Nicholas Campbell (born 24 March 1952), sometimes credited as Nick Campbell, is a Canadian actor and filmmaker, who has won three Gemini Awards for acting. Movies Naked Lunch, Prozac Nation and the TV series Da Vinci's Inquest are some examples of his acting work.
Campbell was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and raised in Montreal. He went to Toronto's Upper Canada College and Kingston's Queen's University where he originally studied pre-Law but later switched to English and Drama. He continued his studies in England studying five years at the London Drama Studio and at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). Campbell spent 40 weeks touring the country with the York Theatre Royal Repertory Company. His debut film role was in The Omen, released in 1976. After he returned from England he divided his time between Toronto, Los Angeles, and New York. In the 1990s he moved back to Canada.
His over 40 starring film and television credits include series leads on Diamonds and The Hitchhiker. Starting his acting career in the movies he had small roles in A Bridge Too Far (1977), The Eagle Has Landed (1976) and in the Bond movie The Spy Who Loved Me (1977). Campbell was third-billed in the 1985 movie Certain Fury. Playing Billy Quinn in CBC's Major Crime (1997) he won a Gemini Award for best actor for his work. His television credits also include the role of Bobby Kennedy in Hoover vs. The Kennedys (Gemini nominee for best actor in a miniseries), Going Home (nominated for BAFTA Award), and The Valour and the Horror. Other works include The Sleep Room, Diana Kilmury: Teamster (Gemini nomination for best supporting actor in a drama) and The Diary of Evelyn Lau. Campbell has also worked extensively with David Cronenberg, appearing in such films as Naked Lunch, The Dead Zone, Fast Company, and The Brood. Campbell has made guest appearances on TV shows including Space:1999, Airwolf, Blue Murder, (Gemini Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Guest Role Dramatic Series in 2001) A Nero Wolfe Mystery, Street Legal, and Highlander: The Series.
In addition to his acting career, Campbell is also an accomplished filmmaker. He wrote and directed the documentary Stepping Razor; Red X (Genie nomination for best documentary).
He has three sons and currently resides in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Campbell's role as coroner Dominic Da Vinci in Da Vinci's Inquest has brought him critical appraisal. Da Vinci's Inquest has been nominated for many Gemini Awards. Of the 11 Geminis the show has won, it received three for best writing in a dramatic series and three for best dramatic series. Campbell received the Gemini Award for best performance in a continuing leading dramatic role for his work on the series. Campbell has also directed a number of episodes of Da Vinci’s Inquest.
In 2005, Da Vinci's Inquest ended its run. In Da Vinci's City Hall, which ran the following season, the character followed his real-life inspiration, Vancouver Mayor Larry Campbell (no relation to Nicholas), into municipal politics. No more episodes are planned, but there is talk of a series of TV films that would continue the narrative.
