| Peter Kastner | |
|---|---|
Kastner in 1969. |
|
| Born | 1 October 1943 Canada |
| Died | 18 September 2008 (aged 64) Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Spouse | Jenny (Pirie) Kastner (second wife; married 1981) |
Peter Kastner (1 October 1943 – 18 September 2008) was a Canadian-born actor who achieved prominence as a disaffected youth in movies of the 1960s.
Kastner's first leading role was in the 1964 Canadian film Nobody Waved Goodbye, which was a semi-improvised, documentary-style look at middle-class teenagers. He played an alienated young man, the son of a prosperous automobile dealer, who drifts into petty thievery.
His breakthrough role was in the title role of the 1967 Francis Ford Coppola comedy You're a Big Boy Now, also starring Rip Torn, Geraldine Page and Elizabeth Hartman. Kastner played an earnest young man who travels to New York City and meets eccentrics. He played a similar role as a young, earnest advertising man swept up in the era in B.S. I Love You.
Kastner also starred in the 1968-1969 ABC sitcom The Ugliest Girl in Town, where he played Timothy Blair, a man who dressed in drag as a favour to his photographer brother. It was following Ugliest Girl that Kastner's fortunes declined.[1] Unable to gain leading roles, he took supporting roles in movies and television series.[2] He did star though in the 1977 CBC Television sitcom Custard Pie as Leo Strauss, the manager of a musical group of that name,[3] but the series was not popular or critically well received. His last film role was in Unfinished Business (1984), a sequel to Nobody Waved Goodbye.
Kastner died from a heart attack in Toronto on 18 September 2008, two weeks before his 65th birthday. He was survived by his second wife, Jenny.[2]