John Hofsess was born May 27, 1938 to Jack and Gladys Hofsess. He began working as a busboy at 15 at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario and was conditioned to become the breadwinner of his family with his parents’ ill health by 23.
University activities
At age 25 Hofsess enrolled in McMaster University and began to study English there, alongside working his continuing busboy work. Three years later, in 1966, Hofsess founded the McMaster film board alongside Ivan Reitman, who would later begin to direct National Lampoon's Animal House, the first Ghostbusters film, and produce the sequel. In this time, Hofsess would produce Palace of Pleasure in 1967 and Columbus of Sex, which were praised later by avant-garde critics. The latter film was seized by Hamilton police and Hofsess and Reitman were charged with obscenity. Despite the two being found innocent, the film was destroyed.
Later work
After being charged with obscenity, Hofsess never worked on another film. He did however found the Film makers Co-operative of Canada alongside Peter Rowe and later became a film critic. Hofsess would also publish Inner Views in 1975, a collection of interviews with numerous Canadian filmmakers.
Right-to-die activism
Hofsess had long been a supporter of assisted suicide, but the suicide of Canadian filmmaker Claude Jutra in 1986 after Jutra's diagnosis with early-onset Alzheimer's disease was noted by him and others to be the tipping point for Hofsess into activism. In 1991, Hofsess created the Right to Die Society of Canada which targeted laws that made assisting suicide a crime. Hofsess would also create a magazine titled Last Rights which dealt with similar subjects.
Death
At 77, Hofsess was diagnosed with terminal pulmonary fibrosis and prostate cancer, and he also suffered from an unstable heart. By his own statement, in his final weeks, his "quality of life has disintegrated". After assisting in the suicide of others in at least eight instances, Hofsess decided to take his own life at a clinic of the Eternal Spirit Foundation, near Basel, Switzerland.
