Des Walsh
Biography
Desmond Walsh is a veritable cultural icon in Newfoundland, with six books of poetry published, including the acclaimed Love and Savagery, which was adapted for a motion picture by Morag Films in 2009. Talonbooks released the second edition of Love and Savagery concurrent with the film’s release. Walsh is also a noted screenwriter, playwright and musician. He was the 2001 and 2003 playwright-in-residence at the Playwright’s Workshop in Montreal and at Memorial University’s Grenfell College in Corner Brook, respectively. He also scripted the mini-series adaptation of Bernice Morgan’s Random Passage and Waiting for Time, which aired on the CBC in 2002, commenting that: “Morgan’s works are sacred material because they are, finally, our story.” Along with John Smith and Sam Grana, he co-wrote the intensely popular and critically acclaimed miniseries The Boys of St. Vincent. Having encountered the public education system in Placentia and St. John’s, he left school in grade ten, famously claiming it did nothing for him. His awards include a Gemini, a New York Festival Award, Italy’s Umbria Fiction Award, and Best Series (Cannes International TV Festival), all for co-writing The Boys of St. Vincent. Walsh currently divides his time between New Bonaventure, Trinity Bay and St. John’s.
Known For & Full Filmography18 Titles
Movie - 2014, 2h 15m • as Mr. Snow
In 1940s outport Newfoundland, young Sadie struggles to cope with the tragic death of both her parents.
Movie - 2013, 2h 15m • as Granddad (Jack)
Two teenage boys escape an unhappy home, embarking on a perilous journey of self-discovery that takes them deep into the Newfoundland wilderness.
Movie - 2017, 2h 15m • as Larry
Bernice, a 15 year old misfit runs away from her rural Newfoundland community in search of Pignut, a tormented and violent gutter punk, after he steals her father's ashes right out of his urn.
Movie - 2014, 2h 15m • as Ricky's Father
One wild and tumultuous summer in the life of young Jude Traynor as he attempts to navigate his way through a life of delinquency and petty crime.
Movie - 2008, 2h 15m • as Officer Bowden
Thirty-year-old Keith Kavanagh (Joel Thomas Hynes) ekes his way through life in a small town. A hard-drinking hooligan, he keeps his ragged collection of poetry a closely guarded secret... as secret as his regret for the shattered relationship with his father. When Keith meets the darkly exotic Natasha (Mylène Savoie), his life is changed forever.
Movie - 2016, 2h 15m • as Burt
A blood feud divides a small town in rural Newfoundland.
Movie - 2002, 2h 15m • as Captain Brennan
This award winning miniseries traces the difficult passage of young Mary Keane (Aoife McMahon) from servitude in Ireland to the squalor of rough-and-tumble Newfoundland in the early 1800s. Escaping attempted rape and abuse, Mary moves on with her infant daughter to find shelter at a remote fishing station run by Thomas Hutchings (Colm Meaney). In a time and place where life and death are a hair's breadth apart, Mary joins the community's struggle for survival against sickness and starvation. All of the Cape's people are fugitives of one kind or another, but by pulling together through hardships and tragedies, they forge a new life of hope - and even love.
Movie - 2020, 2h 15m • as Uncle Billy
The wedding of their youngest sister, Janet, brings Gwen and Kay home to St. John’s, Newfoundland. While Janet struggles to hide her family’s dysfunction, Kay can’t help but create chaos wherever she goes and Gwen finds herself paralyzed by a past secret. The complicated web of relationships between the sisters, their Aunt Maureen, their absent mother, and Kay’s young daughter Billie, is only illuminated by the wedding. Gwen’s attempts to get Kay to take responsibility for her daughter highlights her own abandonment of her ex, Tom, leading them all to a not-so-perfect storm of a reception.
Movie - 1998, 2h 15m • as Himself
St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, is North America's most easterly landfall. For half a millennium, its perfect harbour has provided a safe refuge in the middle of the treacherous North Atlantic. For 300 years of its history it was an actual crime to try and settle--Newfoundland was the private preserve of British fishing merchants. But people stayed, despite the colonial masters, despite the lack of law and order, despite hellish weather and raging seas. And the city grew--lurching through centuries of crisis, disaster, privation. For filmmaker Rosemary House, "This is still a hard rock land, a dirty old town at the back of beyond. And yet the St. John's townie is so proud, you'd swear we lived in Paris." In this documentary, she explores her city with the help of six locals, Mary Walsh, Andy Jones, Anita Best, Brian Hennessey, Ed Riche, Des Walsh, writers and performers all. (Source: National Film Board)
Movie - 2020, 2h 15m • as Phil
There is no ‘best thing’ about having terminal cancer, but for forty-year-old Joe, being welcomed back into his childhood home, feeling the warmth and support of his sister and her husband and observing his young niece’s blossoming emotional maturity seem to give new meaning to a life he feels he had wasted. With unexpected humour, stark realism and quiet insight, Under The Weather is an uplifting meditation on one man’s graceful surrender to the inevitable and the palpable impact his passing has on those he leaves behind.
Movie - 2011, 2h 15m • Main Cast Role
A documentary retrospective on the prolific career of acclaimed Canadian actor, writer and director Gordon Pinsent.
Movie - 2016, 2h 15m • as Jack
When Jack begins to forget, he visits Keystone, an organization with an unlikely mandate: making your most important memories truly unforgettable.
Movie - 2010, 2h 15m • as Father O'Higgins
An itinerant cook survives a shipwreck, paddles himself to an island in a stock pot, and finds himself on a surreal journey through his past to discover the ineffable connection he has with a clown living a desultory existence in a dilapidated lighthouse.
Movie - 2010, 2h 15m • as Nish Feehan
An old flame dredges up family secrets. Will four sisters finally put their jealousies and misconceptions to rest?
Movie - 1988, 2h 15m • Main Cast Role
A young girl in central Newfoundland becomes convinced she is connected to one of the last Beothuk people. As she and her father search for her mother’s grave near Red Indian Lake, an accompanying archaeologist with similar beliefs joins them, and their journey explores questions of heritage, memory, and identity.
Movie - 2014, 2h 15m • as Man
It's a fine, frail line between fantasy and reality when the doleful, downtrodden state of a couple's relationship unfurls against the backdrop of a feed of moose sausages and tea. Sexual frustration, co-dependency, domestic despair and just a hint of missing male libido all play out within the crestfallen subtleties of opposing table manners and passive aggressive tea-brewing rituals.
Movie - 2007, 2h 15m • as Self
Inspired by the late poet Al Pittman's 'March Hare' late winter music and literary celebrations, director Barbara Doran-along with a clutch of her close friends, associates and artistic collaborators from St. John's and the rest of the Rock-travel to Dublin to examine the close cultural relationships between Newfoundland and Ireland in this boisterous documentary film.
Movie - 2023, 2h 15m • Main Cast Role
The film accompanying the album "Closer to the Bone" by Ian Foster.