Gordon Atkinson was born in
Winnipeg, Manitoba, the son of William James Atkinson, officer of the
Canadian Armed Forces, and Martha Kathleen Johnson. He was an infantry officer with the
Calgary Highlanders during the Second World War and served in the Northwest Europe campaign. After the war Gordon moved to Los Angeles as a TV, radio and motion picture actor, writer and director. He received his training at the
Pasadena Playhouse, where he studied with notables as
Carolyn Jones (The Adams Family) and
Barbara Hale (Perry Mason's secretary, Della Street). Atkinson became a radio announcer in
Calgary, Alberta, in 1937. Between 1946 and 1950 he worked in radio, cinema and theatre both in Los Angeles and Canada. In the early 1950s he rejoined the Canadian Army with
Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI) for the
Korean War, serving in Korea and Japan. After the war, he was asked by the
CBC to become a teacher of television for the newly created CBC-TV in Toronto. From 1955 to 1957 he worked as an advisor to Prime Minister
Louis St. Laurent. He moved to Winnipeg from
Toronto in 1954 as CBC Program Manager. While there, he created many television shows, most of which were brought under question due to the morals of the time. He hired a night club entertainer and his wife as a (male) host for an entertainment program. The program was cancelled as common folk objected to a night club owner/entertainer involved in Television. While in Winnipeg, he helped to bring up lines from B.C. to Vancouver, and created Vancouver
CBC Television. He later moved his family to Montreal, where he worked in theatre at the Mountain Playhouse for many years. He was actor, director, and voice actor in the community. He also directed many plays at
McGill University (Wry and Ginger 1959). From 1957 to 1980 Atkinson was a CBC TV sports commentator, working out of Montreal, covering all Olympic, Pan-American, Canadian and international events. Throughout the 1980s, Gordon was a political / social commentator on CJAD 800 in Montreal. His radio work was paused when he was elected a Member of the
Quebec National Assembly in 1989. He served one term and then got back into radio from 1993 to 1997 as political and social commentator for
CIQC 600 AM radio in Montreal. Atkinson retired in 1998, but recorded a two-hour program broadcast every Remembrance Day (November 11) on
CJAD 800 AM radio. The program was given to CJAD in perpetuity, in memory of "those friends who were killed in the two wars in which I participated." In the early 1960s he worked as a bit player in many films about Canada, and was also a regular on
Seaway, a CBC series, filmed in Quebec City. ==Provincial politics==