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Christopher Jay Potter was born August 23, 1960 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where his father, Ron Potter, played professional Canadian football for the Toronto Argonauts. When Chris was around 5 years old, the family moved to London, Ontario where Ron Potter became assistant football coach of the University of Western Ontario Mustangs. Post-war London was booming and several generations of Potter history provided the family with deep roots in the area. Later, Ron Potter would become an executive for London Life Insurance Company.

Reading like the synopsis of the 60's television series "Father Knows Best," many people would call Chris Potter's childhood idyllic. Chris grew up the eldest of three children (2 boys and 1 girl) in a loving, stable environment of close family and friends in the same middle-class home in the same small city with a warm, caring insurance executive father and a charming, supportive, homemaker mother. Chris's mother, Judith Potter, is a talented singer. In more than one interview, Chris has noted, "My mom, Judith, won the Canadian Lipton Talent Search contest when she was 16. The male winner was Paul Anka, who went on to a career. She went directly to the kitchen." Chris often adds that "that's what happened in those days. But it didn't work out badly. Now she's a lawyer."

Before becoming a lawyer, Judy Potter was a housewife, mother and member of the local theatre community. She performed the lead in a number of musicals for the London Little Theatre, at one time Canada's largest amateur theatre company, and the Grand Theatre, the "grand old lady" of London entertainment with a well established reputation for excellence. Soon, Judy Potter was joined by her children in such musicals as "Oliver" and "West Side Story." In an interview with Robert Pegg, Chris noted, "It was just a family hobby run rampant, really. But my interests sort of changed with the wind every year as I was growing up, between music and theatre."