Don Cherry Canadian Actor From Kingston

Early life

Donald Stewart Cherry was born on 5 February 1934 in Kingston, Ontario. He attended Kingston Collegiate and Vocational Institute but left high school before finishing. He was an enthusiastic young hockey player and played junior hockey with the Barrie Flyers and the Windsor Spitfires in the Ontario Hockey Association. In 1953 he won the Memorial Cup as a defenceman with Barrie.

Career

In 1954 Cherry signed with the Hershey Bears of the American Hockey League. He spent almost twenty years in professional minor hockey, and in 1955 he played his only National Hockey League game, for the Boston Bruins, who called him up during the playoffs. He also played for the Springfield Indians and won the AHL's Calder Cup four times: with Springfield in 1960 and with Rochester in 1965, 1966 and 1968. In 1969 he won the Lester Patrick Cup of the Western Hockey League with the Vancouver Canucks. He retired in 1970 and returned in 1972 for 19 final games with the Rochester Americans.

Cherry moved into coaching in the middle of the 1971-72 season, when he took over the Rochester Americans, and he was voted the league's coach of the year in his third season. In 1974 he became head coach of the Boston Bruins. He reshaped the team around physical play, and Boston won its division four years in a row from 1975-76. The Bruins reached the Stanley Cup Final in 1977 and 1978, losing both times to the Montreal Canadiens. They lost a seven-game semi-final to Montreal in 1979, and Cherry left the club afterwards. He then coached the Colorado Rockies for the 1979-80 season, which ended with the team in last place. Internationally, he was an assistant coach for Canada at the 1976 Canada Cup and head coach at the 1981 World Championships. From 1998 to 2002 he was part-owner of the Mississauga IceDogs, and he coached the team for the 2001-02 season.

Cherry's best-known work was in broadcasting. After the 1980 season he joined the CBC as an analyst, and the Coach's Corner segment of Hockey Night in Canada began soon afterwards. From 1986 he presented it with Ron MacLean, and he did so until 2019. He also hosted a radio programme, Grapeline, from 1984 to 2019, and created the video series Don Cherry's Rock'Em Sock'Em Hockey, which began in 1989. He appeared as an actor and voice performer in several television series and films.

In November 2019 Sportsnet ended his role on Hockey Night in Canada following remarks he made on air about immigrants and Remembrance Day poppies. Cherry said afterwards that he stood by what he had said. Later that month he began a podcast, and he retired from podcasting in June 2025.

Recognition

Cherry won the Jack Adams Award as the NHL's best coach in 1976. He received a star on Canada's Walk of Fame, was inducted into the Rochester Americans Hall of Fame in 1987 and the Kingston and District Sports Hall of Fame in 2005, and entered the AHL Hall of Fame in 2019. In 2004 viewers placed him seventh in the CBC series The Greatest Canadian. In 2025 he was appointed to the Order of Ontario and received the King Charles III Coronation Medal.

Public roles

Cherry has been a prominent supporter of the Canadian Forces, police services and veterans. He was made an honorary member of the Police Association of Ontario in 2005 and an honorary life member of the Royal Canadian Legion in 2007, and he received the Canadian Forces Medallion for Distinguished Service in 2008. He also founded the Don Cherry Pet Rescue Foundation, and a chain of sports bars carries his name.