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Nicholas Campbell, Canada Reads panellist

Broadcast Date: July 13, 1987

The great antipathy between the Kennedy political clan and FBI boss J. Edgar Hoover is the stuff of American legend. So why is a Canadian actor portraying Bobby Kennedy in a Canadian-written miniseries being shot in Toronto? In this 1987 clip from CBC-TV's Midday, actor Nicholas Campbell explains. He talks about his suspicions surrounding the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and, after seeing a clip from the miniseries for the first time, worries that his New England accent isn't very convincing.

Nicholas Campbell, Canada Reads panellist

• Actor Nicholas Campbell made his big screen debut as a marine in the 1976 horror thriller The Omen. Since then he has appeared in more than 40 films including Naked Lunch (1991), New Waterford Girl (1999) and Cinderella Man (2005). In Canada he is best known as crusading coroner Dominic Da Vinci of Da Vinci's Inquest and Da Vinci's City Hall. He is also a director and documentary filmmaker. For Canada Reads 2008, Nicholas Campbell defended The Outlander by Gil Adamson.

• J. Edgar Hoover ran the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations for almost 50 years. He is credited with transforming the department into an efficient crime fighting organization. A powerful and very secretive man, Hoover was reputed to despise attorney general Robert Kennedy. It was Kennedy who directed Hoover to focus on organized crime instead of fighting communism, which Hoover felt was the bigger threat of the day.

Nicholas Campbell, Canada Reads panellist

Medium: Television

Program: Midday

Broadcast Date: July 13, 1987

Guest(s): Nicholas Campbell

Host: Peter Downie

Duration: 6:12

Last updated:
March 24, 2009