Death Notice: Keith Knight

Canadian actor Keith Knight (pictured above, 2nd from right) died of brain cancer on August 22, 2007, at the age of 51. A native of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Knight was performing in the Blythe Summer Festival when he was cast as hotdog hogging Councelor-in-Training Larry Finkelstein in Ivan Reitman's MEATBALLS (1979), which grossed an unexpected $25 million (making it the most profitable Canadian feature film of all time) and catapaulted SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE trouper Bill Murray towards superstardom. Knight was a familiar face in several Canadian B-movies, as blue collar slasher bait in MY BLOODY VALENTINE (1981) and as a blind victim of terror (paired once again with MEATBALLS alumnus Jack Blum) in the fact-based SEIGE (aka SELFE DEFENSE, 1983). He also turned up in HOG WILD (1980) with Michael Biehn, GAS (1981) with Howie Mandell and Donald Sutherland, CLASS OF 1984 (1982) with Michael J. Fox and Roddy McDowall and OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN (1983) with Peter Weller. His last film credit was as an ineffectual defense lawyer in Sergio Navaretta's LOOKING FOR ANGELINA (2004), based on the early 19th Century trial of an Italian immigrant who killed her abusive husband with an axe on Easter Sunday, 1911. Knight also performed regularly on the stage, appeared in 160 TV commercials, and was an in-demand vocal artists for a number of animated series for children. At the time of his untimely death, Knight was living in Toronto and a member of the Actors Repertory Company . He is survived by his wife Jenifer McCullough.