Ian Power, 63, on Aug. 23, at Richmond General Hospital, from advanced Glioblastoma. Power’s broadcast career started in 1978 at CFUN Vancouver as part of the cruiser team. By 1980, he was hosting evenings and weekends at CISL Vancouver, followed by stints at CISQ-FM and CISW-FM Squamish/Whistler, CJVB Vancouver, and CIOF/CKXY Vancouver. He joined Rogers in the late 1980s as a creative consultant for several years, before returning to an on-air role at Pattison Media Vancouver in 1994 where he hosted weekend/swing on JR FM (CJJR-FM) and afternoon drive on CKBD. After 15 years with Pattison, Power moved over to 980 CKNW weekend program, The Home Discovery Show, in 2009 where he was a host and producer for seven years. More recently, he’d been hosting the morning show on 107.7 Pulse FM (CISF-FM) Surrey.
Gerald Potterton, 91, on Aug. 23. Born in London, England and a student of the Hammersmith Art School, Potterton emigrated to Canada in 1954 to work alongside the pioneers of NFB animation. He created animation for NFB films throughout the ‘50s before directing his own shorts, including Stephen Leacock adaptation My Financial Career (1962) and Christmas Cracker (1963, co-directed with Norman McLaren, Jeff Hale and Grant Munro), which were both nominated for Academy Awards. He made his mark in live-action comedy with The Ride (1963) and the The Railrodder (1965), starring Buster Keaton in one of his last film roles. In 1968, Potterton returned to England to work on the Beatles animated feature Yellow Submarine, followed by a collaboration with Harold Pinter on NBC TV special Pinter People. Upon his return to Canada, he formed independent production company, Potterton Productions, which turned out projects including Oscar Wilde adaptation The Selfish Giant (1972), an animated short that netted him a third Oscar nomination. In 1981, he directed animated cult classic Heavy Metal for Columbia Pictures, supervising more than 65 animators in Canada, England and the U.S. In later years, Potterton took up painting, also continuing to develop film and TV projects from his home base in Knowlton, Que. A member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, he was selected by the World Animation Celebration in 1998 as one of “Ten Men Who Have Rocked the Animation World.” There have been over a dozen retrospectives and lifetime honours for his work in recent years, including at the Ottawa Animation Film Festival (1994) and Seattle Film Festival (1997).
Nelson Branco, 48, on Aug. 22. Originally from Winnipeg, Branco graduated from Ryerson University’s Radio & Television Arts program in the mid-’90s, starting his career working with publications like Soap Opera Update and Xtra Magazine. He continued in entertainment journalism with In Touch, where he helped launch the magazine in 2003 under editor Richard Spencer. Around the same time, he started writing for TV Guide, Weekly Scoop, and Hello! Canada. Branco also ventured into television with short stints as a writer on The Marilyn Denis Show and CTV News Channel, and as a segment and chase producer at Breakfast Television. He went on to serve as the senior producer on Sun News Network’s “Straight Talk with Adrienne Batra” from 2013-15. He then took up the role of Editor at Postmedia commuter paper, 24 Hours. Since 2017, he’d held the title of National Video & Digital Lead for the Toronto Sun and Canoe. Branco was caught up in layoffs this past June when his position was eliminated. Over the years, he was also a contributor to HufPost, Closer, and Zoomer Magazine, among other publications.
