Nelson Star News
By Greg NesteroffPublished: March 26, 2013
To most of the world, Duryea was best known for a bit
role in the pilot episode of the original Star Trek series.
But on Kootenay Lake, he was a revered East Shore elder
and environmentalist who fought against clearcut logging and started a
now-thriving nature retreat.
Duryea, who was also a writer, director, documentary
filmmaker, boat guide, and naturalist, died at home Sunday at 73 after a long
illness.
“He was a visionary — one of the most amazing I’ve ever
met,” says Susan Hulland, who like Duryea came to the area in the 1970s. “He
always insisted on figuring out a good way to do things. I can remember hearing
from him over and over again: ‘Is there a better way?’ He was always looking
for win-win scenarios, even during down and dirty environmental squabbles.”
One of those disputes led to the creation of the
non-profit Guiding Hands Recreation Society and tipi camp. In a memoir
published last July in the East Shore Mainstreet, Duryea recalled that in the
mid-1980s the community was struggling against clearcut logging. They
established the Stop Clearcut campaign, famous for its ubiquitous green stop
signs.
News that 22 clearcuts were planned for the Pilot
Peninsula set off “a wave of resistance” along the East Shore, Duryea wrote.
“The idea grew that maybe we could show that using the land for conservation
and educational purposes could lead to a sustainable industry of outdoor
recreation.”
In 1988, Alice Bruce offered her land at Cortiannas Bay,
where a tipi camp was established as a retreat to inspire young and old. It
took eight years before the camp could afford to hire five seasonal workers,
and Duryea continued to nurture it until it became self-sustaining.
He chalked up his tenacity to obsessive compulsive
disorder: “I can find no other explanation for my unswerving devotion to the
cause. I guess the tipi camp was meant to be.”
Born in Los Angeles in 1939, Duryea followed in his
father’s footsteps. Dan Duryea was a TV actor with many roles to his credit,
and the two appeared together in two films and an episode of Daniel Boone.
However, Peter hadn’t intended on it: he was majoring in
math and physics at Amherst College in Massachusetts before someone asked him
to appear in a play and he discovered he loved it. He worked in theatre in
Houston and New York and then moved to Hollywood.
Duryea’s filmography over nine years included six movies
and 30 television roles, including appearances in Dr. Kildare, Dragnet, and
Bewitched.
In November 1964, he was cast as Lt. Jose Tyler,
navigator of the USS Enterprise in the pilot episode of Star Trek. “It reminded
me of a western, but set in the future and it was very interesting,” Duryea
told the Nelson Daily News in 2001. “I was among the other many, many people
who auditioned. I was really happy to be part of it and took the job really
seriously. I can remember long talks with the director, Robert Butler, how to
do the part.”
Had NBC executives picked up the series based on that
episode, Duryea would have had a regular role.
However, they rejected it and the pilot never aired in
its original form. Later, a second pilot was approved with an entirely
different cast, except Leonard Nimoy as Spock.
But Duryea didn’t express regret at what might have been.
Feeling drained by the pace and competitiveness of his lifestyle, he moved his
family to Canada in 1973.
“I really needed more in my life than just what I could
see coming from that career,” he said. “I need heart and I needed a community.”
He went first to Saltspring and Cortes islands before
arriving in the Kootenays, where “the land and the setting made me feel like
I’d come home.”
In Gray Creek, Duryea put his stage skills to work in new
ways. He founded the Kootenay Lake Players, a children’s theatre collective
that in three years produced nine original plays. The volunteer cast and crew
created costumes, props, and sets and staged their works in the Gray Creek
Hall. “Having come from Hollywood this was a delightful change for me,” Duryea
said.
But he did eventually revisit his most famous role in
2005, attending his first Star Trek convention in Las Vegas, where he was
overwhelmed. “It was the total
antithesis of my life here,” he said. “I’m deep in nature, working with
educational stuff and that’s totally glitz and gambling … It couldn’t be
farther apart.”
During Gray Creek’s 2008 centennial, Duryea was presented
with a community legacy award, recognizing his efforts to “protect natural
areas and teach young people how to love and live with nature.”
In recent years he also headed the volunteer board of the
Kootenay Lake East Shore Eldercare Co-op, which tried to provide local
affordable housing for seniors.
“It was yet one more example of Peter being the
visionary,” said local resident Frances Roback, “seeing the large aging
population on the East Shore, and the complete lack of care facilities for
seniors which compel people to move away.”
The campaign didn’t succeed in the end, she said, but not
for lack of trying.
Duryea entrusted his archival files relating to his
community work with the Gray Creek Historical Society, including more than 40
films.
Duryea is survived by his longtime partner Janice Bryan,
with whom he owned a video production company, daughter Star, and a brother,
talent agent Richard Duryea.
A private family service is planned for Thursday with
burial in the Gray Creek cemetery.
DURYEA, Peter
Born: 7/14/1939, Los Angele, California, U.S.A.Died: 3/24/2013, Gray Creek, British Columbia, Canada
Peter Duryea’ westerns – actor:
Taggart – 1964 (Jay Jason)Daniel Boone (TV) – 1965 (Andrew Perigore)
The Bounty Killer – 1965 (Young Bounty Hunter)
The Virginian (TV) – 1966 (Nicky)
No comments:
Post a Comment