of Kicking Horse Pass, said in an appearance on CBC's 90 Minutes Live in the late 1970s.
"What is our culture?" Broadfoot asked in his 1995 comedy special. "It's gathering up every useless thing you've acquired throughout your life, putting it on tables on your front lawn and making other people pay for it."
Broadfoot poked fun at all regions of the country with mildly politically incorrect results, praising the peace and quiet one finds in Quebec on Canada Day, and also in an extended riff on Canadian inventiveness:
"Down East in 1846, Abraham Gesner invented kerosene. And the people loved the taste.
"And the kerosene lamp became a symbol of Canadian manhood – it's not very bright, it gets turned down a lot and when needed most, goes out."
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Born in Vancouver on Dec. 5, 1925, Broadfoot began hitting stages soon after serving in the navy during the Second World War ...
