CAMERON BANCROFT...one-

time hockey star, now an actor.

NE a
WS Photos Mike Waketieig

1? - Friday, July 29, 1988 ~ North Shore News

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HORSESHOE.
BAY’S ALE

It’s not hockey, but
an actor's life isn't bad
for N. Vancouverite

EVERY SUNDAY night after Wonderful World of Disney,
Cameron Bancroft would watch The Beachcombers, to
follow the adventures of Nick Adonidas and company.

~ Brewers of Traditional Real Ale~

Today Bancroft, 21, sports a
regular role as Graham Blake in
that CBC slice of Canadiana, and

_ divides his time between his North
Vancouver home, the Gibsons set
and acting classes at the California
Institute of the Arts.

With dreams of turning pro, he
was looking forward to a promis-
ing hockey career, when at 16 he
fell off a cliff. The injuries healed,
but the word from the doctors was
no serious contact sports — ever.

Bancroft turned to acting.

“*T was really frightened,’’ he
recalls. ‘‘Something | had really
cared for, for a big part of my life
was suddenly gone.”’

Plunging into theatre, he in
short order appeared in the Hand-
sworth Secondary production of
West Side Story and Picnic before
trying his hand in the North Van-
couver Community Players pro-
duction DA.

Just out of high school in 1985,
he auditioned for the
Beachcombers role and landed it,
with a promise of four episodes

that season. From there the role
took off, and today he is a regular
on the show.

Overnight success is not a term
he is comfortable with, despite his
rapid ascent to a principal role in
one of the country’s best-known
and longest-running series.

His explanation: ‘‘!’m more
someone who has had a couple of

STEPHEN
BARRINGTON

feature writer

lucky breaks and a lot of suppori
from parents and friends.”’
Realizing acting is not all glitz
and glamor seen in the trade mag-
azines, he has stecled himself
against the inevitable rejections,
‘definitely the hardest thing.”’
Between his California schooling
and his Beachcombers role, he has
also appeared in the locally filmed
The Boy Who Could Fly and a
promotional bit for Saints.
Always on the lookout for more

roles, he keeps auditioning and
crossing his fingers.

In a business filled with rejection
and disappointment, he never
questions whether his choice to be
an actor was a wrong one. Com-
menting on his burgeoning acting
career and the accident that started
him in the profession, he is philo-
sophic.

“T think everything happens for
a reason — a lot of things have
made me work harder and given
me the encouragement to do what
I’m doing.

**T know that I'll be doing this
for a long time — | just hope I can
keep having as much fun as 1 am
now."?

After Beachcombers wraps up
this fall for another season, Ban-
croft heads back to school in
California. On the slate are ‘‘audi-
tions, lots of auditions.”’

Bancroft and the rest of the
Beachcombers cast are expected to
hit the airwaves Oct. 2 with a
one-hour season-opener,

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