Les Carpenter, 61, on July 3, after a brief illness. Carpenter started his broadcasting career with the CBC in Inuvik where he hosted many of the North’s most popular programs and earned him the nickname “Mr. Saturday Night.” Carpenter left broadcasting In 1984 and over the next 16 years took on a variety of roles from becoming the first mayor of Sachs Harbour to founding chair of the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation. He was also a member of the UN Special Task Force on Aboriginal Peoples and special advisor to Australia’s Aboriginal Peoples and the Prime Minister’s Office. In 2000, Carpenter was asked by Northern Native Broadcasting in Whitehorse to step back into his former career as director of radio. In the fall of 2009, Carpenter took over as CEO of Yellowknife-based Native Communications Society, which owns CKLB-FM, which broadcasts in five languages to 30 communities in the N.W.T. and northern Alberta.
Larry Lamb, 83, on June 29 in Peterborough. Lamb had a distinguished career in radio advertising, concluding his career as president of Major Market Broadcasters. Founded by a group of senior sales executives that left Stephens & Towndrow Broadcast Reps in 1966, the company opened offices in Montreal and Toronto with CHUM as its only client. CFPL London and the Moffatt stations were eventually partners. The successor company became known as CHUM Radio Sales after CHUM purchased all of the outstanding shares in the late 1990s. Lamb is remembered as a mentor to younger media buyers, and one of the nicest guys in the business.
Denis Akiyama, 66 on June 28. Akiyama was an actor and voice actor, best known as the voice of the Iceman/Bobby Drake, Silver Samurai and Sunfire characters in the X-Men Animated Series. He also provided the voice of Malachite/Kunzite in the original English version of Sailor Moon. The Toronto-born actor also appeared in Johnny Mnemonic, 2015 action adventure film Pixels, and was a frequent guest star on Canadian TV series Katts and Dog.
Daniel Pilon, 77, on June 26, of cancer. Montreal-born Pilon got his first movie role in Quebec director Gilles Carle’s 1968 drama Le Viol d’une Jeune Fille Douce, which also starred his older brother Donald Pilon. He went on to appear in 1969 British war film Play Dirty, alongside Michael Caine and Nigel Davenport. Pilon is best known for portraying portraying villain Renaldo “Naldo” Marchetta on Dallas and Gavin Newirth on Days of Our Lives, among other roles on daytime soaps Ryan’s Hope and Guiding Light. He also had credits on Hart to Hart, Cagney & Lacey, and Murder, She Wrote.
Robert Asgeirsson, 74, on June 12, following a nine-year battle with prostate cancer. The Vancouver-based cinematographer began his career at CJAY-TV Winnipeg in the 1960s, before moving to Vancouver in 1969 where he worked at BCTV as a documentary and current affairs cameraman. Throughout the 1970s and 80, Asgeirsson worked as both a freelance and staff shooter for CBC Vancouver, Global TV and other clients. His work was nominated for a Gemini Award in 1989. Asgeirsson was also curator of the Icelandic Archives of BC which now reside in the UBC Library Special Collections department, collecting and printing hundreds of still photographs for the “Nordic Spirit” collection.
