Willinsky was born in Toronto on 29 November, 1900, a younger son of Myer Lionel Willensky and his wife, née Vise, immigrants from Poland. An uncle had emigrated to Rhodesia, and was the father of Sir Roy Welensky. He graduated in dentistry at the University of Toronto in 1922 and then completed his medical training, graduating, with a prize medal, in 1928. He came to England for postgraduate work in surgery, with special interest in urology, and took the Fellowship in 1931. Returning to Toronto in 1931 he found a private clinic, in partnership with his elder brother Abraham I Willinsky, and was appointed to the surgical staffs of the Western Hospital and the Mount Sinai Hospital, becoming chief surgeon there and helping to plan the New Mount Sinai, where he was chief surgeon 1952-64. He was an active member of many professional societies, including the Academy of Medicine and the Medico-Legal Society of Toronto, and was a Fellow of the American Geriatric Society. Willinsky was a keen yachtsman, a founder and first commodore of the Island Yacht Club and a member of the Prince Edward Yacht Club. He was also active in Masonry at the Mount Sinai Lodge. He served on the Waterways and Safety Committee of the Canadian National Research Council, and was Director of Waterways and Safety in the Canadian Boating Federation. Willinsky died on 15 October 1970 six weeks before his seventieth birthday, survived by his two sons, his daughter and six grandchildren.