Canada's original average Joe has died.

Al Waxman -- despite more than a thousand TV, radio, theatre and film performances -- will forever be remembered as a typically good-natured Canuck in CBC's 1970s hit King of Kensington.

He died in a Toronto hospital at 1:20 a.m. yesterday.

Waxman was undergoing seemingly routine heart bypass surgery when complications set in afterwards, said his wife Sara, an author and restaurant critic for The Toronto Sun.

"I was there and talked to him for two hours. The doctors said (Al) could hear me, and that's what I believe. I kissed him and held his hands," she said of her husband of more than 30 years. "His heart just got weaker and weaker."

Believing the surgery would go smoothly, Waxman worked Tuesday on scenes for the series Twice in a Lifetime, which airs on CTV and the PAX Network in the U.S.

In the show, he played 3,000-year-old celestial guardian Judge Othniel to a fledgling heavenly guide. Each week, the angel pleads for a flawed earthly soul, who died suddenly, to be given a second chance at life.

Waxman underwent a heart bypass 14 years ago and Wednesday's operation was supposed to be a less intense and tricky procedure.

"We knew there were risks, but there are risks in any operation," Sara said.

For most Canadians, the 65-year-old actor was as much a part of this nation as snow tires or hockey.

And while we loaned him to the U.S. -- Americans will best remember him as the boss cop in 125 episodes of the 1980s series Cagney & Lacey -- his cherub-cheeked smile and favourite-uncle demeanour was always ours.

"He loved his country and he was happy in the knowledge that his country loved him," said Sara.

His good friend, lawyer Eddie Greenspan, said last night Waxman was the quintessential Canadian.

"It was remarkable to go out with him and watch people smile and come up to him -- he could have had success south of the border, but this is where he was happy," said Greenspan.

Mayor Mel Lastman wants to erect a plaque to honour Waxman -- a long-time friend -- in the Kensington Market area.

"Toronto grew up with Al Waxman," Lastman said.

"He took Toronto to Hollywood. He had the greatest heart in the world; he had a heart of gold," said Lastman.

Liked potato pancakes

He was an actor who loved his work but, as well, a man who adored his wife Sara, daughter Tobaron and son Adam.

Waxman was also a man who appreciated the company of friends and the taste of potato pancakes in apple sauce.

On Saturday mornings, when he could, he would join a stable of regulars -- including film festival founder Dusty Cohl, Blue Jays chairman Herb Solway, Greenspan and many others -- for breakfast and conversation at an old College St. diner.

"He loved those mornings -- he appreciated them," Sara Waxman recalled.

Lou Clancy, Sun Media's Corporate Editorial VP, who attended the weekend gatherings, said: "He was not only a friend, but I knew him professionally as a man who chose to stay Canadian. I always admired him for that."

For an average guy, Waxman lived a less-than-usual life.

His career started in a neighbour's house on Burnside Dr., in Toronto, when he was 12 years old. He wrote and acted in a play about the comic-strip character Dagwood. He made $2.50 and the money went to the Red Cross.

His family were Jewish immigrants from Poland. They owned the Melinda Lunch across from the old Toronto Telegram building and wanted Al to get a real job instead of acting.

During a blizzard in 1945, Waxman's dad -- whom the actor said had passed on his temper -- was felled by a bad heart. Waxman, the boy, followed behind his father's coffin as a horse-drawn sleigh pulled it up Bathhurst St. to the cemetery.

Never wore watch

The watch and ring which were supposed to come his way during his father's shiva -- the Jewish mourning period -- were stolen. Believing it fate, Waxman decided never to wear a watch or ring.

Inspired by Al Jolson -- he saw his life story 27 times as it played at the old Tivoli theatre -- Waxman left law school to study at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York, where he was coached by industry legend Lee Strasberg.

In his autobiography, That's What I Am, Waxman recalled why his death scene in the movie The War Lover was cut. He said Steve McQueen believed it was so powerful it would rob his own character of sympathy.

Toronto theatre boss Ed Mirvish said: "I picture him as enjoying all forms of show business."

In 1974, he landed his most famous role, the lovable every-day guy in King of Kensington, one of Canada's most successful sitcoms.

Last season at Stratford, Waxman directed The Diary of Anne Frank, and in 1997 he played Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman.

The funeral is planned for this afternoon at Toronto's Holy Blossom Temple.

-- with files by Zen Ruryk and CP


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