Writer George F. Walker and filmmaker Paul Gross will each add a Governor General prize to their list of achievements, having been included in the 2009 group for the prestigious awards, announced on Monday.

Walker — who received the Order of Canada in 2006 — is one of five recipients of the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement for his work as a playwright and screenwriter.

The 61-year-old Toronto native has created over 20 plays including The Prince of Naples (1971) and Suburban Motel (1997), while his screen credits include acclaimed TV series Due South, The Newsroom and This Is Wonderland.

Walker tells Playback Daily he is grateful for the ‘unexpected’ award, but wishes it didn’t come with all the pomp and circumstance of an Ottawa ceremony.

‘In these times you have to be careful at what you’re celebrating when other people are suffering. I appreciate it, but prefer if it was a low-key thing,’ says Walker, describing himself ‘not a very ceremonial kind of guy.’

Walker and writing partner Dani Romain recently completed scripts for 15 episodes of the new The Movie Network/Movie Central drama series The Line (formerly The Weight) — which premieres March 16. The series follows two morally ambiguous cops who take matters into their own hands to clean up their neighborhoods.

Other recipients of the GGs are filmmaker/playwright Robert LePage, writer/singer Clemence Desrochers, composer R. Murray Schafer, dancer Peggy Baker and singer Edith Butler.

Meanwhile, Gross will be honored with the special National Arts Centre Award for ‘exceptional achievement’ over the past year with his ambitious $20-million war epic Passchendaele, which opened the Toronto International Film Festival last year and grossed nearly $5 million at the domestic box office.

Each of the recipients will receive $25,000 and a commemorative medallion at the May 8 ceremony at Rideau Hall.