The industry lost two more ambassadors in March.

Veteran photographer, cinematographer and director Herbert Taylor, an early film pioneer with Crawley Films, the National Film Board and CJOH-TV, has died at age 81. Taylor’s early films about Canadian culture and industry included the 1966 NFB film Forest Regions of Canada and This Is My Invention, a portrait of Canadian inventors for Crawley Films.

Taylor also helped produce the 1957 Norman McLaren and Claude Jutra short film A Chairy Tale, a portrait of a young man struggling to sit on a chair that won’t co-operate, which earned the NFB an Oscar nomination for best animated short.

Besides producing at Crawley Films in Toronto, Taylor also helped run the production company Spaulding Taylor Hall in Toronto as vice-president. Taylor left behind a family that includes his wife of 53 years, Florence, and sons Michael Taylor, an executive with Peace Arch Entertainment in Toronto, and Lawrence Taylor.

Douglas Frith, a former politician who became Hollywood’s top emissary in Canada, died at age 64 from an apparent heart attack. Before joining the Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association in 1996, Frith rose from his roots as a pharmacist and alderman in Sudbury, ON to represent that riding for the Liberals in the House of Commons from 1980 to 1988. Frith also served as chairman of the consulting firm Hill Knowlton Canada before taking the top post at the CMPDA.

Film and TV executives paid tribute to Frith. John Barrack, national EVP and counsel at the CFTPA, recalled the CMPDA boss for his skill in bringing the Canadian industry to his side when he championed studio interests in Ottawa. ‘What he did brilliantly was he wrapped the Canadian flag around U.S. interests in a way that wasn’t offensive,’ Barrack said.

Frith also sat on the Canadian Film Centre board, where he secured gains for the film industry, according to executive director Slawko Klymkiw.

‘You couldn’t have asked for a stronger or more loyal friend. Doug got things done. He was instrumental in securing benefits money from the Copyright Collective of Canada and in getting the Ontario government to commit to a long-term investment in the CFC,’ Klymkiw recalled.