A beloved Canadian stage actor was performing in a play of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol on Sunday when he apparently died during the show. Julien Arnold, who had two roles in the play showing at the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton, including that of a ghost, suffered a medical emergency and died at the theater following resuscitation attempts, reports CBC News. The theater announced the death of the longtime member of the local theater community in a Tuesday statement, without revealing the cause.
A rep for Alberta Health Services said paramedics arrived at the theater shortly before 8:30pm Sunday, adding Arnold died "despite resuscitation attempts," per the BBC. He played Mr. Fezziwig, the generous employer of a young Scrooge, in the play, as well as the ghost of Marley, Ebenezer Scrooge's former business partner, among other ensemble roles. The theater didn't say if Arnold was onstage at the time of the emergency, though it credited medical professionals from the audience, among others, "for their swift actions," per the CBC. A GoFundMe page raising funds for his family states, "Julien left us doing what he loved most."
A founding member of the Free Will Players professional theater company and sole founder of the Atlas Theatre Collective, Arnold had a bachelor's degree in fine arts and a master's degree in fine arts in directing from the University of Alberta, per The Hollywood Reporter. "He just had the ability to create characters that had the biggest hearts in the world, and he was like that as well, as a person," says David Horak, artistic director of the Freewill Shakespeare Festival put on by the Free Will Players, per the CBC. "There's nobody, nobody quite like him." The remaining shows will be dedicated to Arnold. (More obituary stories.)