Gordon Armstrong was born in 1960 in New Westminster, B.C. He majored in Theatre Arts at Douglas College and Vancouver Community College and attended one semester at Concordia University as an English major. His first hit was Hashisch, produced at the Vancouver Fringe Festival. His other plays included: The Mona Lisa Toodle-oo, Blue Dragons, Scary Stories, A Map of the Senses (later retitled Ultravista), and Plague of the Gorgeous. Armstrong was a founding member and president of The Betty Lambert Society and publicist for the O.H. Lettuce B. Fools of: Society, a charitable organization founded to promote interest and participation in all aspects of clowning. Armstrong died in 1996 of AIDS-related illness. An annual award in his name is sponsored by Origins Theatre Projects in Vancouver.