Award-winning Canadian humorist Morley Torgov dies at 98

TORONTO — Morley Torgov, who spun stories of growing up Jewish in small-town Ontario into award-winning works of humour, has died. He was 98.

His family says he died on Sunday of age-related complications from a brief illness.

Originally a lawyer, Torgov took up writing as a hobby in adulthood and went on to win several literary awards while continuing his career in law.

He was best known for “The Outside Chance of Maximilian Glick,” which in 1983 won the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour.

The novel, which was adapted into a film in 1988, tells the story of a boy who is desperate to study music against his parents’ wishes in an isolated Jewish community in Manitoba.

That was the second of his books to win the Leacock Medal, Canada’s top literary humour prize; the first, “A Good Place to Come From,” took home the award in 1975.

The book is a memoir of Torgov’s childhood in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., in the 1930s and early ’40s.

In 2008, he published “Murder in A-Major,” a historical mystery novel featuring the music-loving Insp. Hermann Preiss, whom he brought back for a second book, “The Mastersinger from Minsk,” in 2012.

Torgov was named to the Order of Canada in 2015, with the governor general’s office citing his “distinct ability to combine poignant and comic moments while perfectly capturing the immigrant experience.”

His family says he is survived by his wife AnnaPearl, his daughter Sarah Torgov Steinberg and four grandchildren.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 20, 2026.

Nicole Thompson, The Canadian Press