Walter Marven Borden (born July 20, 1942) is a Canadian actor, poet, playwright, and activist. He is a Member of the Order of Canada and a Member of the Order of Nova Scotia.
Early Life and Education
Borden was born in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. He attended Acadia University and the Nova Scotia Teacher's College. In the mid-1960s, he studied acting at the Circle in the Square Theatre School and the Herbert Berghof Studio in New York City.
Career
Borden joined Halifax's Neptune Theatre company in 1972 and has since appeared in stage productions across Canada, including multiple seasons at the Stratford Festival (beginning in 2003). His stage credits include Shakespeare's Hamlet, Richard III, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merchant of Venice, and Henry VIII; Aeschylus' Agamemnon; Jean-Paul Sartre's The Flies; James Weldon Johnson's God's Trombones; Tennessee Williams' Orpheus Descending and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof; and Djanet Sears' Harlem Duet and The Adventures of a Black Girl in Search of God.
His film and television credits include Nurse.Fighter.Boy (2008), The Event (2003), Gerontophilia (2013), Lexx (1997–2002), and Platinum (2003).
In 1986, Borden wrote and performed the autobiographical play Tightrope Time: Ain't Nuthin' More Than Some Itty Bitty Madness Between Twilight and Dawn, one of the first plays in Black Canadian literature to directly present themes of male homosexuality. A revised version, The Last Epistle of Tightrope Time, premiered at Neptune Theatre in 2023 and later at the National Arts Centre. His other writing credits include Testifyin' and Tellin' It Like It Is.
He has also released an album, Walter Borden Reads Shakespeare's Sonnets to the Music of Fernando Sor (1998), in collaboration with classical guitarist Paul Martell.
Activism
Borden was active in the Nova Scotia civil rights movement during the 1960s, working with the Nova Scotia Project and the Black United Front. He was involved with Kwacha House, a youth centre in Halifax, and hosted the minority affairs television program Black Horizons.
Personal Life
Borden is openly gay. He is of Black and Métis (Indigenous) ancestry.
Awards and Honours
- Member of the Order of Canada (2005, invested 2006)
- Member of the Order of Nova Scotia (2007)
- Portia White Prize (2006)
- Martin Luther King Jr. Achievement Award (2006)
- Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal
- Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal
- Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal
- Two honorary doctorates
- African Nova Scotia Music Association (ANSMA) Music Heritage Award
- Inductee into the Dr. William P. Oliver Wall of Honour Society at the Black Cultural Centre for Nova Scotia
