By F. Braun McAsh

 Lyria has asked me to provide some background on past roles on the assumption that there was life prior to and post-Highlander. So here is a brief rundown:

Film and Television:

Highlander (four roles)

Highlander IV: Endgame

Barnum 

Cold Iron 

Continuity 

Tecumseh 

Hawkeye

Bordertown

Call of the Wild

The Commish

The New Twilight Zone

The Black Stallion

Heartsounds

V. H. Adderly

The Right of the People

Gorrillas in the Mist

The Verdict

The Return of Perry Mason

Seeing things

Amerika

Switching Channels

War of the Worlds

SCTV

Friday's Curse

Secret Lives

Divided Loyalties

Arrggh...there are others, but I can't think of the names at the moment - at some point, you stop listing everything in your resume and simply name a few choice roles.  I've also done commercials, although not for over 10 years.

Stage

I've done over 100 stage productions, including 53 Shakespeares.  Obviously several of Big Bill the Bard's productions are repeats, as the following selection will make clear:

Richard III (3 productions)

Romeo and Juliet (13 productions, including ground opera)

Titus Andronicus (2  productions)

Julius Caesar

Henry IV(parts I and II)

Henry V

Henry VI (parts I, II and III)

King Lear

Hamlet

Macbeth

All's Well that Ends Well

Much Ado About Nothing

A Midsummernight's dream

Love's Labour Lost

The Winter's Tale

The Merchant of Venice, etc, etc,

I've played Richard the III, Hamlet, Cassius, Mercutio, Edmund and Choreographed many of the productions I was in.  Although I didn't perform all my Shakespeares there, I was a member of the acting company at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival for four years, and began my professional career as a fight director there in my last season  I also spent two seasons at the Shaw Festival.  Other Plays:

 The Devils

Uncle Vanya

The Seagull

Marat/Sade

Juno and the Paycock

The Ruling Class

The Three Musketeers

Dracula

Charly's Aunt

A view from the Bridge

My Sister Eileen

The Lark

You Know I Can't Hear you when the Water's Running 

The Incredible Murder of Cardinal Tosca

Anna Karenina 

Le Medcin Malgre Lui

Ondine 

A Man for All Seasons 

Becket 

Under Milk Wood 

The Importance of Being Earnest 

Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

Cue for Treason....

and so on, and so on...Heh - I've been at it for 23 years.

Fight Direction

I've staged almost 80 episodes of Highlander (What a surprise! duh...) plus the upcoming movie Endgame.  I've also choreographed about 100 other productions, stage, film and TV. 

The Three Musketeers

The Prisoner of Zenda

The Count of Monte Cristo

Rahsomon

Dreaming and Duelling

Peter Pan

Farther West

plus, as I mentioned, a lot of Shakespeare. I also choreographed films and TV Shows prior to Highlander, I hadn't worked a lot in front of the cameras as a choreographer for the simple reason that there wasn't much work in the genre.  Highlander was very much a seminal series in that regard.  I've also taught fight technique (and improv, script analysis, and Shakespearean text) in over 30 theater Schools. I've also choreographed for the Canadian Opera Company 

Andrea Chenier

Lady MacBeth of Mtsensk 

and others; an entirely different realm of fight direction and very challenging.

Background

I went to theater school in Canada and at the Royal Academy in England. I not only studied stage combat and fencing, but was a competitive fencer. Later at Stratford, I apprenticed to the famous fight master Paddy Crean for four years.  I began to travel to Europe and England in 1980, to study with the English fight directors such as Bill Hobbs and to do studies of arms and armour and period texts in museums and castles. I've spent almost 20 years doing research into my art and took advantage of the four years of Highlander's Paris sojourn to pillage the Sorbonne, LEs Invidides, etc...even in Romania I was sniffing our steel.  I've also studied in Germany, Austria, Bavaria, Italy, Hungary and of course, the US in may fine museums; don't neglect them.

I've also had occasion to act as a consultant for film and TV on the subject of arms and armour, military uniforms, medals, heraldry, and related subjects. I even acted as the cast drill instructor when I did the lead in Sergeant Musgrave's Dance.  I have had a reasonably extensive military background, having been an NCO in combat infantry, the airborne and Long Range Patrols and an Officer in armoured recon and military intelligence.

     Eastern Martial Arts was also a large part of Highlander, and I have choreographed a fair bit for unarmed combat.  Over the years I've studied Tae Kwon Do, Hwa Rang Do, Judo, Jujitsu, Shotokan, Gojo Ryu, Hung Gar and Choy Li Fut kung fu, Balintawak Arnis, Aikido, Iaido, and others..

Writing

A while back, I wrote a semi - regular column for a Vancouver newspaper - social and political humour and satire, which ran under the byline Gonzo.  I've written for several national papers, plus several magazines, including Blade, Military History, American Dramatics, Canadian Stage, and National Lampoon.  Apart from my contribution to An Evening at Joe's (where I stand with pretty hefty competition, writing - wise - some of the stuff is really topdrawer) I'm still plugging away at my book on stage and film combat and historical weapons, and I am developing a full-sized novel based on the historical Dracula for Warner - Aspect books. (This is a non-Highlander work, but like Death Shall Have No Dominion, my Highlander novella, it takes real history and apocrypha and fills in the grey areas.)

I've also begun to film my series of instructional videos, THE PRACTICE OF ARMS, the first of which is "Beginner's Sword Work for Stage and Film"

Awards

The Sir Tyrone Guthrie Award

The Stratford Theater Award

The Theatre Ontario Award

The Ontario Arts Council Award

Canada Council for the Arts Research Grant

The Queen's Silver Jubilee Medal (1977)

I am a member of the Canadian Actor's Equity, the Union of B.C. Performers, ACTRA, the Society of Canadian Fight Directors (which I co-founded in 1981) and am a Maitre En Faite D'Armes

I've also worked in politics, so my favorite colour is plaid....

[ F.Braun McAsh ] [ Anthony Delongis ] [ Roberta Brown ] [ Robert Chapin ]