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Richard Donat

Canadian actor

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 17, 2026
Entity authorityQ16105601
Source-derived summary

Richard Francois Donat (June 1, 1941 – March 28, 2026) was a Canadian actor, known for his work in Canadian and American television. He is well known for playing the character Vince Teagues in the Canadian–American television series, Haven. Donat was the younger brother of Peter Donat and the nephew of British actor Robert Donat.

Life and career

Donat had a long career playing character roles mainly on television, though he had roles in films such as Tomorrow Never Comes (1978), City on Fire (1979), Gas (1981), Draw! (1984), My American Cousin (1985), Samuel Lount (1985), American Boyfriends (1989), The Weight of Water (2000), The Event (2003) and Amelia (2009). He also narrated several documentaries, including a number of Nova episodes.

Among his television appearances, Donat was Doctor Burnley in the Canadian series Emily of New Moon from 1998 to 2000. He played Colonel Boyle, the fort commander in the Canadian comedy series Blackfly for its two seasons, 2001–2002. Between 2010 and 2015 he played Vince Teagues, one of the editors of the local newspaper in the town of Haven from the TV series of the same name. Although Haven is supposed to be in Maine, the series is filmed in Nova Scotia where Donat hails from.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Richard Donat” as canadian actor. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1941, 2026, 1978, 1979—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1941-06-01. The account is most persuasive where Richard, Donat and Canadian can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as canadian actor. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q16105601. VIAF identifies the subject as 100937123. The Library of Congress control number is nr2001034197. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1941, 2026, 1978 and 1979.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Richard Donat”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Richard Donat primary sources, Richard Donat archive and Richard research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Richard Donat”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Richard Donat” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.