Prominent Canadian author and broadcaster Pierre Berton has died at the age of 84. Berton died at Toronto's Sunnybrook Hospital. The cause of death was not revealed.
The bow tie-loving Berton was born in 1920 and raised in the Yukon. He worked in Klondike mining camps during his university years before beginning a newspaper career in Vancouver before moving to Toronto in 1947.
At the age of 31, he was named managing editor of Maclean's. In 1957, he became a key member of the CBC's public affairs flagship program, Close-Up, and a permanent panelist on the long-running Front Page Challenge.
He joined The Toronto Star as associate editor in 1958, leaving in 1962 to commence The Pierre Berton Show, which ran until 1973.
Berton's first important book was Klondike in 1958, a narrative of the Klondike Gold Rush of 1898. Berton did not return to book writing for many years as he busied himself with his broadcasting career.
In 970 he resumed work as a historian, penning The National Dream about the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway. That was followed by The Last Spike the following year.
He went on to write more than 40 books over his career, most recently returning to his roots with Prisoners of the North.
For his efforts, Berton received three Governor General's Awards and numerous honorary degrees. He was also named a companion of the Order of Canada.
Just last month, Berton appeared on the CBC satire show Rick Mercer's Monday Report, offering tips on how to roll a marijuana joint, joking that a less-than-firmly rolled "spliff "could leave unsightly toke burns on one's bow tie.
