The last, lost years of Neil “Wheels” Hope
By Richard Warnica - Tuesday, February 28, 2012 - 0 Comments
From the Toronto Star‘s Katie Daubs, a lovely, wrenching look at the post-Degrassi life…
From the Toronto Star‘s Katie Daubs, a lovely, wrenching look at the post-Degrassi life of Neil Hope, whose death in 2007 only became public a few weeks ago:
Hope was, on the surface, an upbeat and personable guy but he struggled with bouts of depression and severe diabetes made worse by alcohol. He was a private man, and his final years were a mystery to many — a rarity in a digital age. It would take just over four years for his family to learn he was buried in an unmarked plot and even longer to learn the details of his final days.
Unlike his peers, Hope didn’t leave a paper trail of home purchases, car loans or a specified next of kin. There were just two unresolved GO train infractions totalling $354, a trail of acquaintances whose couches he slept on, and a group of people who loved him but were frustrated he wasn’t taking care of himself.
Hope, like the rest of the Degrassi cast, earned no residuals from the shows’ massive second life in worldwide syndication, Daubs reports:
Degrassi Jr. High and Degrassi High were non-union shows, and that, according to [Dan] Woods, [who played principal Raditch on the series] meant the money stopped coming in for the actors once the series ended.
Presumably that includes any royalties from his part in the massive Zit Remedy hit, ‘Everybody Wants Something’:
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“Wheels” from Degrassi has been dead for five years
By Gabriela Perdomo - Thursday, February 16, 2012 at 2:28 PM - 0 Comments
Neil Hope, the actor who played the troubled character Derek “Wheels” Wheeler in the…
Neil Hope, the actor who played the troubled character Derek “Wheels” Wheeler in the popular Degrassi television show, has apparently been dead for five years. The bizarre news was first reported by Toronto.com. Hope died of “natural causes” in Hamilton, ON, in November 2007 at age 35.
It is not clear how or why is the news of Hope’s death only being released now. In a statement, Hope’s fiancee, Christina Boulard, said only that “there was some confusion regarding his passing that they do not wish to go public with, which is why they are only announcing his death now to the public and the media.”
Global News is quoting a tweet by Stephen Stohn, Executive Producer of Degrassi: The Next Generation, saying, “We have respected the privacy of the family by not saying anything until now, but our entire team is very emotional about his passing.”
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Sex Ed? Degrassi? Something's working
By Lianne George - Thursday, August 21, 2008 at 3:08 PM - 0 Comments
Is it official yet? That teenagers are more likely to engage in responsible sex…
Is it official yet? That teenagers are more likely to engage in responsible sex (or abstain, for that matter) when they know a thing or two about how things work? According to a new Statistics Canada report, the number of 15 to 19 year-olds who reported having sex at least once is on the decline, down to 43 per cent in 2005 from 47 per cent in 1996/1997.
In and of itself, this news isn’t good or bad. The kids are always going to have the sex, no matter what kinds of fire-and-brimstone-type videos they see in health class. The real good news is that, if the report is to be believed, the way they’re going about it has improved: more consideration, more condoms.
Teenage girls, in particular, are holding off. In 1996/1997, over half (51 per cent) of Canadian girls 15 to 19 had had sex at least once. That number has sunk to 43 per cent. Which would seem to suggest that they’re more informed about the consequences of rash decisions. For one thing (Jamie Lynn Spears and her gushy Ok! Magazine spread aside), they’re figuring out that being a teen mom comes with a hefty price tag—and not everyone can pay it off with a few well-placed media snapshots.
So score one for Canada’s liberal sex-ed stylings. Continue…
