Bruce Greenwood was born August 12, 1956 in Noranda, Quebec, Canada. He and his two younger sisters, Kelly Louise and Barbara Lynn, grew up mainly in Vancouver, where their family moved when Bruce was 11. He went to Magee secondary school in the Kerrisdale area although he graduated from high school in Zurich, Switzerland, where his family lived for 13 months while his father did research. Bruce went on to attend the University of British Columbia for three years, where his father was Head of the Geology Department while his mother was a nurse with the extended care unit. He got interested in acting after seeing Brad Dourif’s performance as Billy Bibbit on One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest in 1975. Greenwood started his own acting career in theater while in Vancouver, but was undecided about pursuing it until after his first professional play. He did various odd jobs while starting on his acting career and was supplementing his theatrical endeavors as a chemical factory worker, when he got his first movie role on Bear Island in 1979. His breakthrough came when he was cast as Dr. Seth Green on the hit `80s hospital drama, St. Elsewhere.

Mitch Yost, played by Bruce Greenwood on John from Cincinnati, is a surfing legend who splits his time between riding the waves and hanging out in his backyard clubhouse. His relationship with wife, Cissy, constantly shifts between intimacy and hatred, largely because of Mitch’s own attitude problems.


(Photo courtesy of HBO)