Carver was born of Welsh and Irish heritage in Cranbrook, British Columbia, the son of Lois (Wills), a clerk, and Kenneth Carver, who was in the lumber business.[1] He was the third of seven children, none of whom went into show business, apart from himself.[2] He almost became a teacher, but continued participating in theatre.[3] He attended the University of British Columbia from 1969 to 1972.[4] He sang from an early age with his father, who played guitar.[5] Carver's favourite actors were Spencer Tracy and Bette Davis.[5]
Carver played the character Leo on the series Leo and Me, which aired from 1977 to 1978.
Carver made his U.S. debut in The Tempest, playing Ariel to Anthony Hopkins's Prospero.[1] Carver won a Dora Award as Horst in Bent. His stage work involved an extended association with Canada's Stratford Shakespeare Festival in the 1980s, including an original rock version of Hamlet,[5] as the lead and later in 2000 as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof.
Carver portrayed Ichabod Crane in the 1999 TV film The Legend of Sleepy Hollow which aired on Odyssey.[1] He played the title role in "The Trouble with Harry", an episode of the television series Twice in a Lifetime.[6] He portrayed Leonardo da Vinci in Leonardo: A Dream of Flight in 2002.
In 2003, Carver appeared in the Off-Broadway production of My Life With Albertine at Playwrights Horizons, where he portrayed older Marcel and the Narrator. The production received a nomination for the Drama League Award as Distinguished Production of a Musical.
In 2016, Carver performed in a musical show titled Walk Me to the Corner at the Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company in Toronto.[7]
Death
Carver died on August 4, 2020, at the age of 68[8] at home in Cranbrook.[9][10]
^Gates, Anita (September 7, 2020). "Brent Carver, 68, Tony Winner for 'Kiss of the Spider Woman". The New York Times. p. A27. Retrieved 2020-08-31. "Kiss of the Spider Woman," a Kander and Ebb musical with a book by Terrence McNally, based on the Oscar-winning 1985 movie and directed by Harold Prince, may have been Mr. Carver's Broadway debut, but he already had an impressive theater career in Canada. He spent nine seasons at the Stratford Theater Festival in Ontario; there and elsewhere in Canada, his roles were legion.