Actor Peter Kastner Dies

Longtime TV Regular

Actor Peter Kastner, who worked extensively in both film and television, died September 18, 2008, in Toronto, Canada, of an apparent heart attack. He was 64.

Kastner, who was also born in Toronto, began acting as a child. While studying at the University of Toronto, he was hired by writer-director Don Owen to play the lead role of a juvenile delinquent rebelling against his upper-middle-class in the critically praised film Nobody Waved Goodbye.

Soon afterward, Kastner was nominated for a BAFTA Film Award for most promising newcomer for his performance in the 1966 film You’re a Big Boy Now, directed by Francis Ford Coppola.

Kastner went on to appear regular in both Canadian and American films and television series. In 1968 he starred in a short-lived 1968 ABC sitcom, The Ugliest Girl in Town, as a young talent agent who disguises himself as a woman in order to spend time with a British actress on whom he has romantic designs.

He also appeared such U.S. series as Love, American Style, Marcus Welby, M.D. and Delta House.

In addition, he enjoyed Broadway success in The Playroom, opposite Karen Black, who was his girlfriend for some time.

A few years ago, after living for many years in the U.S., Kastner returned to Toronto, where he performed at coffeehouses and comedy clubs with a one-man show.

He is survived by three siblings and his wife, Jennifer.