ABOVE: Peter Kim reports on the death of designer and TV host Chris Hyndman.
TORONTO — Tributes continue to pour in Wednesday for Chris Hyndman, co-host of the daily CBC show Steven and Chris, who was found dead late Monday outside his Toronto home. He was 49.
CBC, which immediately pulled Steven and Chris from its schedule, has set up a memorial in the atrium of its Toronto headquarters for anyone who wants to leave messages or flowers. The broadcaster said late Tuesday it also plans a celebration of Hyndman’s life at a later date.
Social media was flooded with reactions and condolences.
Who was the ebullient and gregarious man who was a part of the Canadian TV landscape for two decades?
“He was a friend and a man who lived his life so fully and with such joy,” Arlene Dickinson shared on Twitter. Added actor Brent Butt: “He was such a great, fun guy.”
Hyndman was born in Ottawa but grew up in the Paradise-St. Philip’s area, east of St. John’s.
According to a 2013 interview with Xtra!, he said he struggled with his sexuality as a youth.
“Suicide was on my mind a lot because I had nowhere to go when I was 12, 13, 14, to talk about it,” said Hyndman.
He worked as a make-up artist and found success — both professional and personal — in Toronto.
He met Steven Sabados in 1988 and they became a couple.
“I was a naive young guy from Newfoundland who was very impressed by how chic and sophisticated Steven was,” Hyndman recalled in an interview with Post City last year.
They co-founded a design company in 1992 and started appearing on Cityline.
In 2001, they co-hosted Designer Guys on HGTV Canada and followed with Design Rivals and the Slice series So Chic with Steven and Chris before debuting Steven and Chris on CBC in 2008.
“We were fortunate to work with him earlier in his career. He was a wonderful and talented man and will be greatly missed,” said Christine Shipton, senior vice president and chief creative officer of Shaw Media, in a statement. “Our sympathies go out to his family, friends and colleagues.”
TV design duo Colin and Justin said they were saddened by news of Hyndman’s death. “Our deepest sympathies to Steven at this heart breaking time. And our condolences to Chris and Steven’s families and friends,” they wrote on Facebook.
Hyndman and Sabados parlayed their fame into several collections of home decor items and furnishings bearing their names.
Only last week, the couple was sharing photos from Barbados on Instagram.
On Monday, Sabados and Hyndman posted a photo of their rooftop deck and said they were “happy to be home.”
There was no answer Tuesday afternoon at the home of Hyndman’s mother Glenda nor at the Moose Jaw, Sask. gift shop owned by Hyndman’s aunt.
On Twitter, TV’s Ed the Sock (aka Steven Kerzner) called Hyndman “a gentle, decent man whose class made him an ambassador for Cdn TV & many other worthwhile causes.”
Many in Canada’s television industry, and others, also reacted to Hyndman’s death on social media.
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