Allan Roy Dafoe

Doctor Allan Roy Dafoe OBE (29 May, 1883 - 2 June, 1943) was a Canadian obstetrician, best known for delivering and caring for the Dionne quintuplets, the first quintuplets known to survive early infancy.

Dafoe was born in Madoc, Ontario, the son of a physician. In early 1909, he went into practice in Callander, Ontario, where he resided for the rest of his life.

On May 28, 1934 he was called in to aid the multiple birth of the Dionne family, and saw to the survival of the mother and all the children. This got international press notice. He continued to help care for the children for years, and became something of a celebrity in the onslaught of media attention. The government of Ontario gave Dr. Dafoe joint guardianship of the quintuplets.

In response to public interest, a special nursery was built for the children where the curious members of the public viewed them. There was no charge to this, so it did not give the impression to the viewers they were exploiting the children. This was generally approved of at the time, but later generated criticism for the sideshow atmosphere it produced. Souvenir stands and other concessions surrounded the area where the quints lived [cite web |url=http://www.quintland.com/quintland.html |title=Quintland |accessdate=2007-06-21 |last=unknown |first=Sandra |date= |year= |month= |work= |publisher=Quintland.com |archiveurl= |archivedate= |quote= ] .

Once the quints were born, he became one of their guardians, and he devoted little work to his medical practice, turning it over to others. Dafoe became wealthy from his pay as guardian and from multiple commercial endorsements and speaking fees.

In "The Country Doctor" (1936), a movie starring the quints, Jean Hersholt portrayed Dr. John Luke, a character based on Dafoe, and there were two sequels: "Reunion" (1936) and "Five of a Kind" (1938). When Dafoe blocked the idea of continuing the series, Hersholt created "Dr. Christian", which had a long run on radio.

Dr. Dafoe was awarded an Order of the British Empire for his work with the Dionne quintuplets. He died on 2 June 1943 at age 60 from pneumonia and complications to cancer, and is buried at Park Lawn Cemetery in Toronto [cite web |url=http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=10476 |title=Allan Roy Dafoe |accessdate=2007-06-21 |author= |authorlink= |date=2000-07-09 |work=Find a Grave |publisher= |archiveurl= |archivedate= |quote= ] .

References

Persondata
NAME=Dafoe, Allan Roy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Canadian obstetrician who delivered and cared for the Dionne Quintuplets
DATE OF BIRTH=29 May 1883
PLACE OF BIRTH=Madoc, Ontario
DATE OF DEATH=2 June 1943
PLACE OF DEATH=