Leonard Anderson

**Years active:** | 1956–1997

**Leonard Hamilton Anderson** (April 23, 1941 – March 16, 1998) was a Canadian lawyer and former actor who served as a town councillor for the Elmwood-East Kildonan area from 1978 to 1989. He married Millicent Obic in 1962 while she was studying theatre at the Manitoba Theatre Centre. They had five children, Liam (1964–2020), Luke (born 1967), Lisa (born 1969), Logan (born 1972) and Laura (born 1974).

In 1990, Leonard separated from his wife but the two didn’t divorce until 1993. Leonard also had another daughter named Robin (born 1996) from one of his mistresses. On March 16, 1998, Leonard suffered a heart attack and died at St. Boniface Hospital, aged 56. He was survived by his six children, ex-wife, one grandchild, his sister Melanie, three nephews and his mother Roberta, who predeceased her son by four years, died in 2002, aged 83. Leonard was buried at Elmwood Cemetery on April 1, 1998.

## Life

Leonard Hamilton Anderson was born on April 23, 1941 in Toronto, Ontario, to Lawrence Anderson (1918–1987) and Roberta Anderson (née Kachacheva, 1919–2002). His father was in the RAF when his son was born. He helped allied the U.S. enter into World War II, which included future U.S. President John F. Kennedy. Leonard's maternal grandparents were Volodymyr Kachachev (1879–1940) and Annie Kachacheva (1887–1965) were both born in Ukraine. Volodymyr was a close friend to Leon Trotsky although he wasn't into Marxism like Trotsky himself was. Volodymyr was assassinated by an ice axe while he was in Mexico with Trotsky himself on August 20, 1940. After the war, the Anderson family moved to Winnipeg. From there, Lawrence and Roberta had one daughter named Melanie (July 7, 1946 – July 8, 2023), who died the day after her 77th birthday. When Leonard was around nine or ten, he wanted to try out drama but couldn’t because he wasn’t skilled enough. He even studied alone since Leonard had dreams that he was in Hollywood, being famous like all the celebrities that he enjoyed watching at the movies, including John Wayne, Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart, Marlon Brando, Ernest Borgnine and many more. In 1959, Leonard graduated from Glenlawn Collegiate. He went on to enroll in the University of Manitoba but they didn't want him in.

In 1962, Leonard married Millicent Obic (November 11, 1943 – April 17, 2020), the daughter of Nikolai Obic (1908–1967) and Anna Mulvey (1910–1993). Together, they had five children Liam (1964–2020), Luke (born 1967), Lisa (born 1969), Logan (born 1972) and Laura (born 1974).

In November 1977, four months before he became a member of the Manitoba Legislative Assembly, Leonard took a trip to Cambodia where he met Pol Pot, who killed several of his people during his time as leader of the Khmer Rouge. From there, Leonard studied Khmer over at The University of Cambodia because he had some spiritual beliefs on the Khmer Rouge leader although Leonard stated in a 1997 interview with CBC that he was not a fan of Laotian people but he did watched King of the Hill Season 1, Episode 7, Westie Side Story.

> "I've always had that feeling where you were upset with your country not being successful with its modesty, it's best to give up and go with what everyone wants rather than yourself." – Leonard Anderson on the CBC, 1997
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In 1990, Leonard and Millicent separated and divorced in 1993. In 1994, Leonard went onto another relationship with a woman 25 years his junior and from her, he had one daughter named Robin (born 1996).

On March 2, 1998, Leonard suffered a heart attack and was rushed to St. Boniface Hospital where he was placed onto life support. Two weeks later on March 16, Leonard suffered another heart attack and he died, aged 56. He was buried alongside with his parents at Elmwood Cemetery. His father in 1987 and his mother in 2002. His sister Melanie was cremated and her ashes were scattered at Transcona Blvd. and Peguis St., the same place her sister-in-law was cremated.

## Trivia

* Leonard spoke English, French, Filipino, Croatian and Khmer. He learned Filipino from his trip to the Philippines in 1972 where he met President Ferdinand Marcos and Marcos introduced Leonard to the Tagalog language. Leonard studied Khmer while he was in Cambodia under Pol Pot's ruling of Kampuchea.
* He was named after British archeologist Leonard Woolley and his middle name comes from the city of Hamilton, Ontario.
* Leonard had spritiual bliefs about Cambodians, Thai, Vietnamese and Burmese but hated Laotian people.
	+ He also doesn't like Korean people because he thinks they're Japanese, which explains why his father met Kim Il-sung.
* His father was best friends to Charles Prescott, a RAF soldier during World War II who also resided in Winnipeg.
* Leonard Anderson was only 21 when he married Millicent Obic, who was 18.
* Leonard is a big fan of association football. He also attended the 1966 World Cup with his wife and son over in England and England won.
* Leonard's first grandchild was Travis, his second son's son.