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American actor, based from 1977 in Toronto, Canada. One of ten siblings born in Wisconsin to builder Lester Reineke and his wife Merle, Gary was a graduate of the University of Wisconsin. He began his career as an English teacher. Upon growing dissatisfied with the school system, he enrolled at a theatrical academy in Seattle under the tutelage of acting coach Arne Zazlove, a long-standing artistic director of Seattle's Bathhouse Theatre. Reineke commenced acting on the stage in 1968 and on screen in 1974.
His theatrical roles have included Inca king Atahualpa in The Royal Hunt of the Sun and Hamlet in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. He performed at many theatres throughout Canada and also appeared on Broadway during a brief 1986 run of the play Execution of Justice. In 1980, he received a Dora Award for his performance in Sam Shepard's play Buried Child. His best known motion picture role was as the implacable Pinkerton detective Seavey, relentless in his pursuit of The Grey Fox (1982) (train robber Bill Miner, nicknamed 'The Gentleman Bandit'). For this performance, he won a Canadian Genie Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor. During the 80s and 90s, Reineke became a stalwart of Canadian and American TV productions, including the crime dramas Due South (1994) and The Murdoch Mysteries (2004), the World War II miniseries Dieppe (1993) (as Canadian Major General John Hamilton "Ham" Roberts), Mutant X (2001) and the courtroom drama Street Legal (1987). He also made repeat appearances as different characters in episodes of A Nero Wolfe Mystery (2001).
Gary Reineke died on 23 September 2024. He was predeceased by his wife, the Toronto-born actress Brenda Donohue, who passed away from cancer in 1979 at the age of just 28.
