Bill Cameron

William "Bill" Cameron (January 23, 1943 – March 12, 2005) was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. A Gemini Award winner, he was a news anchor, television producer, columnist and author. After attending the University of Toronto and spending time in New York City pursuing a career in acting, he got his start on CBC Radio as a freelance entertainment critic in the 1960s before moving on to Maclean's magazine where he was an associate editor and then to Global TV in 1978 as host of Newsweek.

In the 1980s, Cameron worked for Citytv as the late night anchor for CityPulse, but was let go in 1983. Cameron's best known for his work on the CBC television from 1983 to 1999, where he co-hosted Midday, was a reporter on documentaries and an occasional anchor of The Journal, and later anchored the local evening news on CBLT in Toronto, the CBC Morning News in Halifax, and the afternoon show Newsworld International on CBC Newsworld. He left the CBC in 1999 to become vice president of communications for an online financial marketing firm. His brief corporate career ended in 2000 and he returned to journalism and writing. He also took the ethics chair at the Ryerson School of Journalism and freelanced for the National Post and The Walrus.

In 2003, he released a novel Cat's Crossing, published by Random House of Canada. His second novel, Dent In America, was nearly finished by the time of his death and was never published. He also had a cameo role on the comedy series Puppets Who Kill as the newsreader reporting on the latest murders by the show's homicidal puppets.

Cameron was married to Cheryl Hawkes, a freelance journalist (and formerly with the Toronto Star), with whom he had three children - Patrick, Rachel and Nicholas. He also had an elder son, Sean Patenaude. Bill Cameron died of esophageal cancer on March 12, 2005.

In his last piece of journalism, Chasing the Crab, Cameron documented his battle with cancer. The essay appeared in the May 2005 issue of The Walrus. It won two gold medals at the 2006 Canadian National Magazine Awards.

In May, 2007, the Toronto General and Western Hospital Foundation set up the Bill Cameron Fund to raise money for esophageal cancer research and patient care. A laneway, Bill Cameron Lane, near Hepbourne and College streets was named in his honour. It is located near the Cameron home and where his children used to play.